Life is extraordinary and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe. The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Facts, dates, quotes

Daniel Defoe

THE LIFE AND AMAZING ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSEOE

a sailor from York, who lived for twenty-eight years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship except him died; outlining his unexpected release by pirates, written by himself

I was born in 1632 in the city of York into a wealthy family of foreign origin. My father was from Bremen and settled first in Hull. Having made a good fortune by trading, he left business and moved to York. Here he married my mother, whose relatives were called Robinsons - an old surname in those places. They also called me Robinson. My father's surname was Kreutzner, but, according to the custom of the English to distort foreign words, they began to call us Crusoe. Now we ourselves pronounce and write our surname in this way; That's what my friends always called me.

I had two older brothers. One served in Flanders, in the English infantry regiment - the same one that was once commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart; he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was killed in battle with the Spaniards near Dunkirchen. What happened to my second brother, I don't know how my father and mother didn't know what happened to me.

Since I was the third in the family, I was not prepared for any craft, and from a young age my head was full of all sorts of nonsense. My father, who was already very old, gave me a fairly tolerable education in the amount that can be obtained by being brought up at home and attending a city school. He wanted me to become a lawyer, but I dreamed of sea voyages and did not want to hear about anything else. This passion for the sea took me so far that I went against my will - moreover: against the direct prohibition of my father and neglected the entreaties of my mother and the advice of friends; it seemed that there was something fatal in the natural inclination of the mouth that pushed me towards the sad life that was my lot.

My father, a sedate and intelligent man, guessed about my undertaking and warned me seriously and thoroughly. One morning he called me to his room, to which he was chained with gout, and began to reproach me warmly. He asked what other reasons, besides wandering inclinations, could I have for leaving my father's house and my native country, where it is easy for me to go among people, where I can increase my fortune by diligence and work and live in contentment and with pleasantness. They leave their homeland in pursuit of adventure, he said. or those who have nothing to lose, or ambitious people, eager to create a higher position for themselves; embarking on enterprises that go beyond the framework of everyday life, they strive to improve their affairs and cover their name with glory; but such things are either beyond my strength or humiliating for me; my place is the middle, that is, what can be called the highest stage of a modest existence, which, as he was convinced by many years of experience, is for us the best in the world, the most suitable for human happiness, freed from need and deprivation, physical labor and suffering falling to the lot of the lower classes, and from luxury, ambition, arrogance and envy of the upper classes. How pleasant such a life is, he said, I can already judge by the fact that all, placed in other conditions, envy him: even kings often complain about the bitter fate of people born for great deeds, and regret that fate did not put them between two extremes - insignificance and greatness, and the sage speaks in favor of the middle, as a measure of true happiness, when he prays to heaven not to send him either poverty or wealth.

I only have to look, said my father, and I will see that all the misfortunes of life are distributed between the upper and lower classes, and that the least of them falls to the lot of middle-class people who are not subject to so many vicissitudes of fate as the nobility and the common people; even from illnesses, bodily and mental, they are more insured than those whose illnesses are caused by vices, luxury and all kinds of excesses, on the one hand, hard work, want, poor and insufficient nutrition, on the other, being, thus, a natural consequence of lifestyle. The middle state is the most favorable for the flourishing of all the virtues, for all the joys of being; abundance and peace are his servants; he is accompanied and blessed by his temperance, temperance, health, peace of mind, sociability, all kinds of pleasant entertainments, all kinds of pleasures. A person of an average condition goes through his life path quietly and smoothly, not burdening himself with either physical or mental overwork, not selling himself into slavery for a piece of bread, not tormented by the search for a way out of tangled situations that deprive the body of sleep, and the soul of peace, not consumed by envy. without secretly burning with the fire of ambition. Surrounded by contentment, he easily and imperceptibly glides to the grave, judiciously tasting the sweetness of life without an admixture of bitterness, feeling happy and learning by everyday experience to understand this more and more clearly and deeply.

Then my father persistently and very benevolently began to beg me not to be childish, not to rush headlong into the pool of need and suffering, from which the position in the world that I occupied at my birth, it seemed, should protect me. He said that I was not forced to work for a piece of bread, that he would take care of me, try to lead me onto the path that he had just advised me to take, and that if I turned out to be a failure or unhappy, I would only have to blame bad luck or on their own oversight. In warning me against a step that will bring me nothing but harm, he thus fulfills his duty and abdicates all responsibility; in a word, if I stay at home and arrange my life according to his instructions, he will be a good father to me, but he will not have a hand in my death, encouraging me to leave. In conclusion, he gave me the example of my older brother, whom he also persistently urged not to take part in the Dutch war, but all his persuasions were in vain: carried away by dreams, the young man fled to the army and was killed. And although (so my father ended his speech) he will never stop praying for me, but he declares to me directly that if I do not give up my crazy idea, I will not have God's blessing. The time will come when I will regret that I neglected his advice, but then, perhaps, there will be no one to help me correct the wrong done.

I saw how, during the last part of this speech (which was truly prophetic, although, I think, my father himself did not suspect it), copious tears built up on the face of the old man, especially when he spoke of my murdered brother; and when the priest said that the time for repentance would come for me, but there would be no one to help me, he broke off his speech out of excitement, declaring that his heart was overflowing and he could not utter a single word more.

The life, extraordinary and amazing adventures of Robinson Crusoe, a sailor from York, who lived for 28 years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship except him died, with a statement of his unexpected liberation by pirates; written by himself.

Robinson was the third son in the family, a darling, he was not prepared for any craft, and from childhood his head was full of "all sorts of nonsense" - mainly dreams of sea voyages. His older brother died in Flanders fighting the Spaniards, the middle one went missing, and therefore they don’t want to hear at home about letting the last son go to sea. The father, “a sedate and intelligent man”, tearfully implores him to strive for a modest existence, in every way extolling the “average state”, which protects a sane person from evil vicissitudes of fate. The exhortations of the father only temporarily reason with the 18-year-old undergrowth. An attempt by an intractable son to enlist the support of his mother is also not crowned with success, and for almost a year he breaks his parents' hearts, until September 1, 1651, he sails from Hull to London, tempted by free travel (the captain is his friend's father).

Already the first day at sea was a harbinger of future trials. The storm that breaks out awakens repentance in the soul of the disobedient, however, subsided with bad weather and finally dispelled by drinking (“as usual with sailors”). A week later, on the Yarmouth roadstead, a new, much more ferocious storm flies. The experience of the team selflessly rescuing the ship does not help: the ship is sinking, the sailors are picked up by a boat from a neighboring ship. On the shore, Robinson again experiences a fleeting temptation to heed the harsh lesson and return to his parental home, but "evil fate" keeps him on his chosen disastrous path. In London, he meets the captain of a ship preparing to go to Guinea, and decides to sail with them - fortunately, this will not cost him anything, he will be the captain's "companion and friend". How will the late Robinson, wise by trials, reproach himself for this prudent carelessness of his! If he were hired as a simple sailor, he would learn the duties and work of a sailor, otherwise he is just a merchant making a lucky turn on his forty pounds. But he acquires some nautical knowledge: the captain willingly works with him, while away the time. Upon returning to England, the captain soon dies, and Robinson sets off on his own to Guinea.

It was an unsuccessful expedition: their ship is captured by a Turkish corsair, and young Robinson, as if in fulfillment of his father’s gloomy prophecies, goes through a difficult period of trials, turning from a merchant into a “miserable slave” of the captain of a robber ship. He uses it at home, does not take it to the sea, and for two years Robinson has no hope of breaking free. The owner, meanwhile, weakens his supervision, sends a prisoner with a Moor and a boy Xuri to fish at the table, and one day, sailing far from the coast, Robinson throws the Moor overboard and persuades Xuri to escape. He is well prepared: the boat has a supply of crackers and fresh water, tools, guns and gunpowder. On the way, the fugitives shoot living creatures on the shore, even kill a lion and a leopard, peace-loving natives supply them with water and food. Finally they are picked up by an oncoming Portuguese ship. Condescending to the plight of the rescued, the captain undertakes to take Robinson to Brazil for free (they are sailing there); moreover, he buys his launch and "faithful Xuri", promising in ten years ("if he accepts Christianity") to return the boy's freedom. “It made a difference,” Robinson concludes complacently, having done away with remorse.

In Brazil, he settles down thoroughly and, it seems, for a long time: he receives Brazilian citizenship, buys land for plantations of tobacco and sugar cane, works on it in the sweat of his brow, belatedly regretting that Xuri is not around (how an extra pair of hands would help!). Paradoxically, he comes precisely to that “golden mean” with which his father seduced him - so why, he laments now, should he leave his parents' house and climb to the ends of the world? Neighbors-planters are located to him, willingly help, he manages to get from England, where he left money with the widow of his first captain, the necessary goods, agricultural implements and household utensils. Here it would be nice to calm down and continue his profitable business, but the “passion for wandering” and, most importantly, “the desire to get rich sooner than circumstances allowed” prompt Robinson to drastically break the established way of life.

It all started with the fact that the plantations required workers, and slave labor was expensive, since the delivery of blacks from Africa was fraught with the dangers of a sea passage and was still hampered by legal obstacles (for example, the English Parliament would only allow private individuals to trade in slaves in 1698) . After listening to Robinson's stories about his trips to the shores of Guinea, the neighboring planters decide to equip a ship and secretly bring slaves to Brazil, dividing them here among themselves. Robinson is invited to participate as a ship's clerk responsible for the purchase of blacks in Guinea, and he himself will not invest any money in the expedition, and he will receive slaves on an equal basis with everyone, and even in his absence, companions will oversee his plantations and watch over his interests. Of course, he is tempted by favorable conditions, habitually (and not very convincingly) cursing "vagrant inclinations." What "inclinations" if he thoroughly and sensibly, observing all the melancholy formalities, disposes of the property he leaves behind! Never before had fate warned him so clearly: he sailed on the first of September 1659, that is, eight years after his escape from his parental home, to the day. In the second week of the voyage, a fierce squall came up, and for twelve days they were battered by the "fury of the elements." The ship leaked, needed to be repaired, the crew lost three sailors (there were seventeen people on the ship), and it was no longer to Africa - it would be more likely to get to land. A second storm is played out, they are carried far from the trade routes, and then the ship runs aground in the sight of the earth, and on the only remaining boat the team "gives itself to the will of the raging waves." Even if they do not drown, rowing to the shore, the surf will blow their boat to pieces near the land, and the approaching land seems to them "more terrible than the sea itself." A huge shaft "the size of a mountain" overturns the boat, and exhausted, miraculously not finished off by the overtaking waves, Robinson gets out on land.

Alas, he alone escaped, as evidenced by three hats thrown ashore, a cap and two unpaired shoes. Frenzied joy is replaced by grief for the fallen comrades, the pangs of hunger and cold, and the fear of wild animals. He spends the first night in a tree. By morning the tide had driven their ship close to the shore, and Robinson swam to it. From spare masts, he builds a raft and loads on it "everything necessary for life": food, clothing, carpentry tools, guns and pistols, shot and gunpowder, sabers, saws, an ax and a hammer. With incredible difficulty, at the risk of tipping over every minute, he brings the raft to a calm bay and sets off to find a place to live. From the top of the hill, Robinson understands his “bitter fate”: this is an island, and, by all indications, uninhabited. Fenced on all sides by chests and boxes, he spends the second night on the island, and in the morning he again swims to the ship, in a hurry to take what he can, until the first storm breaks him into pieces. On this trip, Robinson took a lot of useful things from the ship - again guns and gunpowder, clothes, a sail, mattresses and pillows, iron crowbars, nails, a screwdriver and a sharpener. On the shore, he builds a tent, transfers food and gunpowder to it from the sun and rain, arranges a bed for himself. In total, he visited the ship twelve times, always getting hold of something valuable - canvas, gear, crackers, rum, flour, "iron parts" (he, to his great chagrin, almost completely drowned them). On his last run, he came across a chiffonier with money (this is one of the famous episodes of the novel) and philosophically reasoned that in his position all this “heap of gold” was not worth any of the knives that lay in the next box, however, after thinking, “I decided to take them with you." That same night a storm broke out, and next morning nothing was left of the ship.

Robinson's first concern is the arrangement of reliable, safe housing - and most importantly, in view of the sea, from where only one can expect salvation. On the slope of the hill, he finds a flat clearing and on it, against a small depression in the rock, he decides to pitch a tent, protecting it with a palisade of strong trunks driven into the ground. It was possible to enter the "fortress" only by a ladder. He expanded the recess in the rock - a cave turned out, he uses it as a cellar. This work took many days. He quickly gains experience. In the midst of construction work, rain poured down, lightning flashed, and Robinson's first thought: gunpowder! It was not the fear of death that frightened him, but the possibility of losing gunpowder at once, and for two weeks he pours it into bags and boxes and hides it in different places (at least a hundred). At the same time, he now knows how much gunpowder he has: two hundred and forty pounds. Without numbers (money, goods, cargo) Robinson is no longer Robinson.

Involved in historical memory, growing from the experience of generations and relying on the future, Robinson, although lonely, is not lost in time, which is why the construction of a calendar becomes the first concern of this life-builder - this is a large pillar on which he makes a notch every day. The first date there is the thirtieth of September, 1659. From now on, each of his days is named and taken into account, and for the reader, especially those of that time, the reflection of a great story falls on the works and days of Robinson. During his absence, the monarchy was restored in England, and the return of Robinson "guessed" the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, which brought to the throne William of Orange, Defoe's benevolent patron; in the same years, the “Great Fire” (1666) will happen in London, and the revived urban planning will unrecognizably change the face of the capital; during this time Milton and Spinoza will die; Charles II will issue the Habeas Corpus Act, a law on the inviolability of the person. And in Russia, which, as it turns out, will also be indifferent to the fate of Robinson, at this time they burn Avvakum, execute Razin, Sophia becomes regent under Ivan V and Peter I. These distant lightnings flicker over a man who is burning an earthen pot.

Among the "not very valuable" things taken from the ship (remember the "heap of gold") were ink, pens, paper, "three very good Bibles", astronomical instruments, spyglasses. Now, when his life is getting better (by the way, three cats and a dog, also on board, live with him, then a moderately talkative parrot will be added), it's time to comprehend what is happening, and until the ink and paper run out, Robinson keeps a diary so that "at least lighten your soul a little." This is a kind of ledger of "evil" and "good": in the left column - he is thrown onto a desert island with no hope of deliverance; in the right - he is alive, and all his comrades drowned. In the diary, he describes in detail his activities, makes observations - both remarkable (regarding the sprouts of barley and rice), and everyday (“It was raining.” “It has been raining all day again”).

The earthquake that happened forces Robinson to think about a new place for housing - it is not safe under the mountain. Meanwhile, a wrecked ship is nailed to the island, and Robinson takes building material and tools from it. On the same days, he is overcome by a fever, and in a feverish dream a man "in flames" appears to him, threatening him with death because he "does not repent." Lamenting about his fatal delusions, Robinson for the first time "in many years" makes a prayer of repentance, reads the Bible - and is treated to the best of his ability. Rum, infused with tobacco, after which he slept for two nights, will raise him to his feet. Accordingly, one day fell out of his calendar. Having recovered, Robinson finally examines the island, where he has lived for more than ten months. In its flat part, among unknown plants, he meets acquaintances - melon and grapes; the latter pleases him especially, he will dry it in the sun, and in the off-season raisins will strengthen his strength. And the island is rich in living creatures - hares (very tasteless), foxes, turtles (these, on the contrary, will pleasantly diversify his table) and even penguins, puzzling in these latitudes. He looks at these heavenly beauties with a master's eye - he has no one to share them with. He decides to set up a hut here, fortify it well and live for several days at the “dacha” (this is his word), spending most of the time “on the old ashes” near the sea, from where liberation can come.

Continuously working, Robinson, for the second and third year, does not give himself relief. Here is his day: “In the foreground are religious duties and the reading of the Holy Scriptures‹…› The second of the daily activities was hunting‹…› The third was the sorting, drying and preparation of killed or caught game.” Add to this the care of the crops, and then the harvest; add livestock care; add housework (make a shovel, hang a shelf in the cellar), which takes a lot of time and effort due to lack of tools and inexperience. Robinson has the right to be proud of himself: "With patience and work, I brought to the end all the work to which I was forced by circumstances." It's a joke to say, he will bake bread, doing without salt, yeast and a suitable oven!

His cherished dream is to build a boat and get to the mainland. He does not even think about who and what he will meet there, the main thing is to escape from captivity. Driven by impatience, without thinking about how to deliver the boat from the forest to the water, Robinson fells a huge tree and carves a pirogue out of it for several months. When she is finally ready, he will not be able to launch her into the water. He stoically endures failure: Robinson has become wiser and more self-possessed, he has learned to balance "evil" and "good." He prudently uses the resulting leisure to update a worn-out wardrobe: he “builds” himself a fur suit (trousers and jacket), sews a hat and even makes an umbrella. Five more years pass in everyday work, marked by the fact that he built a boat, launched it into the water and equipped it with a sail. You can’t get to a distant land on it, but you can go around the island. The current takes him to the open sea, with great difficulty he returns to the shore not far from the "cottage". Having suffered fear, he will lose his desire for sea walks for a long time. This year, Robinson is improving in pottery and basket weaving (stocks are growing), and most importantly, he makes himself a royal gift - a pipe! There is an abyss of tobacco on the island.

His measured existence, filled with work and useful leisure, suddenly bursts like a soap bubble. On one of his walks, Robinson sees a bare footprint in the sand. Frightened to death, he returns to the "fortress" and sits there for three days, puzzling over an incomprehensible riddle: whose trace? Most likely, these are savages from the mainland. Fear settles in his soul: what if he is discovered? The savages might eat it (he had heard of it), they might destroy the crops and disperse the herd. Starting to go out a little, he takes security measures: he strengthens the “fortress”, arranges a new (distant) corral for goats. Among these troubles, he again comes across human tracks, and then sees the remains of a cannibal feast. Looks like the island has been visited again. Horror has been possessing him for all two years, that he remains without getting out on his part of the island (where there is a “fortress” and a “cottage”), living “always on the alert”. But gradually life returns to the "former calm course", although he continues to build bloodthirsty plans on how to ward off the savages from the island. His ardor is cooled by two considerations: 1) these are tribal feuds, the savages did nothing wrong to him personally; 2) why are they worse than the Spaniards who flooded South America with blood? These conciliatory thoughts are prevented by a new visit of savages (the twenty-third anniversary of his stay on the island is underway), who landed this time on "his" side of the island. Having celebrated their terrible feast, the savages swim away, and Robinson is still afraid to look towards the sea for a long time.

And the same sea beckons him with the hope of liberation. On a stormy night, he hears a cannon shot - some ship is giving a distress signal. All night long he burns a huge fire, and in the morning he sees in the distance the wreck of a ship that has crashed on the reefs. Longing for loneliness, Robinson prays to the sky that "at least one" of the team escaped, but "evil fate", as if in a mockery, throws the cabin boy's corpse ashore. And on the ship he will not find a single living soul. It is noteworthy that the poor "booty" from the ship does not upset him very much: he stands firmly on his feet, fully provides for himself, and only gunpowder, shirts, linen - and, according to old memory, money pleases him. He is obsessed with the idea of escape to the mainland, and since it is impossible to do it alone, Robinson dreams of saving the savage destined for “slaughter” to help, arguing in the usual categories: “to acquire a servant, or maybe a comrade or assistant.” He has been making cunning plans for a year and a half, but in life, as usual, everything turns out simply: cannibals arrive, the prisoner escapes, Robinson knocks down one pursuer with the butt of a gun, and shoots another to death.

Robinson's life is filled with new - and pleasant - worries. Friday, as he called the rescued, turned out to be a capable student, a faithful and kind comrade. Robinson puts three words at the basis of his education: "master" (referring to himself), "yes" and "no". He eradicates bad savage habits by teaching Friday to eat broth and wear clothes, and to "know the true god" (previously, Friday worshiped "an old man named Bunamuki who lives high"). Mastering English. Friday tells that seventeen Spaniards who escaped from the lost ship live on the mainland with his fellow tribesmen. Robinson decides to build a new pirogue and, together with Friday, rescue the captives. The new arrival of the savages disrupts their plans. This time, the cannibals bring in a Spaniard and an old man who turns out to be Friday's father. Robinson and Friday, who is no worse than his master with a gun, free them. The idea of gathering everyone on the island, building a reliable ship and trying their luck at sea is to the liking of the Spaniard. In the meantime, a new plot is being sown, goats are being caught - a considerable replenishment is expected. Taking an oath from the Spaniard not to surrender to the Inquisition, Robinson sends him with Friday's father to the mainland. And on the eighth day, new guests come to the island. The rebellious team from the English ship brings the captain, assistant and passenger to be punished. Robinson cannot miss such a chance. Taking advantage of the fact that he knows every path here, he frees the captain and his comrades in misfortune, and the five of them deal with the villains. Robinson's only condition is to bring him to England with Friday. The rebellion is pacified, two notorious villains hang on a yardarm, three more are left on the island, humanely providing everything necessary; but more valuable than provisions, tools and weapons - the very experience of survival that Robinson shares with the new settlers, there will be five of them in total - two more will escape from the ship, not really trusting the captain's forgiveness.

Robinson's twenty-eight-year odyssey ended: on June 11, 1686, he returned to England. His parents died long ago, but a good friend, the widow of his first captain, is still alive. In Lisbon, he learns that all these years his Brazilian plantation was managed by an official from the treasury, and since it now turns out that he is alive, all the income for this period is returned to him. A wealthy man, he takes care of two nephews, and prepares the second for sailors. Finally, Robinson marries (he is sixty-one years old) "not without benefit and quite successfully in all respects." He has two sons and a daughter.

Daniel Defoe

"The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe"

Robinson was the third son in the family, a darling, he was not prepared for any craft, and from childhood his head was full of "all sorts of nonsense" - mainly dreams of sea voyages. His older brother died in Flanders fighting the Spaniards, the middle one went missing, and therefore they don’t want to hear at home about letting the last son go to sea. The father, “a sedate and intelligent man”, tearfully implores him to strive for a modest existence, in every way extolling the “average state”, which protects a sane person from evil vicissitudes of fate. The exhortations of the father only temporarily reason with the 18-year-old undergrowth. The attempt of the intractable son to enlist the support of his mother is also not crowned with success, and for almost a year he breaks his parents' hearts, until September 1, 1651, he sails from Hull to London, tempted by free travel (the captain is the father of his friend).

In Brazil, he settles down thoroughly and, it seems, for a long time: he receives Brazilian citizenship, buys land for plantations of tobacco and sugar cane, works on it in the sweat of his brow, belatedly regretting that Xuri is not around (how an extra pair of hands would help!). It is paradoxical, but he comes precisely to that “golden mean” with which his father seduced him - so why, he laments now, should he leave his parents' house and climb to the ends of the world? Neighbors-planters are located to him, willingly help, he manages to get from England, where he left money with the widow of his first captain, the necessary goods, agricultural implements and household utensils. Here it would be nice to calm down and continue his profitable business, but the “passion for wandering” and, most importantly, “the desire to get rich sooner than circumstances allowed” prompt Robinson to drastically break the established way of life.

It all started with the fact that the plantations required workers, and slave labor was expensive, since the delivery of blacks from Africa was fraught with the dangers of a sea passage and was still hampered by legal obstacles (for example, the English Parliament would only allow private individuals to trade in slaves in 1698) . After listening to Robinson's stories about his trips to the shores of Guinea, the neighboring planters decide to equip a ship and secretly bring slaves to Brazil, dividing them here among themselves. Robinson is invited to participate as a ship's clerk responsible for the purchase of blacks in Guinea, and he himself will not invest any money in the expedition, and he will receive slaves on an equal basis with everyone, and even in his absence, companions will oversee his plantations and watch over his interests. Of course, he is tempted by favorable conditions, habitually (and not very convincingly) cursing "vagrant inclinations." What "inclinations" if he thoroughly and sensibly, observing all the melancholy formalities, disposes of the property he leaves behind! Never before had fate warned him so clearly: he sailed on the first of September 1659, that is, eight years after his escape from his parental home, to the day. In the second week of the voyage, a fierce squall came up, and for twelve days they were battered by the "fury of the elements." The ship leaked, needed to be repaired, the crew lost three sailors (a total of seventeen people on the ship), and it was no longer up to Africa - it would be more likely to get to land. A second storm is played out, they are carried far from the trade routes, and then the ship runs aground in the sight of the earth, and on the only remaining boat the team "gives itself to the will of the raging waves." Even if they do not drown, rowing to the shore, the surf will blow their boat to pieces near the land, and the approaching land seems to them "more terrible than the sea itself." A huge shaft "the size of a mountain" overturns the boat, and exhausted, miraculously not finished off by the overtaking waves, Robinson gets out on land.

The first concern of Robinson is the arrangement of reliable, safe housing - and most importantly, in view of the sea, from where only one can expect salvation. On the slope of the hill, he finds a flat clearing and on it, against a small depression in the rock, he decides to pitch a tent, protecting it with a palisade of strong trunks driven into the ground. It was possible to enter the "fortress" only by a ladder. He expanded the recess in the rock - a cave turned out, he uses it as a cellar. This work took many days. He quickly gains experience. In the midst of construction work, rain poured down, lightning flashed, and Robinson's first thought: gunpowder! It was not the fear of death that frightened him, but the possibility of losing gunpowder at once, and for two weeks he pours it into bags and boxes and hides it in different places (at least a hundred). At the same time, he now knows how much gunpowder he has: two hundred and forty pounds. Without numbers (money, goods, cargo) Robinson is no longer Robinson.

Involved in historical memory, growing from the experience of generations and relying on the future, although Robinson is alone, he is not lost in time, which is why the construction of a calendar becomes the first concern of this life-builder - this is a large pillar on which he makes a notch every day. The first date there is September 30, 1659. From now on, each of his days is named and taken into account, and for the reader, especially those of that time, the reflection of a great story falls on the works and days of Robinson. During his absence, the monarchy was restored in England, and the return of Robinson "guessed" the "Glorious Revolution" of 1688, which brought to the throne William of Orange, Defoe's benevolent patron; in the same years, the “Great Fire” (1666) will happen in London, and the revived urban planning will unrecognizably change the face of the capital; during this time Milton and Spinoza will die; Charles II will issue the Habeas Corpus Act, a law on the inviolability of the person. And in Russia, which, as it turns out, will also be indifferent to the fate of Robinson, at this time they burn Avvakum, execute Razin, Sophia becomes regent under Ivan V and Peter I. These distant lightnings flicker over a man who is burning an earthen pot.

Among the "not very valuable" things taken from the ship (remember the "heap of gold") were ink, pens, paper, "three very good Bibles", astronomical instruments, spyglasses. Now, when his life is getting better (by the way, three cats and a dog, also on board, live with him, then a moderately talkative parrot will be added), it's time to comprehend what is happening, and until the ink and paper run out, Robinson keeps a diary so that "at least lighten your soul a little." This is a kind of ledger of "evil" and "good": in the left column - he is thrown onto a desert island with no hope of deliverance; in the right - he is alive, and all his comrades drowned. In the diary, he describes in detail his activities, makes observations - both remarkable (regarding the sprouts of barley and rice), and everyday ("It was raining." "It's been raining all day again").

The earthquake that happened forces Robinson to think about a new place for housing - it is not safe under the mountain. Meanwhile, a wrecked ship is nailed to the island, and Robinson takes building material and tools from it. On the same days, he is overcome by a fever, and in a feverish dream a man "in flames" appears to him, threatening him with death because he "does not repent." Lamenting about his fatal delusions, Robinson for the first time "in many years" makes a prayer of repentance, reads the Bible - and is treated to the best of his ability. Rum, infused with tobacco, after which he slept for two nights, will raise him to his feet. Accordingly, one day fell out of his calendar. Having recovered, Robinson finally examines the island, where he has lived for more than ten months. In its flat part, among unknown plants, he meets acquaintances - melon and grapes; the latter pleases him especially, he will dry it in the sun, and in the off-season raisins will strengthen his strength. And the island is rich in living creatures - hares (very tasteless), foxes, turtles (these, on the contrary, will pleasantly diversify his table) and even penguins, which cause bewilderment in these latitudes. He looks at these heavenly beauties with a master's eye - he has no one to share them with. He decides to set up a hut here, fortify it well and live for several days at the “dacha” (this is his word), spending most of the time “on the old ashes” near the sea, from where liberation can come.

Continuously working, Robinson, for the second and third year, does not give himself relief. Here is his day: “In the foreground, religious duties and the reading of the Holy Scriptures<…>The second of the daily activities was hunting<…>The third was the sorting, drying and cooking of killed or caught game." Add to this the care of the crops, and then the harvest; add livestock care; add housework (make a shovel, hang a shelf in the cellar), which takes a lot of time and effort due to lack of tools and inexperience. Robinson has the right to be proud of himself: "With patience and work, I brought to the end all the work to which I was forced by circumstances." It's a joke to say, he will bake bread, doing without salt, yeast and a suitable oven!

And the same sea beckons him with the hope of liberation. On a stormy night, he hears a cannon shot - some ship gives a distress signal. All night long he burns a huge fire, and in the morning he sees in the distance the wreck of a ship that has crashed on the reefs. Longing for loneliness, Robinson prays to the sky that "at least one" of the team escaped, but "evil fate", as if in a mockery, throws the cabin boy's corpse ashore. And on the ship he will not find a single living soul. It is noteworthy that the poor "booty" from the ship does not upset him very much: he stands firmly on his feet, fully provides for himself, and only gunpowder, shirts, linen - and, according to old memory, money pleases him. He is obsessed with the idea of escape to the mainland, and since it is impossible to do it alone, Robinson dreams of saving the savage destined for “slaughter” to help, arguing in the usual categories: “to acquire a servant, or maybe a comrade or assistant.” He has been making cunning plans for a year and a half, but in life, as usual, everything turns out simply: cannibals arrive, the prisoner escapes, Robinson knocks down one pursuer with the butt of a gun, and shoots another to death.

Robinson's life is filled with new - and pleasant - worries. Friday, as he called the rescued, turned out to be a capable student, a faithful and kind comrade. Robinson puts three words at the basis of his education: "master" (referring to himself), "yes" and "no". He eradicates bad savage habits by teaching Friday to eat broth and wear clothes, and to "know the true god" (previously, Friday worshiped "an old man named Bunamuki who lives high"). Mastering English. Friday tells that seventeen Spaniards who escaped from the lost ship live on the mainland with his fellow tribesmen. Robinson decides to build a new pirogue and, together with Friday, rescue the captives. The new arrival of the savages disrupts their plans. This time, the cannibals bring in a Spaniard and an old man who turns out to be Friday's father. Robinson and Friday, who is no worse than his master with a gun, free them. The idea of gathering everyone on the island, building a reliable ship and trying their luck at sea is to the liking of the Spaniard. In the meantime, a new plot is being sown, goats are being caught - a considerable replenishment is expected. Taking an oath from the Spaniard not to surrender to the Inquisition, Robinson sends him with Friday's father to the mainland. And on the eighth day, new guests come to the island. The rebellious team from the English ship brings the captain, assistant and passenger to be punished. Robinson cannot miss such a chance. Taking advantage of the fact that he knows every path here, he frees the captain and his comrades in misfortune, and the five of them deal with the villains. Robinson's only condition is to bring him and Friday to England. The rebellion is pacified, two notorious villains hang on a yardarm, three more are left on the island, humanely providing everything necessary; but more valuable than provisions, tools and weapons - the very experience of survival that Robinson shares with the new settlers, there will be five of them in total - two more will escape from the ship, not really trusting the captain's forgiveness.

Robinson is the third son in the family. He dreamed of sea voyages, but his parents did not want to listen to this. But all the same, he sailed from Gool to London on the ship of a friend's father on September 1, 1651. But on the very first day, remorse arose, caused by a storm, and which calmed down along with the bad weather. In the next storm, the ship sinks, and the sailors are brought ashore on the boat of a passing ship. Robinson, frightened, wanted to return to his parents' house, but again gets on board a ship sailing to Guinea.

As a result of the next expedition, Robinson became the "wretched slave" of the captain of the robber ship. He runs away from him, gets on a Portuguese ship. In Brazil, he receives citizenship, cultivates the acquired piece of land for sugar cane and tobacco. But again, Robinson finds himself on board a ship - secretly travels to Brazil with fellow slave planters to work on their plantations. On the way, storms come one after another, the ship, having strayed far from the trade routes, at the sight of the earth, runs aground. The team moved into the boat on the raging waves, but a huge shaft overturned it. Robinson miraculously made it to land. The only one from the crew.

Shrouded in hunger, fear and grief for his dead comrades, Robinson spent the first night on a tree. In the morning, not far from the shore, there was a ship driven by the tide. Having sailed to it, Robinson made a raft of masts, on which he transported everything he needed to the shore: tools, clothes, an ax, a hammer and guns. Having gone in search of housing, Robinson realizes that this is an uninhabited island. The next morning, he again went to the ship, trying to bring everything from there as much as possible, until another storm broke out, which completely wrecked the ship that same night.

Arranged Robinson safe housing near the sea, where you can expect rescue. He pitched a tent on a flat clearing on the slope of a hill against a depression in the rock. He fences it with a palisade, driving strong trunks into the ground. The entrance to the fortress is only by a ladder. He uses the widened depression in the rock as a cellar. Having lived like this for quite a few days, he quickly gains experience. For two weeks he poured gunpowder into many small bags and hid them from the rain in different places. Getting used to a new life, Robinson has changed a lot. Now his goal is to survive. In the process of one work, he notices something else that is beneficial. He has to master new professions, the laws of the world around him, learn to interact with him. He mastered the skills of hunting goats, at the same time he managed to tame several of them by adding meat and milk to his diet, he learned how to make cheese. He managed to establish agriculture from the grains of barley and rice, which were shaken out of the bag and sprouted.

In order not to get lost in time, Robinson built a wooden calendar, on which he marked the days with a knife, making a notch. A dog and three cats (from the ship) live with him, he tamed a talking parrot. He keeps a diary - paper and ink are also from the ship. Reads the bible. Having examined the island, he finds grapes that dry in the sun. Raisins reinforce strength. Feels like the owner of these heavenly beauties.

Years go by every day. He built a boat, but could not launch it - it is far from the shore. During the next walk, seeing a footprint in the sand, Robinson, frightened, begins to "strengthen".

In the 23rd year of his life on the island, he saw how savages visited his island to eat their victim. Robinson is scared. He dreams of escaping to the mainland, and to help for this he decided to free the captive savage, who will be brought to be eaten. Robinson did this a year and a half later and named the saved Friday. He teaches him the trade, to speak, to wear clothes. Friday considers Robinson "God".

Together they will pacify the rebellious crew of the English ship, which will deliver the captain, assistant and passenger to their island. As a condition for the release of the ship, Robinson asks them to be delivered to England with Friday, and the rebels to be left on the island for correction. And so it was done.

After 28 years, Robinson returned home. His parents are dead. All these years, his plantation was managed by an official from the treasury and Robinson returned the income for the entire period. Being wealthy, he takes care of two nephews, marries at the age of 62 "quite successfully." He has two sons and a daughter.

Compositions

Disclosure of the value of life in D. Defoe's novel "The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe" My favorite book is Robinson Crusoe Characteristics of the image of Robinson Crusoe Summary of "Robinson Crusoe" Life on the island (based on the novel by D. Defoe "Robinson Crusoe") (2)

A sailor from York, who lived for twenty-eight years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship except him died; outlining his unexpected release by pirates, written by himself

I was born in 1632 in the city of York into a wealthy family of foreign origin. My father was from Bremen and settled first in Hull. Having made a good fortune by trade, he left business and moved to York. Here he married my mother, whose relatives were called Robinsons - an old surname in those places. They also called me Robinson. My father's surname was Kreutzner, but, according to the custom of the English to distort foreign words, they began to call us Crusoe. Now we ourselves pronounce and write our surname in this way; That's what my friends always called me.
I had two older brothers. One served in Flanders, in the English infantry regiment - the same one that was once commanded by the famous Colonel Lockhart; he rose to the rank of lieutenant colonel and was killed in battle with the Spaniards near Dunkirchen. What happened to my second brother, I don't know how my father and mother didn't know what happened to me.
Since I was the third in the family, I was not prepared for any craft, and from a young age my head was full of all sorts of nonsense. My father, who was already very old, gave me a rather tolerable education in the amount that can be obtained by being brought up at home and attending a city school. He wanted me to become a lawyer, but I dreamed of sea voyages and did not want to hear about anything else. This passion for the sea took me so far that I went against my will - moreover: against the direct prohibition of my father and neglected the entreaties of my mother and the advice of friends; it seemed that there was something fatal in the natural inclination of the mouth that pushed me towards the sad life that was my lot.
My father, a sedate and intelligent man, guessed about my undertaking and warned me seriously and thoroughly. One morning he called me to his room, to which he was chained by gout, and began to reproach me warmly. He asked what other reasons, besides wandering inclinations, could I have for leaving my father's house and my native country, where it is easy for me to go out into the people, where I can increase my fortune with diligence and work and live in contentment and with pleasantness. They leave their homeland in pursuit of adventure, he said. or those who have nothing to lose, or ambitious people, eager to create a higher position for themselves; embarking on enterprises that go beyond the framework of everyday life, they strive to improve their affairs and cover their name with glory; but such things are either beyond my strength or humiliating for me; my place is the middle, that is, what can be called the highest stage of a modest existence, which, as he was convinced by many years of experience, is for us the best in the world, the most suitable for human happiness, freed from need and deprivation, physical labor and suffering falling to the lot of the lower classes, and from luxury, ambition, arrogance and envy of the upper classes. How pleasant such a life is, he said, I can already judge by the fact that all, placed in other conditions, envy him: even kings often complain about the bitter fate of people born for great deeds, and regret that fate did not put them between two extremes - insignificance and greatness, and the sage speaks in favor of the middle, as a measure of true happiness, when he prays to heaven not to send him either poverty or wealth.
I only have to look, said my father, and I will see that all the hardships of life are distributed between the upper and lower classes and that the least of them falls to the lot of people of an average condition, who are not subject to so many vicissitudes of fate as the nobility and the common people; even from illnesses, bodily and mental, they are more insured than those whose illnesses are caused by vices, luxury and all kinds of excesses, on the one hand, hard work, want, poor and insufficient nutrition, on the other, being, thus, a natural consequence of lifestyle.

a sailor from York, who lived for twenty-eight years all alone on a desert island off the coast of America near the mouths of the Orinoco River, where he was thrown out by a shipwreck, during which the entire crew of the ship except him died; outlining his unexpected release by pirates, written by himself

I was sincerely touched by this speech (and who would not have been touched by it?) and firmly decided not to think about leaving for foreign lands anymore, but to settle down in my homeland, as my father wished. But alas! - several days passed, and nothing remained of my decision: in a word, a few weeks after my conversation with my father, in order to avoid new father's exhortations, I decided to run away from home secretly. But I restrained the first ardor of my impatience and acted slowly: choosing a time when my mother, as it seemed to me, was more ordinary in spirit, I took her to a corner and told her that all my thoughts were so absorbed by the desire to see foreign lands. that, even if I join some business, I still will not have the patience to bring it to the end and that it would be better for my father to let me go voluntarily, otherwise I will be forced to do without his permission. I said that I was eighteen years old, and in these years it is too late to learn a trade, too late to train as a lawyer. And even if, let's say, I became a clerk's clerk, I know in advance that I will run away from my patron, not having reached the time of temptation, and go to sea. I asked my mother to persuade the priest to let me travel as an experience; then if I don't like this life. I turn back home and will not leave again; and a gave his word to make up for lost time by double diligence.

My words greatly angered my mother. She said that it was useless to talk to her father on this subject, as he understood too well what was my use and would not agree to my request. She wondered how I could still think of such things after my conversation with my father, who urged me so softly and with such kindness. Of course, if I want to ruin myself, this misfortune cannot be helped, but I can be sure that neither she nor my father will ever give their consent to my undertaking; she herself does not in the least want to contribute to my death, and I will never have the right to say that my mother indulged me when my father was against it.

Subsequently, I learned that although my mother refused to intercede for me with my father, however, she conveyed our conversation to him from word to word. Very preoccupied with this turn of affairs, her father said to her with a sigh: “The boy could be happy to remain in his homeland, but if he sets off for foreign lands, he will be the most miserable, most unfortunate creature that has ever been born on earth. No, I can't agree to that."

Only almost a year after what was described, I broke free. During all this time, I stubbornly remained deaf to all my suggestions to join some business and often reproached my father and mother for their decided prejudice against the kind of life to which my natural inclinations attracted me. But once, during my stay in Hull, where I stopped by chance, this time without any thought of escaping, a friend of mine, who was going to London on his father’s ship, began to persuade me to leave with him, using the usual sailors bait, namely, that it will cost me nothing to travel. And so, without asking either the father or the mother, without even notifying them with a single word, but leaving them to find out about it as they have to, without asking either the parental or God's blessing, not taking into account either the circumstances of the moment, or the consequences , in unkind - God sees! - hour, September 1st, 1651, I boarded my friend's ship, bound for London. Never, I think, have the misadventures of young adventurers begun so early and lasted so long as mine. No sooner had our ship left the mouth of the Humber than the wind blew and a terrible commotion began. Until then I had never been to the sea and cannot express how ill I felt and how my soul was shaken. Only now did I seriously think about what I had done and how rightly the heavenly punishment befell me for leaving my father's house so shamelessly and violating my filial duty. All the good advice of my parents, the tears of my father, the entreaties of my mother were resurrected in my memory, and my conscience, which at that time had not yet had time to completely harden with me, severely reproached me for neglecting parental exhortations and for violating my duties to God and father.

In the meantime, the wind was picking up, and high waves were moving across the sea, although this storm did not have the likeness of what I saw many times later, nor even what I had to see a few days later. But even this was enough to stun such a novice in maritime affairs, who did not understand anything about it, as I was then. With each new wave that rolled on us, I expected that it would swallow us up, and every time the ship fell down, as it seemed to me, into the abyss or abyss of the sea, I was sure that it would not rise up. And in this torment of my soul, I firmly resolved and repeatedly swore that if the Lord would spare my life this time, if my foot again sets foot on solid ground, I will immediately turn back home to my father and never, as long as I live, will not sit down again. to the ship; I vowed to obey my father's advice and never again subject myself to such hardships as I was then experiencing. Only now did I understand the correctness of my father's reasoning about the golden mean; it became clear to me how peacefully and pleasantly he lived his life, never being exposed to storms at sea and not suffering from troubles on the shore, and I decided to return to my parents' house with repentance, like a true prodigal son.

These sober and prudent thoughts sufficed me for the whole time that the storm lasted, and even for a while; but the next morning the wind began to subside, the excitement subsided, and I began to gradually get used to the sea. Be that as it may, all that day I was in a very serious mood (however, I have not yet fully recovered from seasickness); but towards the end of the day the weather cleared, the wind ceased, and there was a quiet, charming evening; the sun set without clouds and rose just as clear the next day, and the smooth surface of the sea, with complete or almost complete calm, all bathed in the radiance of the sun, presented a delightful picture that I had never seen before.

I had a good night's sleep, and there was no sign of my seasickness. I was very cheerful and looked with surprise at the sea, which had raged and rumbled only yesterday and could calm down in such a short time and take on such an attractive appearance. And then, as if to destroy my good intentions, my friend came up to me, lured me to go with him, and, clapping me on the shoulder, said: “Well, Bob, how do you feel after yesterday? I bet you were scared - admit it: you were scared yesterday when the breeze blew? - “Wind? Good wind! I could not imagine such a terrible storm!” - Storms! Oh you weirdo! So you think it's a storm? What you! Trivia! Give us a good ship and plenty of space, so we won't notice such a squall. Well, you're still an inexperienced sailor, Bob. Let's go and make ourselves a punch and forget about everything. Look what a wonderful day it is!” To shorten this sad part of my story, I’ll tell you frankly what happened next as usual with sailors: they cooked punch, I got drunk drunk and drowned in the mud of this night all my repentance, all laudable reflections on my past behavior and all my good decisions regarding the future. In a word, as soon as the surface of the sea smoothed out, as soon as silence was restored after the storm, and with the storm my agitated feelings subsided, and the fear of being swallowed up by the waves passed, so my thoughts flowed along the old channel, and all my oaths, all the promises that I made themselves in moments of distress, were forgotten. True, enlightenment sometimes came over me, serious thoughts still tried, so to speak, to return, but I drove them away, fought them as if with attacks of illness, and with the help of drunkenness and cheerful company I soon triumphed over these seizures, as I called them. ; in just five or six days I won such a complete victory over my conscience as a youth who has decided not to pay attention to it can wish for himself. But I had yet another test: providence, as always in such cases, wanted to take away my last justification; in fact, if this time I did not understand that I had been saved by him, then the next test was of such a kind that here the very last, most inveterate scoundrel from our crew could not help but recognize both the danger and the miraculous deliverance from her.

On the sixth day after going to sea, we came to the Yarmouth roadstead. The wind after the storm was always nasty and weak, so we moved quietly. At Yarmouth we were forced to drop anchor, and lay in the opposite wind, namely the south-westerly wind, for seven or eight days. During this time, a lot of ships came to the raid from Newcastle. (Yarmouth Road serves as a common anchorage for ships waiting here for a fair wind to enter the Thames.)

We, however, would not have stood so long and entered the river with the tide, if the wind had not been so fresh, and after five days it had not blew even more strongly. However, the Yarmouth roadstead is considered as good a anchorage as the harbor, and anchors and anchor lines were strong with us; therefore, our people were not in the least alarmed, not expecting danger, and divided their leisure between recreation and entertainment, according to the custom of sailors. But on the eighth day in the morning the wind was still fresher, and all working hands were needed to remove the topmasts and tightly fasten everything that was needed so that the ship could safely stay in the roadstead. By noon a great commotion broke out; the ship began to rock violently; he scooped several times on board, and twice it seemed to us that we had been torn from anchor. Then the captain ordered to give the mooring. In this way we kept on two anchors against the wind, etching the ropes to the end.

Meanwhile, a fierce storm broke out. Confusion and horror were now read even on the faces of the sailors. I heard several times how the captain himself, passing me from his cabin, muttered in an undertone: “Lord, have mercy on us, otherwise we all died, the end came to us all,” which did not prevent him, however, from vigilantly observing the rescue work ship. The first minutes of the commotion deafened me: I lay motionless in my cabin under the stairs, and I don’t even know exactly what I felt. It was difficult for me to return to my former repentant mood after I had so clearly neglected it and so resolutely dealt with it: it seemed to me that the horrors of death had passed once and for all and that this storm would end in nothing, like the first ”Not when the captain himself, passing past, as I just said, declared that we would all perish, I was terribly frightened. I went out of the cabin onto the deck: never in my life had I seen such an ominous picture: waves as high as a mountain were moving across the sea, and every three, four minutes such a mountain overturned on us. When, gathering my courage, I looked around, horror and disaster reigned all around. Two heavily laden ships anchored not far from us, to relieve themselves, cut off all the masts. One of our sailors shouted that the ship, which was half a mile ahead of us, had sunk. Two more ships were torn from their anchors and carried away to the open sea to the mercy of fate, for neither one nor the other had a single mast left. Smaller ships held out better than others and did not suffer so much at sea; but two or three of them were also swept out to sea, and they rushed side-by-side past us, having laid down all the sails except one stern jib.

In the evening, the navigator and boatswain proceeded to the captain with a request to allow them to cut down the foremast. The captain really did not want this, but the boatswain began to prove to him that if the foremast was left, the ship would sink, and he agreed, and when the foremast was demolished, the mainmast began to sway and rock the ship so much that it had to be demolished and her and thus clear the deck.

You can judge what I must have experienced all this time - quite a novice in maritime affairs, shortly before that I was so frightened by a little excitement. But if, after so many years, my memory does not deceive me, it was not death that scared me then: a hundred times more horrifying was the thought that I had changed my decision to confess my father and returned to my original accursed chimeras, and these thoughts, combined with fear storms brought me to a state that cannot be expressed in any words. But the worst was yet to come. The storm continued to rage with such force that, according to the sailors themselves, they never happened to see such a thing. Our ship was strong, but because of the large amount of cargo it sat deep in the water, and it shook so much that on the deck one could hear every minute: “It will overwhelm, heel.” In some respects it was a great advantage to me that I did not fully understand the meaning of these words until I asked about it. However, the storm raged with increasing fury, and I saw - and this is not often seen - how the captain, the boatswain and several other people, whose feelings were probably not so dulled as those of the others, were praying, every minute expecting that the ship would go to the bottom. To complete the horror, suddenly in the middle of the night one of the people, descending into the hold to see if everything was in order, shouted that the ship had leaked, another messenger reported that the water had already risen four feet. Then the command was given; "All to the pump!" When I heard these words, my heart sank, and I fell back on the bunk where I was sitting. But the sailors pushed me aside, saying that if until now I was useless, now I can work like anyone else. Then I got up, went to the pump and diligently began to pump. At this time, several small cargo ships, unable to withstand the wind, weighed anchor and put out to sea. Noticing them as they passed by, the captain ordered a cannon to be fired to signal our plight. Not understanding the meaning of this shot, I imagined that our ship had been wrecked, or that something terrible had happened in general, in a word, I was so frightened that I fainted. But since it was time for everyone to worry only about saving their own lives, they did not pay attention to me and did not ask to know what had happened to me. Another sailor stood at the pump in my place, pushing me away with his foot and leaving me lying, in full confidence that I had fallen dead; It wasn't long before I woke up.

We continued to work, but the water in the hold rose higher and higher. It was obvious that the ship was going to sink, and although the storm was beginning to ease a little, there was no hope that she could hold out on the water until we entered the harbor, and the captain continued to fire his cannons, calling for help. At last, one small craft ahead of us ventured to lower a boat to help us. With great danger the boat approached us, but neither we could approach it, nor the boat could moor to our ship, although people rowed with all their might, risking their lives to save ours. Our sailors threw them a rope with a buoy, etching it to a great length. After much futile effort, they managed to catch the end of the rope; we pulled them under the stern and every one of them went down to them in the boat. There was nothing to think of getting in it to their ship; therefore, by common agreement, it was decided to row with the wind, trying only to keep as far as possible to the shore. Our captain promised the alien sailors that if their boat broke on the shore, he would pay their master for it. Thus, partly at the oars, partly driven by the wind, we headed north towards Winterton Ness, gradually turning towards the land.

Less than a quarter of an hour had passed since the moment when we set sail from the ship, as it began to sink before our eyes. And then for the first time I understood what it means to “overwhelm.” However, I must confess that I almost did not have the strength to look at the ship, hearing the cries of the sailors that it was sinking, because from the moment I got off or, better to say, when I was taken off into the boat, it was as if everything had died in me, partly from fear, partly from thoughts of the misadventures still ahead of me.

As long as the people worked hard with oars to direct the boat towards the shore, we could see (for every time the boat was tossed by a wave, we could see the shore) - we could see that a large crowd had gathered there: everyone was fussing and running, preparing to give us help when we get closer. But we moved very slowly, and did not reach land until we had passed Winterton Lighthouse, where between Winterton and Cromer the coastline bends to the west, and where, therefore, its protrusions moderated the force of the wind a little. Here we landed, and, with great difficulty, but nevertheless safely getting out on land, we went on foot to Yarmouth. At Yarmouth, owing to the misfortune that befell us, we were treated with great sympathy: the city gave us good lodgings, and private individuals, merchants and shipowners, provided us with enough money to go to London or to Hull, as we pleased.

Oh, why didn’t it occur to me then to return to Hull to my parents’ house! How happy I would be! Probably, my father, as in the Gospel parable, would have slaughtered a fattened calf for me, for he learned about my salvation only long after the news reached him that the ship on which I left Hull died in the Yarmouth roadstead .

But my evil fate pushed me all the way to that disastrous path with stubbornness, which was impossible to resist; and although in my soul, the sober voice of reason was repeatedly heard, calling me to return home, but I did not have enough strength for this. I don’t know what to call it, and therefore I won’t insist that we are prompted to be the instruments of our own destruction, even when we see it in front of us and go towards it with open eyes, the secret command of omnipotent fate; but it is certain that only my unfortunate fate, which I could not avoid, made me go against the sober arguments and suggestions of the best part of my being and neglect the two so clear lessons that I received at the first attempt to embark on a new path.

The son of our shipowner, my friend, who helped me to strengthen my disastrous decision, now humbled more than me: for the first time, as he spoke to me in Yarmouth (which happened only after two or three days, since we were given different quarters), I noticed that his tone had changed. In a rather gloomy mood, he asked me, shaking his head, how I felt. After explaining to his father who I was, he said that I undertook this trip as an experience, but in the future I intended to travel all over the world. Then his father, turning to me, said in a serious and preoccupied tone: “Young man! You should never go to sea again; what happened to us you must take as a clear and undoubted sign that you are not destined to be a navigator. “Why, sir? I objected. "Aren't you going to swim more too?" - “That's another matter,” he answered: “swimming is my profession and, therefore, my duty. But you then after all set off into the sea in the form of experience. So heaven has given you a taste of what you should expect if you persist in your decision. Perhaps everything that happened to us happened because of you: maybe you were Jonah on our ship ... Please, - he added, - explain to me plainly who you are and what prompted you to undertake this voyage? Then I told him something about myself. As soon as I finished, he burst into a terrible rage. “What have I done,” he said, “how guilty that this miserable outcast stepped onto the deck of my ship! Never again, not for a thousand pounds, will I agree to sail on the same ship with you! Of course, all this was said in the hearts of a man already agitated at the thought of his loss, and in his anger he went further than he should have. But later I had a calm conversation with him, in which he seriously urged me not to tempt providence to my own destruction and to return to my father, saying that in everything that happened I must see the finger of God. “Ah, young man! - he said in conclusion, - if you do not return home, then - believe me - wherever you go, misfortunes and failures will haunt you until the words of your father come true over you.

Shortly after we parted, I could not find an objection to him and did not see him again. Where he went from Yarmouth I do not know; I had some money, and I went to London by land. Both in London and on the way there, moments of doubt and reflection often came over me about what kind of life I should choose and whether to return home or embark on a new voyage.

As for returning to my parental home, shame drowned out the most compelling arguments of my mind: I imagined how all our neighbors would laugh at me and how ashamed I would be to look not only at my father and mother, but also at all our acquaintances. Since then, I have often noticed how illogical and inconsistent human nature is, especially in youth; rejecting the considerations that should guide them in such cases, people are not ashamed of sin, but of repentance, they are not ashamed of actions for which they can justly be called fools, but of correction, for which alone they can be considered reasonable.

I remained in this state for quite a long time, not knowing what to do and what career to choose in life. I could not overcome my reluctance to return home, and while I was postponing, the memory of the disasters I had endured gradually faded away, along with it the already weak voice of reason, which prompted me to return to my father, weakened, and ended with the fact that I put aside any thought of returning and began to dream of a new journey.

That evil power. which prompted me to run away from my parents' house, which involved me in an absurd and thoughtless undertaking to make a fortune for myself by scouring the world, and hammered these nonsense into my head so hard that I remained deaf to all good advice, to exhortations, and even to my father's prohibition - this same force, I say, of whatever kind, drove me to the most unfortunate enterprise imaginable: I boarded a ship bound for the shores of Africa, or, as our sailors say in their language, - to Guinea and started wandering again.

It was my great misfortune that in all these adventures I did not get hired as a simple sailor; though I would have to work a little more than I was accustomed to, yet I would learn the duties and work of a sailor, and might in time become a navigator or mate, if not a captain himself. But such was my fate - of all the paths I chose the worst. So I did in this case too: I had money in my purse, I had a decent dress on my shoulders, and I always appeared on the ship as a real gentleman, so I didn’t do anything there and didn’t learn anything.

In London, I was lucky to get into good company from the very first steps, which does not often happen with such loose, astray youths as I was then, for the devil does not yawn and immediately sets up some kind of trap for them. But it was not so with me. I made the acquaintance of a captain who, not long before, had sailed to the shores of Guinea, and since this voyage was very successful for him, he decided to go there again. He loved my company - I could be a pleasant conversationalist at that time - and, having learned from me that I dreamed of seeing the world, he invited me to go with him, saying that it would not cost me anything, that I would be his companion and friend. If I have the opportunity to pick up goods with me, then I may be lucky and I will receive all the profits from trading.

I accepted the offer; having struck up the most friendly relations with this captain, an honest and straightforward man, I set out with him, taking with me a small cargo, on which, thanks to the complete disinterestedness of my friend the captain, I made a very profitable turn: on his instructions I bought forty pounds sterling various trinkets and trinkets. I collected these forty pounds with the help of my relatives, with whom I was in correspondence, and who, I suppose, persuaded my father, or rather mother, to help me with at least a small amount in this first enterprise of mine.

This journey was, one might say, the only successful of all my adventures, which I owe to the disinterestedness and honesty of my friend the captain, under whose guidance I, in addition, acquired a fair amount of knowledge in mathematics and navigation, learned to keep a ship's log, make observations and generally learned there are many things that a sailor needs to know. He enjoyed working with me, and I enjoyed learning. In a word, during this journey I became a sailor and a merchant: I got five pounds nine ounces of gold dust for my goods, for which, on my return to London, I received almost three hundred pounds sterling. This fortune filled me with ambitious dreams, which later completed my doom.

But even on this voyage, I had many misfortunes, and the main thing was that I fell ill all the time, catching the strongest tropical fever due to the too hot climate, for the coast where we traded most lies between the fifteenth degree of northern latitude and the equator.

So I became a merchant, trading with Guinea. Since, to my misfortune, my friend the captain died soon after his arrival in his homeland, I decided to go again, to Guinea on my own. I sailed from England on the same ship, the command of which has now passed to the mate of the deceased captain. It was the most ill-fated journey that man has ever taken. True, I did not take with me even a hundred pounds of the acquired capital, and the remaining two hundred pounds I gave for safekeeping to the widow of my dead friend, who disposed of them very conscientiously; but on the other hand, terrible misfortunes befell me along the way. It began with the fact that one day at dawn, our ship, heading for the Canary Islands, or rather, between the Canary Islands and the African mainland, was taken by surprise by a Turkish corsair from Saleh, who pursued us at full sail. We also raised the sails that our yards and masts could support, but, seeing that the pirate was overtaking us and would inevitably overtake us in a few hours, we prepared for battle (we had twelve guns, and he had eighteen). About three o'clock in the afternoon he overtook us, but by mistake, instead of approaching us from the stern, as he intended, he approached from the side. We aimed eight cannons at him and fired a volley at him, after which he moved a little further away, having previously answered our fire not only with a cannon, but also with a volley of two hundred rifles, since he had up to two hundred people. However, we did not hurt anyone: our ranks remained closed. Then the pirate prepared for a new attack, and we prepared for a new defense. Approaching us this time from the other side, he boarded us: about sixty people burst onto our deck, and everyone rushed to cut the tackle first. We met them with rifle fire, spears and hand grenades and twice cleared our deck of them. However, as our ship was rendered unusable and three of our men were killed and eight wounded, in conclusion (I will cut this sad part of my story short) we were forced to surrender, and we were taken as prisoners to Saleh, the sea port belonging to the Moors.

My fate turned out to be less terrible than I feared at first. I was not taken, like the rest of our people, inland to the court of the Sultan; the captain of the robber ship kept me as a slave, because I was young, agile, and fit for him. This striking change in fate, which had turned me from a merchant into a miserable slave, literally crushed me, and then I remembered my father’s prophetic words that the time would come when there would be no one to rescue me from trouble and console me - words that, I thought, , so exactly came true now, when the right hand of God punished me and I perished irrevocably. But alas! it was only a pale shadow of those severe trials through which I had to pass, as the continuation of my story will show.

Since my new master, or more precisely, the master took me to his house, I hoped that, going on the next voyage, he would take me with him. I was sure that sooner or later some Spanish or Portuguese ship would catch him, and then my freedom would be returned. But my hope soon dissipated, for, having gone out to sea, he left me to look after his garden and in general to perform the menial work assigned to slaves in the household; on returning from the cruise, he ordered me to sit on the ship, in the cabin, to look after him.

From that day on, I thought of nothing but escape, thinking of ways to fulfill my dream, but I did not find one that gave even the slightest hope of success. And it was difficult to imagine the likelihood of success in such an enterprise, because I had no one to trust, no one to seek help from - there was not a single slave like me. not a single Englishman, not a single Irish or Scot - I was completely alone; so that for two whole years (although during this time I often indulged in dreams of freedom) I had not the slightest hope of carrying out my plan. But after the lapse of two years, one extraordinary event presented itself, reviving in my soul my long-standing thought of escaping, and I again decided to make an attempt to break free. Somehow my master stayed at home longer than usual and did not equip his ship (on account of the need for money, as I heard). During this period, he constantly, once or twice a week, and in good weather more often, went out in a ship's boat to the seaside to fish. On every such trip, he took me and a young Moor as rowers, and we entertained him as much as we could. And since I, moreover, turned out to be a very skillful fisherman, sometimes he sent me with a boy - Maresco, as they called him - under the supervision of one adult Moor, his relative.

And then one quiet morning we went to the seaside. When we sailed, a fog rose so thick that we lost sight of the coast, although it was not a mile and a half from us. We began to row at random; after rowing all day and all night, we saw the open sea all around us at dawn, because instead of taking it to the shore, we sailed at least six miles from it. At last we reached the house, though not without difficulty and with some danger, as a rather fresh wind blew in the morning; we were all very hungry.

Taught by this adventure, my master decided to be more circumspect in the future, and announced that he would never again go fishing without a compass and without a supply of provisions. After the capture of our ship, he kept our longboat for himself and now ordered his ship's carpenter, also an English slave, to build on this longboat in its middle part a small cabin or cabin, like on a barge, behind which to leave room for one person who will steer and manage the mainsail, and in front - for two to fasten and remove the rest of the sails, of which the jib fell over the roof of the cabin. The cabin was low and very comfortable, so spacious that it could sleep three and put a table and cupboards for provisions, in which my master kept bread, rice, coffee and bottles of those drinks that he intended to drink on the way.

We often went for fish on this longboat, and since I was the most skilful angler, the owner never left without me. Once he was going on a journey (for fish or just a ride - I can’t say) with two or three important Moors, having prepared more provisions for this trip than usual and sent it to the longboat in the evening. In addition, he ordered me to take three guns with the necessary amount of gunpowder and charges from him on the ship, since, in addition to catching fish, they also wanted to hunt.

I did everything as he ordered, and the next morning I waited on the barge, washed clean and completely ready to receive guests, with pennants and flag raised. However, the owner came alone and said that his guests had postponed the trip because of some unexpected turn of business. Then he ordered the three of us - me, the boy and the Moor - to go, as always, to the seaside for fish, since his friends would have dinner with him, and therefore, as soon as we caught the fish, I should bring it to his house. I obeyed.

It was here that my old thought of liberation flashed again in my mind. Now I had a small vessel at my disposal, and as soon as the owner left, I began to prepare - but not for fishing, but for a long journey, although I not only did not know, but did not even think about where I would direct my path: every road was good for me, if only to get out of captivity.

My first trick was to convince the Moor that we needed to stock up on food, since we had no right to count on refreshments from the master's table. He replied that it was true, and dragged a large basket of biscuits and three jugs of fresh water onto the launch. I knew where the host had a box of wines (captured, as the labels on the bottles showed, from some English ship), and while the Moor was on the shore, I ferried them all onto the launch and put them in a cabinet, as if they were even earlier prepared for the owner. In addition, I brought a large piece of wax, fifty pounds in weight, and took a skein of yarn, an ax, a saw and a hammer. All this was very useful to us later, especially the wax from which we made candles. I resorted to yet another trick, which the Moor also fell for by the simplicity of his soul. His name was Ishmael, and everyone called him Moli or Muli. So I told him: “Moly, we have the master’s guns on the longboat. What if you got a little gunpowder and charges? Maybe we could shoot ourselves two or three alcomes (a bird in the genus of our wader) for dinner. The owner keeps gunpowder and shot on the ship, I know.” - "All right, I'll bring it," he said, and brought a large leather bag of gunpowder (a pound and a half in weight, if not more) and another with a shot of five or six pounds. He also took bullets. We put all this in a boat. In addition, in the master's cabin there was a little more gunpowder, which I poured into one of the large bottles that were in the box, having previously poured the rest of the wine from it. Having stocked up in this way with everything necessary for the road, we left the harbor to fish. The watchtower that stands at the entrance to the harbor knew who we were, and our ship did not attract attention. When we were no more than a mile from the shore, we took away the sail and began to prepare for fishing. The wind was north-north-east, which did not suit my plans, because, blowing from the south, I could certainly sail to the Spanish coast, at least to Cadiz; but no matter where the wind now blew, one thing I firmly decided: to get away from this terrible place, and leave the rest to fate.

After thinking for a while and not catching anything - I deliberately did not pull out the fishing rod when the fish pecked at me so that the Moor would not see anything - I climbed to him: “Here, things will not work for us; the owner will not thank us for such a catch. We have to move away." Not suspecting a trick on my part, the Moor agreed, and since he was on the bow of the longboat, he set the sails. I got on the helm, and when the longboat had gone another three miles into the open sea, I lay down to drift, as if in order to start fishing. Then, handing over the helm to the boy, I approached the Moor from behind, bent down, as if looking at something, and suddenly grabbed him by the torso and threw him overboard. He immediately surfaced, because he was swimming like a cork, and with shouts he began to beg me to take him on a longboat, promising that he would go with me even to the ends of the world. He swam so fast that he would have overtaken me very soon, since there was almost no wind. Then I went to the cabin, took a gun there and aimed at him, saying that I did not wish him harm and would not harm him if he left me alone. “You swim well,” I continued, “the sea is quiet, so it doesn’t cost you anything to swim to the shore, and I won’t touch you; but just try to swim close to the launch, and I will instantly shoot you through the skull, because I firmly decided to regain my freedom. Then he turned towards the shore and, I am sure, swam to it without any difficulty, as he was an excellent swimmer.

Of course, I could have thrown the boy into the sea and taken this Moor with me, but the latter could not be relied upon. When he had sailed far enough, I turned to the boy (his name was Xuri) and said to him: “Xuri! If you are faithful to me, I will make you a big man, but if you do not stroke your face as a sign that you will not betray me (that is, you will not swear by the beard of Mohammed and his father), I will throw you into the sea. The boy smiled, looking straight into my eyes, and answered so frankly that I could not help but believe him. He swore that he would be faithful to me and would go with me to the ends of the world.

Until the floating Moor was out of sight, I kept straight out to sea, tacking against the wind. I did it on purpose to show that we are going to the Strait of Gibraltar (as, obviously, every sane person would think). Indeed: could it be supposed that we intended to head south, to those truly barbaric shores, where whole hordes of Negroes with their shuttles would surround and kill us, where we had only to set foot on the ground, and we would be torn to pieces by predatory animals or even more ruthless wild beings in human form?

But as soon as it began to get dark, I changed course and began to rule south, deviating slightly to the east so as not to be too far from the coast. Thanks to a rather fresh breeze and the absence of rough seas, we made such good progress that the next day at three o'clock in the afternoon, when land first appeared ahead, we were no less than a hundred and fifty miles south of Saleh, far beyond the borders of the possessions of the Moroccan Sultan. , and any other of the local lords; at least we didn't see a single person.

But I acquired such fear from the Moors and was so afraid of falling into their hands again that, taking advantage of the favorable wind, I sailed for five whole days without stopping, without landing on the shore and without dropping anchor. Five days later the wind changed to the south, and since, according to my considerations, if there was a pursuit behind us, then, without catching up with us so far, our pursuers should have already abandoned it, I decided to approach the shore and stood on anchor at the mouth of a small river. What kind of river it was and where it flows, in what country, among what people and under what latitude - I have no idea. I did not see people on the shore, and did not want to see; I only needed to stock up on fresh water. We entered this bay in the evening and decided, when it got dark, to swim to the shore and explore the area. But as soon as it got dark, we heard such terrible sounds from the shore - such a frantic roar, barking and howling of unknown wild animals, that the poor boy almost died of fear and began to beg me not to go ashore until daylight. "All right, Xuri," I told him, "but perhaps in the daytime we will see people there, from whom we will probably have even worse than from tigers and lions." “And we will shoot them with a gun,” he said with a laugh, “they will run away.” (From the English slaves, Xuri learned to speak broken English.) I was glad that the boy was so cheerful, and in order to maintain this good spirits in him, I gave him a glass of wine from the master's stocks. His advice, in fact, was not bad, and I followed it. We dropped anchor and hid all night. I say: hiding, because we didn’t sleep for a minute. Two or three hours after we dropped anchor, we saw huge animals on the shore (which we ourselves did not know): they came up to the very shore, threw themselves into the water, splashed and floundered, wanting, obviously, to freshen up, and at they squealed, roared and howled so disgustingly as I had never heard in my life.

Xuri was terrified, yes, to tell the truth, so was I. But both of us were even more frightened when we heard that one of these monsters was sailing towards our longboat; we did not see it, but from the way it puffed and snorted, we could conclude that it was a ferocious animal of monstrous proportions. Xuri claimed that it was a lion (perhaps it was so - at least I'm not sure otherwise), and shouted for us to raise anchor and get out of here. “No, Xuri,” I answered, “we have no need to raise anchor; we will only etch a longer rope and go out to sea: they will not chase us there.” But before I had time to say this, I saw an unknown animal at a distance of some two oars from the longboat. I confess that I was a little taken aback, but immediately grabbed a gun in the cabin, and as soon as I fired, the animal turned back and swam to the shore.

It is impossible to describe what a hellish roar and howl rose on the shore and further, in the depths of the mainland, when my shot rang out. This gave me some reason to suppose that the local animals had never heard this sound. I was finally convinced that we had nothing to think about landing in these places during the night, but whether it would be possible to risk landing in the daytime was also a question: falling into the hands of some savage is no better than falling into the claws of a lion or a tiger; at least this danger frightened us no less.

But one way or another, here or elsewhere, we had to go ashore, since we didn't have a pint of water left. But again, the question is: where and how to land? Xuri announced that if I let him ashore with a jug, he will try to get fresh water and bring it to me. And when I asked him why he should go instead of me, and why he should not stay in the boat, there was such a deep feeling in the boy's answer that he bribed me forever. “If wild people come,” he said, “they will eat me, and you will remain intact.” “So, Xuri,” I said, “we will go together, and if wild people come, we will kill them, and they will not eat you or me.” I gave the boy some biscuits to eat and a sip of wine from the master's stock, of which I have already spoken; then we pulled ourselves closer to the ground and, jumping into the water, went to the shore for a ford, taking with us nothing but a weapon and two jugs for water.

I did not want to move away from the coast, so as not to lose sight of the longboat, fearing that savages would come down the river to us in their pirogues; but Xuri, noticing a low land about a mile from the shore, wandered thither with a pitcher. Suddenly I saw him running back towards me. Thinking whether the savages were chasing him or whether he was afraid of a predatory beast, I rushed to his aid, but, running closer, I saw that something large was hanging over his shoulder. It turned out that he killed some kind of animal in the genus of our hare, but of a different color and with longer legs. We were both glad of this good fortune, and the meat of the slaughtered animal turned out to be very tasty; but the main joy with which Xuri ran to me was that he found good fresh water and did not see wild people.

Then it turned out that we didn’t have to make such a fuss to get fresh water: in the very river where we stood, only a little higher, the water was completely fresh, since the tide did not go very far into the river. So, having filled our jugs, we made a feast of a dead hare and prepared to continue our journey without discovering any traces of a person in this area.

Since I had already visited these places once, I was well aware that the Canary Islands and the Cape Verde Islands were not far from the mainland. But now I had no instruments with me for observing, and I could not, therefore, determine at what latitude we were; on the other hand, I did not know exactly, or at least did not remember, at what latitude these islands lie; thus, I did not know where to look for them and when exactly I should turn into the open sea in order to head towards them; if I knew this, it would not be difficult for me to get to one of them. But I hoped that if I kept along the coast until I got to that part of the country where the English trade on the coast, I would in all probability meet some English merchant ship on its usual voyage that would pick us up.

By all my calculations, we were now opposite that coastal strip that stretches between the possessions of the Moroccan Sultan and the lands of the Negroes. This is a deserted, deserted region, inhabited only by wild Beasts: the Negroes, fearing the Moors, left it and went further south, and the Moors found it unprofitable to settle here because of the barrenness of the soil; rather, that both were scared away by tigers, lions, leopards and other predators that are found here in myriad numbers. Thus, for the Moors, this region serves only as a hunting ground, to which they go in whole armies, two, three thousand each. It is not surprising, therefore, that for almost a hundred miles we saw only a deserted, deserted country during the day, and at night heard nothing but the howl and roar of wild doors.

Twice in the daytime it seemed to me that I saw in the distance the peak of Tenerife - the highest peak of Mount Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. I even tried to turn into the sea in the hope of getting there, but both times the opposite wind and heavy seas, dangerous to my fragile boat, forced me to turn back, so in the end I decided not to deviate any more from my original plan and keep along shores.

After we left the mouth of the river, I was forced several times to land on the shore to replenish fresh water. Early one morning we anchored under the protection of a rather high promontory and waited for the full tide, which was already beginning to come closer to the shore. Suddenly Xuri, whose eyes seemed to be sharper than mine, called me softly and, in response to my question, said that it was better for us to move away from the shore:

“Look at what a terrible beast lies over there on a hillock and sleeps soundly.” I looked where he was pointing, and indeed I saw a monster. It was a huge lion lying on the slope of the bank in the shadow of an overhanging hill. "Listen, Xuri," I said, "go ashore and kill this beast." The boy looked at me in fright and said: “I have to kill him! Yes, he will swallow me once ”(swallow it whole - he wanted to say). I did not object to him, I only told him not to move) taking the largest gun, almost equal to a musket in caliber, I loaded it with two pieces of lead and a decent amount of gunpowder; into another I rolled two large bullets, and into the third (we had three guns) five smaller bullets. Taking the first gun and taking good aim at the beast's head, I fired; but he lay in such a position (covering his muzzle with his paw) that the charge hit his leg and broke the bone above the knee. The beast jumped up with a snarl, but, feeling pain in the broken leg, immediately fell down; then he rose again on three legs and uttered such a terrible roar as I had never heard in my life. I was a little surprised that I didn't hit him in the head; however, without a moment's hesitation, he took a second gun and shot after the beast, as it hobbled away from the shore; this time the charge hit right on target. I was pleased to see how the lion fell and, barely making some faint sounds, began to writhe in the fight against death. Then Xuri plucked up courage and began to ask for ashore. "Okay, go ahead," I said. The boy jumped into the water and swam to the shore, working with one hand and holding a gun in the other. Coming close to the prostrate beast, he put the muzzle of his gun to its ear and fired again, finishing him in this way.

The game was noble, but inedible, and I was very sorry that we had wasted three charges. But Xuri announced that he would profit from a dead lion, and when we got back to the longboat, he asked me for an axe. "Why do you need an axe?" I asked. “Chop off his head,” he replied. However, he could not chop off the head, but only cut off the paw, which he brought with him. She was of monstrous proportions.

Then it occurred to me that maybe we could use the skin of a lion, and I decided to try to take it off. We went with Xuri to work, but I did not know how to start it. Xuri was much more dexterous than me. This work took us all day. Finally, the skin was removed; we stretched it out on the roof of our cabin; two days later the sun dried it, and afterwards it served me as a bed.

After this stop, we continued to head south for another ten or twelve days, trying as economically as possible to spend our supply of provisions, which began to quickly deplete, and going ashore only for fresh water. I wanted to get to the mouth of the Gambia or Senegal, or in general to some kind of parking lot, not far from Cape Verde, because I hoped to meet some European ship here: I knew that if I did not meet him, I would only have to go in search of the islands , or die here among the blacks. I knew that all European ships, wherever they go - to the shores of Guinea, to Brazil or to the East Indies - pass by Cape Verde or the islands of the same name: in a word, I put my whole fate on this card, realizing that either I will meet a European ship, or I will die.

So, for another ten days I continued to carry out my intention. Then I began to notice that the coast was inhabited: in two or three places we saw people on the coast, who, in turn, looked at us. We could also discern that they were pitch black and naked. Once I wanted to go ashore to them, but Xuri, my wise adviser, said:

"Don't go, don't go." Nevertheless, I began to keep closer to the shore so that I could enter into conversation with them. They must have understood my intention and ran for a long time along the coast for our longboat. I noticed that they were unarmed, except for one who held a long, thin stick in his hand. Xuri told me that it was a necklace and that the savages throw their spears very far and remarkably well; so I kept a certain distance from them and made signs to them as far as I could, trying mainly to make them understand that we needed food. They, in turn, began to make signs to me that I should stop my boat and that they would bring us something to eat. As soon as I lowered the sail and drifted, two blacks ran somewhere inland and in half an hour or less brought back two pieces of jerky and a little grain of some local cereal. We did not know what kind of meat it was and what kind of grain, but we expressed our full readiness to accept both. But then a new question arose: how to get all this? We did not dare to go ashore, being afraid of the savages, and they, in turn, were afraid of us no less. Finally, they came up with a way out of this difficulty. equally safe for both sides: having piled grain and meat on the shore, they moved away and stood motionless until we transported it all to the longboat; and then returned to their original place.

We thanked them with signs, because we had nothing else to thank. But at this very moment we had an opportunity to render them a great service. Before we had time to move away from the coast, when suddenly two huge beasts ran out of the mountains and rushed straight to the sea. One of them, as it seemed to us, was chasing the Other: whether it was a male chasing a female, whether they played among themselves, or squabbled, we could not make out, just as we could not say whether this was a common occurrence in those places, or an exceptional case; I think, however, that the latter was more true, because, firstly, predatory animals are rarely shown during the day, and secondly, we noticed that the people who were on the shore, especially women, were terribly frightened. Only the man holding the spear or javelin remained where he was; the rest started to run. But the animals flew straight to the sea and did not attempt to attack the blacks. They threw themselves into the water and began to swim, as if bathing was the only purpose of their appearance. Suddenly one of them swam quite close to the longboat. I didn't expect it; nevertheless, having quickly loaded my gun and ordered Xuri to load both others, I prepared to meet the enemy as soon as he approached us within gunshot distance, I pulled the trigger, and the bullet hit him right in the head at the same moment he sank into the water, then surfaced and swam back to the shore, now disappearing under water, then reappearing on the surface. He apparently struggled with death, choking on water and bleeding from a mortal wound. and, not having swum a little to the shore, he died.

It is impossible to convey how amazed the poor savages were when they heard the crack and saw the fire of a rifle shot: some of them almost died of fear and fell to the ground as if dead. But, seeing that the beast had gone to the bottom and that I was making signs to them to come closer, they took courage and went into the water to pull out the killed beast. I found him by the bloody spots on the water and, throwing a rope over him, threw the end of it to the blacks, and they pulled him to the shore. The animal turned out to be a leopard of a rare breed with a spotted skin of extraordinary beauty. The Negroes, standing over him, raised their hands in astonishment: they could not understand what I had killed him with.

Another animal, frightened by the fire and the crackle of my shot, jumped ashore and fled back into the mountains; because of the distance, I could not make out what kind of animal it was. Meanwhile, I noticed that the Negroes are very eager to eat the meat of a dead leopard, and will decide to arrange it as if they received it as a gift from me. I showed them by signs that they could take it for themselves. They thanked me very much and, wasting no time, set to work. Although they did not have knives, however, acting with sharpened pieces of wood, they skinned a dead animal as quickly and deftly as we would not have done this with a knife. They offered me meat; but I refused the meat, making a sign to them that I was giving it to them, and asked only for the skin, which they gave me very willingly. In addition, they brought me a new supply of provisions, much more than before. and I took it, although I did not know what supplies it was. Then I asked them for water by signs: holding out one of our jugs, I turned it upside down to show that it was empty and that it needed to be filled. They immediately shouted something to their own. A little later, two women appeared with a large vessel of water made of baked (must have been in the sun) clay and left it on the shore, as well as provisions. I sent Xuri with all of our jugs and he filled all three with water. The women were completely naked, as were the men.

Having thus stocked up on water, roots and grain, I parted from the hospitable Negroes and for another eleven days continued my journey in the same direction, without approaching the shore. Finally, fifteen miles ahead, I saw a narrow strip of land jutting out into the sea. The weather was calm, and I turned into the open sea to go around this spit. At the moment when we drew level with its tip, I clearly distinguished another strip of land six miles from the coast from the ocean side and concluded quite thoroughly that the narrow spit was Cape Verde, and the strip of land was the islands of the same name. But they were very far away, and, not daring to go towards them, I did not know what to do. I understood that if a fresh wind caught me, then I, perhaps, would not swim to either the island or the cape.

Puzzling over the solution of this question, I sat down for a minute in the cabin, leaving Xuri to steer, when suddenly I heard his cry: “Master! Master! Sail! Ship!" The naive youth was scared to death imagining. that it must certainly be one of his master's ships sent after us in pursuit; but I knew how far we had gone from the Moors, and I was sure that we could not be threatened from that direction. I jumped out of the cabin and immediately not only saw the ship, but even discerned that it was a Portuguese ship, heading, in my opinion, to the coast of Guinea for the Negroes. But, looking more closely, I was convinced that the ship was going in a different direction and did not think of turning to the land. Then I raised all the sails and turned to the open sea, determined to do everything possible to enter into intercourse with him.

However, I soon became convinced that, even if we were going at full speed, we would not have time to get close to it and that it would pass by before we could give it a signal; but at that moment, when I was already beginning to despair, they must have seen us from the ship through a telescope and assumed that this was a boat from some kind of lost European ship. The ship lowered her sails to let us approach. This encouraged me. We had a stern flag on the longboat from our former master's ship, and I began to wave this flag to indicate that we were in distress, and, in addition, fired a gun. They saw the flag and the smoke from the shot (they did not hear the shot itself); the ship lay adrift, waiting for our approach, and three hours later we moored to it.

I was asked who I was in Portuguese, Spanish and French, but I did not know any of these languages. Finally, one sailor, a Scot, spoke to me in English, and I explained to him that I was an Englishman and had escaped from the Moors from Saleh, where I was kept in captivity. Then my companion and I were invited to the ship and received very kindly with all our goodness.

It is easy to imagine with what inexpressible joy the consciousness of freedom filled me after that disastrous and almost hopeless situation in which I found myself. I immediately offered all my possessions to the captain as a reward for my deliverance, but he generously refused, saying that he would not take anything from me and that all my things would be returned to me intact as soon as we arrived in Brazil. “I saved your life,” he added, “because I myself would rejoice if I were in your position. And this can always happen. Besides, we will take you to Brazil, which is very far from your homeland, and you will starve to death there if I take your property from you. Why then did I have to save you? No no, señor inglese(i.e. Englishman), I will take you to Brazil for free, and your things will give you the opportunity to live there and pay for your passage to your homeland.

The captain was generous not only in words, but also kept his promise exactly. He ordered that none of the sailors dare touch my property, then he made a detailed inventory of all my property and took it all under his supervision, and handed over the inventory to me so that later, upon arrival in Brazil, I could get every thing on it, up to three clay ladles.

As for my launch, the captain, seeing that it was very good, said that he would gladly buy it from me for his ship, and asked how much I wanted to get for it. To which I replied that he had treated me so generously in all respects that I would by no means set prices for my boat, but would leave it entirely to him. Then he said that he would give me a written undertaking to pay eighty piastres for it in Brazil, but that if someone offered me more when I arrived there, he would give me more. In addition, he offered me sixty gold pieces for Xuri. I was very reluctant to take this money, and not because I was afraid to give the boy to the captain, but because I was sorry to sell the freedom of the poor fellow, who so devotedly helped me get it myself. I put all these considerations to the captain, and he acknowledged their validity, but advised not to refuse the deal, saying that he would give the boy an undertaking to release him into the wild in ten years if he converted to Christianity. It changed things. And since, moreover, Xuri himself expressed a desire to go to the captain, I gave him up.

Our passage to Brazil was accomplished quite safely, and after a twenty-two days' voyage we entered the bay of Todos los Santos, or All Saints. So, once again I had got rid of the most miserable situation in which a person could fall, and now it remained for me to decide what to do with myself.

I will never forget the generous attitude towards me of the captain of the Portuguese ship. He charged me nothing for the journey, returned all my things to me in the most careful manner, and gave me forty ducats for a lion's skin and twenty for a leopard's skin, and generally bought everything I wanted to sell, including a case of wine, two guns, and the rest of wax (part of which went to our candles). In a word, I got two hundred and twenty pieces of gold, and with this capital I landed on the coast of Brazil.

Soon the captain took me to the house of one of his acquaintances, a man as kind and honest as himself. It was the owner ingenio, that is, a sugar plantation and a sugar plant. I lived with him for quite a long time and, thanks to this, got acquainted with the culture of sugar cane and sugar production. Seeing how well the planters live and how quickly they grow rich, I decided to apply for permission to settle here permanently and take up this business myself. At the same time, I was trying to think of some way to extort from London the money I had kept there. When I succeeded in obtaining Brazilian citizenship, I would buy a plot of uncultivated land with all my available money and began to plan my future plantation and estate, in accordance with the amount of money that I expected to receive from London.

I had a neighbor, a Portuguese from Lisbon, an Englishman by origin, by the name of Welz. He was in approximately the same conditions as me. I call him neighbor because his plantation was adjacent to mine. We were on the most friendly terms with him. I have, like him. working capital was very small; and for the first two years we were both barely able to subsist on our plantations. But as the land was cultivated, we grew richer, so that in the third year part of our land was planted with tobacco, and we cut up a large plot for sugar cane by the next year. But we both needed working hands, and then it became clear to me how imprudently I had acted in parting with the Xuri boy.

But alas! I have never been distinguished by prudence, and it is not surprising that I calculated so badly this time. Now I had no choice but to continue in the same spirit. I forced a business around my neck that had nothing to do with my natural inclinations, the exact opposite of the life I dreamed of, for the sake of which I left my parents' house and neglected my father's advice. Moreover, I myself came to that golden mean, to that highest stage of modest existence, which my father advised me to choose and which I could achieve with the same success, remaining in my homeland and not tiring myself of wandering around the wide world. How often did I tell myself now that I could do the same in England, living among friends, without going five thousand miles from my homeland, to foreigners and savages, to a wild country where even the news of those parts of the world where I am little known!

Such are the bitter thoughts about my fate that I indulged in Brazil. Apart from my neighbour, the planter, with whom I occasionally saw, I had no one to exchange a word with; I had to do all the work with my own hands, and I used to constantly repeat that I was living on an uninhabited island, and complained that there was not a single human soul around. How justly fate punished me, when afterwards it really threw me on a desert island, and how useful it would be for each of us, comparing our present situation with another, even worse, to remember that Providence can at any moment make an exchange and show us experience how happy we were before! Yes, I repeat, fate punished me according to merit when it doomed me to that really lonely life on a bleak island, with which I so unfairly compared my then life, which, if I had had the patience to continue the work I had begun, would probably have led me to wealth. and happiness...

My plans for the sugar plantation were already in some certainty by the time my benefactor, the captain who had picked me up at sea, was due to sail back to his homeland (his ship was in Brazil for about three months while he picked up new cargo on the way back). And so, when I told him that I had a small capital left in London, he gave me the following friendly and sincere advice:

“Señor ingleee,” he said (he always called me that), “give me a formal power of attorney and write to London to the person who keeps your money. Write to buy goods for you there (such as are sold in these parts) and send them to Lisbon at the address that I will indicate to you; and I, if God willing, will return, I will deliver them to you intact. But since human affairs are subject to all kinds of vicissitudes and troubles, if I were you, I would take only a hundred pounds sterling for the first time, that is, half of your capital. Take that risk first. If this money returns to you with a profit, you can put the rest of the capital into circulation in the same way, and if it disappears, then at least you will have at least something in reserve.

The advice was so good and so friendly that it seemed to me that it was impossible to think of a better one, and I can only follow it. Therefore, I did not hesitate to give the captain a power of attorney, as he wished, and prepared a letter to the widow of an English captain, to whom I had once given money to keep an owl.

I described to her in detail all my adventures: I told her how I got into captivity, how I escaped, how I met a Portuguese ship at sea, and how the captain treated me humanely. In conclusion, I described my present position to her and gave the necessary instructions regarding the purchase of goods for me. My friend the captain immediately on his arrival in Lisbon, through English merchants, sent an order for goods to a local merchant in London. adding to it the most detailed description of my adventures. The London merchant immediately handed over both letters to the widow of the English captain, and she not only gave him the required amount, but also sent a rather tidy sum from herself to the Portuguese captain in the form of a gift for his humane and sympathetic attitude towards me.

Having bought all my hundred pounds of English goods, according to the instructions of my friend the captain, the London merchant sent them to him in Lisbon, and he delivered them safely to me in Brazil. Among other things, he already on his own initiative (for I was so new in my business that it did not even occur to me) brought me all kinds of agricultural implements, as well as all kinds of household utensils. These were all things necessary for work on the plantation, and they were all very useful to me.

When my shipment arrived, I was overjoyed and considered my future secure from now on. My good guardian, the captain, among other things, brought me a worker, whom he hired with an obligation to serve me for six years. For this purpose, he spent his own five pounds, received as a gift from my friend, the widow of an English captain. He flatly refused any compensation, and I persuaded him only to accept a small bale of tobacco as the fruit of my own economy.

And that was not all. Since the entire load of my goods consisted of English manufactured goods - linen, baize, cloth, in general, such things as were especially appreciated and required in this country, I was able to sell it at a big profit; in a word, when everything was sold out, my capital quadrupled. By this, I was far ahead of my poor neighbor in the development of the plantation, for my first business after the sale of goods was to buy a Negro slave and hire another European worker besides the one brought to me by the captain from Lisbon.

But the misuse of material goods is often the surest way to the greatest misfortunes. So it was with me. The following year I continued to cultivate my plantation with great success, and collected fifty bales of tobacco, over and above what I gave to my neighbors in exchange for necessaries. All these fifty bales, weighing over a hundred pounds each, lay dried with me, quite ready for the arrival of ships from Lisbon. So my business grew; but as I got richer, my head was filled with plans and projects that were completely unrealizable with the means at my disposal: in short, these were the kind of projects that often ruin the best businessmen.

... If I had stayed in the field that I myself had chosen, I would probably have waited for those joys of life that my father so convincingly spoke to me about, as constant companions of a quiet, solitary existence and an average social position. But a different fate was prepared for me: as before, I was destined to be the cause of all my misfortunes. And just to aggravate my lethargy and add bitterness to the reflections on my fate, reflections on which, in my sad future, I was given too much leisure, all my failures were caused solely by my passion for wandering, which I indulged in with reckless obstinacy, while the bright prospect of a useful and happy life opened up before me, as soon as I continued what I started, took advantage of those worldly blessings that Providence so generously lavished on me, and fulfilled my duty.

As it happened to me once when I ran away from my parents' house, so now I could not be satisfied with the present. I gave up the hope of achieving prosperity, perhaps wealth, by working on my plantation - all because I was overwhelmed by the desire to get rich sooner than circumstances allowed. Thus, I plunged myself into the deepest abyss of misfortune, into which probably no man has yet fallen, and from which it is hardly possible to get out alive and well.

I turn now to the details of this part of my adventures. Having lived in Brazil for almost four years and greatly increased my wealth, I, of course, not only learned the local language, but also made great acquaintances with my neighbor planters, as well as with merchants from San Salvador, the port city closest to us. . Meeting with them, I often told them about my two trips to the shores of Guinea, about how trade is carried out with the Negroes there and how easy it is there for a trifle - for some kind of beads, knives, scissors, axes, glass and similar trifles - to get not only golden sand and ivory, but even a large number of Negro slaves to work in Brazil.

They listened to my stories very attentively, especially when it came to buying Negroes. At that time, it should be noted, the slave trade was very limited, and it required the so-called assistanto, i.e. permission from the Spanish or Portuguese king; therefore Negro slaves were rare and extremely expensive.

One day a large company of us gathered: I and several people of my acquaintances, planters and merchants, and we were talking animatedly on this topic. The next morning, three of my interlocutors came to me and announced that, having thought carefully about what I had told them the day before, they had come to me with a secret proposal. Then, after taking my word that everything I heard from them would remain between us, they told me that they all had plantations, like me, and that they needed nothing more than working hands. That is why they want to equip a ship to Guinea for the Negroes. But as the slave trade is difficult and it will be impossible for them to openly sell the Negroes on their return to Brazil, they think of limiting themselves to one voyage, bringing the Negroes secretly, and then dividing them among themselves for their plantations. The question was whether I would agree to join them on the ship as a ship's clerk, i.e. take over the purchase of Negroes in Guinea. They offered me the same number of Negroes as others, and I did not have to invest a penny in this enterprise.

The temptation of this offer cannot be denied, if it were made to a person who did not have his own plantation, which needed supervision, in which considerable capital was invested, and which in time promised to bring a large income. But for me, the proprietor of such a plantation, who would only have to continue for another three or four years, having extorted the rest of my money from England - with this small additional capital, my fortune would reach three, four thousand pounds sterling and would continue to grow - for me to think of such a journey was the greatest folly.

But I was destined to become the culprit of my own death. As before I was unable to overcome my vagabond inclinations, and my father's good advice was in vain, so now I could not resist the proposal made to me. In a word, I answered the planters that I would gladly go to Guinea if, in my absence, they would take charge of my property and dispose of it according to my instructions in case I did not return. They solemnly promised me this, having sealed our agreement with a written commitment; I, for my part, made a formal will in the event of my death: I refused my plantation and movable property to the Portuguese captain who saved my life, but with the proviso that he take only half of my movable property, and send the rest to England.

In a word, I took every measure to preserve my personal property and maintain order on my plantation. If I had exercised even the slightest measure of such wise foresight in the matter of my own advantage, had I made an equally clear judgment about what I should and what I should not do, I probably would never have abandoned such a well-begun and promising enterprise, would not have neglected with such favorable prospects of success, and would not have embarked on a sea that is inseparable from danger and risk, not to mention the fact that I had special reasons to expect all sorts of troubles from the forthcoming voyage.

But I was hurried, and I rather blindly obeyed the suggestions of my imagination than the voice of reason. So, the ship was equipped, loaded with suitable goods, and everything was arranged by mutual agreement of the expedition members. At an unfortunate hour, September 1st, 1659, I boarded the ship. It was the very day on which, eight years ago, I ran away from my father and mother to Hull, the day I rebelled against parental authority and so foolishly disposed of my fate.

Our vessel had a capacity of about one hundred and twenty tons: it had six guns and fourteen crew members, not counting the captain, cabin boy and me. We did not have a heavy load, and it all consisted of various small things that are usually used for barter with negroes: scissors, knives, axes, mirrors, glass, shells, beads, and similar cheap things.

As already said, I boarded the ship on the 1st of September, and on the same day we weighed anchor. First we headed north along the coast of Brazil, expecting to turn towards the African mainland when we reached the tenth or twelfth degree of north latitude, such was the ordinary course of ships in those days. As long as we kept to our coasts, as far as Cape St. Augustine, the weather was fine, only too hot. From Cape St. Augustine we turned into the open sea and soon lost sight of the land. We were heading approximately to the island of Fernando de Noronha, i.e. to the northeast. Fernando Island remained with us on the right hand. After a twelve-day voyage, we had crossed the equator and were, according to the latest observations, under 7 ° 22 "North latitude, when suddenly a fierce squall hit us. It was a real hurricane. It started from the southeast, then went in the opposite direction and finally blew from the northeast with such terrifying force that for twelve days we could only rush on the wind and, surrendering to the will of fate, sail where the fury of the elements drove us. Needless to say, all these twelve days I hourly expected death, yes and no one on the ship had any intention of staying alive.

But our troubles were not limited to the fear of a storm: one of our sailors died of tropical fever, and two - a sailor and a cabin boy - were washed from the deck. On the twelfth day the storm began to subside, and the captain made as accurate a calculation as possible. It turned out that we were about eleven degrees north latitude, but that carried us twenty-two degrees west of Cape St. Augustine. We were now not far from the coast of Guiana or northern Brazil, beyond the Amazon River, and closer to the Orinoco River, more known in those parts under the name of the Great River. The captain asked for my advice as to where we should head. In view of the fact that the ship gave a leak and was hardly suitable for long-distance navigation, he thought it best to turn to the coast of Brazil.

But I resolutely rebelled against it. In the end, after examining the maps of the coasts of America, we came to the conclusion that as far as the Caribbean Islands we would not meet a single inhabited country where help could be found. We therefore decided to set a course for Barbados, which, according to our calculations, could be reached in two weeks, since we would have to deviate a little from the direct route in order not to fall into the current of the Gulf of Mexico. About the same, to go to the shores of Africa, there could be no question: our ship needed to be repaired, and the crew needed to be replenished.

In view of the foregoing, we changed course and began to keep to the west-north-west. We expected to reach some of the islands belonging to England, and get help there. But fate judged otherwise. When we reached 12° 18" north, a second storm overtook us. As swiftly as the first time, we rushed west and found ourselves far from the trade routes, so that even if we had not died from the fury of the waves, there was almost no hope of us returning to our homeland anyway, and we would most likely have been eaten by savages.

One early morning, when we were in such distress - the wind still did not give up - one of the sailors shouted: "Land!", But before we had time to jump out of the cabin in the hope of finding out where we were, the ship ran aground. At the same moment, from a sudden stop, the water rushed onto the deck with such force that we already considered ourselves dead: we rushed headlong down into closed rooms, where we took refuge from splashes and foam.

It is difficult for anyone who has not been in a similar situation to imagine how desperate we have come. We didn't know where we were, what land we were nailed to, whether it was an island or a mainland, inhabited land or not. And as the storm continued to rage, albeit with less force, we did not even hope that our ship would hold out for several minutes without breaking into splinters; unless by some miracle the wind suddenly changes. In a word, we sat looking at each other and every minute expecting death, and each prepared for the transition to another world, because in this world we had nothing to do. Our only consolation was that, contrary to all expectations, the ship was still intact, and the captain indicated that the wind was beginning to die down.

But although it seemed to us that the wind had died down a little, yet the ship had run aground so thoroughly that there was no reason to think of moving it, and in this desperate situation we could only take care to save our lives at any cost. We had two boats; one hung astern, but during a storm it was smashed against the rudder, and then torn off and sunk or blown into the sea. We had nothing to rely on her. There was another boat left, but how to launch it? - it was a big question. And meanwhile it was impossible to linger: the ship could break in two at any moment; some even said that it had already cracked.

At this critical moment, the captain's mate approached the lifeboat and, with the help of the rest of the crew, threw her over the side; all of us, eleven people, got into the boat, put off and, entrusting ourselves to the mercy of God, gave ourselves up to the will of the raging waves; although the storm subsided considerably, still terrible waves ran up to the shore, and the sea could rightly be called den wild Zee(wild sea), as the Dutch say.

Our situation was truly deplorable: we clearly saw that the boat could not withstand such excitement and that we would inevitably sink. We could not go on a sail: we did not have one, and anyway it would be useless to us. We rowed to the shore with a stone in our hearts, like people going to execution: we all knew very well that as soon as the boat came closer to the land, it would be blown into a thousand pieces by the surf. And, driven by the wind and current, betraying our soul to the mercy of God, we leaned on the oars, with our own hands bringing the moment of our death closer.

Whether the coast was rocky or sandy, steep or sloping, we did not know. Our only hope of salvation was a faint possibility of getting into some kind of bay or bay, or at the mouth of the river, where the waves were weaker and where we could take refuge under the shore on the windward side. But ahead there was nothing resembling a bay to be seen, and the closer we got to the shore, the more terrible the land seemed, more terrible than the sea itself.

When we moved away, or rather, we were carried, according to my calculation, about four miles from the place where our ship got stuck, suddenly a huge wave, the size of a mountain, ran from the stern onto our boat, as if about to bury us in the depths of the sea. In an instant he overturned our boat. We did not have time to shout: “God!” as we found ourselves under water, far from the boat and from each other.

Nothing can express the confusion that seized me when I plunged into the water. I'm a very good swimmer, but I couldn't surface right away and almost died. Only when the wave that had picked me up, having carried me a fair distance towards the shore, broke and rushed back, leaving me almost on land, half-dead from the water that I had swallowed, I took a breath and came to my senses. I had such self-control that, seeing myself closer to the ground than I expected, I got to my feet and ran headlong, hoping to reach the ground before another wave surged and picked me up, but soon I saw that I could not get away from it. ; the sea went uphill and caught up like an angry enemy, against which I had neither the strength nor the means. I could only, holding my breath, emerge onto the crest of the wave and swim to the shore as far as I could. My main concern was to cope as far as possible with the new wave so that, having brought me even closer to the shore, it would not drag me along in its return movement to the sea.

The oncoming wave buried me twenty feet, thirty feet under the water. I felt how I was picked up and with incredible force and speed was carried to the shore for a long time. I held my breath and swam with the current, helping him with all my might. I was almost suffocating when I suddenly felt that I was going up; soon, to my great relief, my hands and head were above the water, and although I could not stay on the surface for more than two seconds, I managed to catch my breath, and this gave me strength and courage. I was overwhelmed again, but this time I did not stay under water for so long. When the wave broke and went back, I did not let it carry me back and soon felt the bottom under my feet. I stood for a few seconds to catch my breath, and, gathering the rest of my strength, I again started running headlong towards the shore.

But even now I have not yet escaped the fury of the sea: two more times it drove me out, twice I was picked up by a wave and carried farther and farther, since in this place the coast was very sloping.

The last wave almost proved fatal to me: having picked me up, he carried me out, or rather threw me onto a rock with such force that I lost consciousness and found myself completely helpless: a blow to the side and chest completely cut off my breath, and if the sea swept me up again, I would inevitably choke. But I came to my senses just in time: seeing that now a wave would cover me again, I firmly clung to the ledge of my rock and, holding my breath, decided to wait until the wave subsided. Since the waves were not so high closer to the ground, I held out until she left. Then I started running again, and found myself so close to the shore that the next wave, although it rolled over me, could no longer swallow me and carry me back to the sea. Having run a little more, I, to my great joy, felt myself on land, climbed the coastal rocks and sank down on the grass. Here I was safe: the sea could not reach me.

Finding myself on earth safe and sound, I looked up to the sky, thanked God for saving my life, for which, just a few minutes ago, I had almost no hope. I think that there are no words that could describe with sufficient brightness the delight of the human soul, which has risen, so to speak, from the grave, and I am not at all surprised that when the criminal, already with a noose around his neck, at that very moment how he should be hung up on the gallows, a pardon is announced - I am not surprised, I repeat that at the same time a doctor is always present to bleed him, otherwise unexpected joy may shake the pardoned man too much and stop his heartbeat.

Suddenly, joy, like sorrow, deprives the mind.

I walked along the shore, raised my hands to the sky and made thousands of other gestures and movements that I can no longer describe. My whole being was, so to speak, absorbed in thoughts of my salvation. I thought about my comrades, who all drowned, and that not a single soul was saved except me; at least I never saw any of them again; there was no trace of them, except for three hats, one cap and two unpaired shoes thrown by the sea.

Looking in the direction where our ship was aground, I could hardly see it behind the high surf - it was so far away, and I said to myself: “God! by what miracle could I reach the shore?

Having consoled myself with these thoughts about the safe deliverance from mortal danger, I began to look around to find out where I had ended up and what I should do first of all. My joyful mood immediately fell: I realized that although I was saved, I was not spared from further horrors and troubles. There was no dry thread left on me, there was nothing to change into; I had nothing to eat, I did not even have water to sustain my strength, and in the future I would either die of starvation or be torn to pieces by wild beasts. But worst of all, I had no weapons, so I could neither hunt game for my livelihood, nor defend myself from predators that would take it into their heads to attack me. In general, I had nothing but a knife, a pipe, and a box of tobacco. It was all my property. And, on reflection, I fell into such despair that for a long time, like a madman, I ran along the shore. When night fell, I asked myself with a sinking heart what awaited me if there were predatory animals here: after all, they always come out to prey at night.

The only thing I could then think of was to climb a thick, branchy tree that grew nearby, similar to a spruce, but with thorns, and sit on it all night, and when morning comes, decide what death is better to die, because I did not see opportunity to live in this place. I walked a quarter of a mile inland to see if I could find fresh water, and to my great joy I found a stream. Having drunk and put some tobacco in my mouth to quench my hunger, I went back to the tree, climbed it and tried to arrange myself in such a way that I would not fall down if I fell asleep. Then, for self-defense, I cut out a short bough, like a club, sat on my seat more tightly and, from extreme fatigue, fell asleep soundly. I slept as sweetly as I think few would in my place, and I never awoke from sleep so fresh and awake.

When I woke up, it was completely light: the weather cleared up, the wind died down, and the sea no longer raged, did not heave. But I was extremely struck by the fact that the ship found itself in a different place, almost at the very rock on which the wave hit me so hard: it must have been lifted from the shallows by the tide during the night and driven here. Now it stood no more than a mile from where I had spent the night, and as it kept almost straight, I decided to visit it in order to stock up on food and other necessary things.

Leaving my shelter and descending from the tree, I looked around again, and the first thing I saw was our boat, lying about two miles to the right, on the shore, where the sea had obviously thrown it. I went in that direction, thinking to reach it, but it turned out that a bay half a mile wide cut deep into the shore and blocked the way. Then I turned back, because it was more important for me to get on the ship as soon as possible, where I hoped to find something to support my existence.

In the afternoon the sea was quite calm, and the tide was so low that I managed to approach the ship on dry land for a quarter of a mile. Here I again felt an attack of deep grief, for it became clear to me that if we had remained on the ship, then everyone would have been alive: having weathered the storm, we would have safely crossed to the shore, and I would not have been, as now, an unfortunate creature, completely devoid of human society. At this thought, tears came into my eyes, but tears cannot help my grief, and I decided to get to the ship all the same. Undressing (as the day was unbearably hot), I entered the water. But when I swam up to the ship, a new difficulty arose: - how to climb it? He stood in a shallow place, all protruded from the water, and there was nothing to cling to. Twice I swam around him and the second time I noticed a rope (I am surprised that it did not immediately catch my eye). It hung so low above the water that, although with great difficulty, I managed to catch its end and climb it onto the forecastle of the ship. The ship leaked, and I found a lot of water in the hold; however, it was so bogged down as a keel in a sandy, or rather mudflat, that the stern was raised, and the bow almost touched the water. Thus, the entire aft part remained free of water, and everything that was piled up there did not get wet. I immediately discovered this, because, of course, I first of all wanted to know what of the things had been damaged and what had survived. It turned out, in the first place, that the entire supply of provisions was completely dry, and since I was tormented by hunger, I went to the pantry, stuffed my pockets with crackers and ate them on the go, so as not to lose time. In the wardroom I found a bottle of rum and took a few good sips from it, for I was in great need of refreshment for the work ahead.

First of all, I needed a boat to carry ashore those things that, in my opinion, I might need. However, it was useless to sit back and dream about what could not be obtained. Necessity refines ingenuity, and I quickly set to work. The ship had spare masts, topmasts and yardarms. Of these, I decided to build a raft. I chose a few lighter logs and threw them overboard, tying each one with a rope beforehand so that they would not be carried away. Then I went down from the ship, pulled four logs to me, tightly tied them together at both ends, fastening them on top with two or three short boards laid crosswise. My raft supported the weight of my body perfectly, but for a large load it was too light. Then I set to work again, and with the help of our ship's carpenter's saw, cut the spare mast into three pieces, which I fitted to my raft. This work cost me incredible efforts, but the desire to stock up on everything necessary for life supported me, and I did what, under other circumstances, I would not have had the strength to do.

Now my raft was strong enough to bear a fair amount of weight. My first task was to load it and keep my cargo safe from the surf. I thought about this for a short time. First of all, I put on the raft all the boards that were found on the ship: on these boards I lowered three chests belonging to our sailors, having previously broken the locks in them and emptied them. Then, having considered in my mind which of the things I might need the most, I selected these things and filled all three chests with them. In one I put food supplies: rice, crackers, three rounds of Dutch cheese, five large pieces of dried goat meat (which served us as the main meat food) and the remains of the grain that we carried for the bird that was on the ship and part of which remained, since we already ate a long time ago. It was barley mixed with wheat; to my great disappointment, it turned out to be spoiled by rats. I also found several crates of wine and five or six gallons of arak or rice brandy that belonged to our skipper. I put all these boxes directly on the raft, since they would not fit in the chests, and there was no need to hide them. Meanwhile, while I was busy loading, the tide came up, and to my great chagrin, I saw that my doublet, shirt and waistcoat, which I had left on the shore, were swept into the sea. Thus, from the dress I only had stockings and trousers (linen and short, to the knees), which I did not take off. This made me think about stocking up on clothes. There was plenty of every kind of dress on the ship, but for the time being I took only what was necessary at the given moment: I was much more tempted by many other things, and above all, working tools. After a long search, I found our carpenter's box, and it was for me a truly precious find, which I would not have given at that time for a whole ship of gold. I put this box on the raft, as it was, without even looking into it, since I knew approximately what tools it contained.

Now I just need to stock up on weapons and ammo. In the wardroom I found two excellent hunting rifles and two pistols, which I carried to the raft, along with a powder flask, a small bag of shot, and two old, rusty sabers. I knew that we had three barrels of gunpowder, but I did not know where our gunner kept them. However, after a good search, I found all three of them. One seemed wet, and two were completely dry, and I dragged them onto the raft, along with guns and sabers. Now my raft was loaded enough, and I began to think how I could get to the shore without a sail, without oars and without a rudder: after all, the weakest wind was enough to overturn my whole structure.

Three circumstances encouraged me: firstly, the complete absence of excitement at sea; secondly, the tide, which was supposed to drive me to the shore; thirdly, a small breeze, blowing also towards the shore and, therefore, fair. So, finding two or three broken oars from the ship's boat, taking two more saws, an ax and a hammer (besides the tools that were in the box), I set off to sea. For a mile or so my raft was going well; I only noticed that it was carried away from the place where the sea had thrown me the day before. This led me to the idea that there must be a coastal current and that, consequently, I could get into some kind of creek or river, where it would be convenient for me to land with my cargo.

As I expected, it happened. Soon a small cove opened up in front of me, and I was quickly carried towards it. I ruled as best I could, trying to keep to the middle of the current. But here, being a completely unfamiliar fairway of this bay, I almost suffered a second shipwreck, and if this happened, I really, it seems, would die of grief. My raft unexpectedly ran into a sandbank, and since its other edge had no point of support, it heeled heavily; a little more, and all my cargo would have moved in this direction and would have fallen into the water. I braced my back and hands against my trunks with all my strength, trying to hold them in place, but I could not push the raft off despite all my efforts. For half an hour, not daring to move, I stood in this position, until the rising water lifted the slightly lowered edge of the raft, and after a while the water rose even higher, and the raft itself went aground. Then I pushed off with an oar in the middle of the fairway and, giving myself up to the current, which was very fast here, I finally entered a bay, or rather, at the mouth of a small river with high banks. I began to look around, looking for where it would be better for me to land: I did not want to go too far from the sea, for I hoped to see a ship on it someday, and therefore I decided to stay as close to the shore as possible.

Finally, on the right bank, I spotted a tiny bay, towards which I directed my raft. With great difficulty I led it across the current and entered the bay, resting my oars on the bottom. But here again I risked dumping all my cargo: the coast was so steep here that if only my raft had run into it with one end, it would inevitably have tilted towards the water with the other, and my luggage would have been in danger. All I had to do was wait for more water to rise. Having looked out for a convenient place where the shore ended in a flat platform, I pushed the raft there and, resting against the bottom with an oar, kept it as if at anchor; I calculated that the tide would cover this area with water. And so it happened. When the water had risen sufficiently—my raft was sitting a full foot in the water—I pushed the raft onto the platform, secured it on both sides with oars, thrusting them into the bottom, and began to wait for the ebb. Thus, my raft with all the cargo was on a dry shore.

My next concern was to inspect the surroundings and choose a convenient place for my dwelling, where I could lay down my goods in safety from any accidents. I still did not know where I was: on the mainland or on an island, in a populated or in an uninhabited country; I didn't know if I was in danger from predatory beasts or not. About half a mile away I saw a hill, steep and high, which seemed to dominate the ridge of hills that stretched to the north. Armed with a gun, a pistol and a powder flask, I went to reconnaissance. When I climbed to the top of the hill (which cost me a lot of effort), my bitter fate became clear to me: I was on an island; all around the sea stretched out, beyond which no land was visible anywhere, except for a few rocks sticking out in the distance and two small islands, smaller than mine, lying about ten miles to the west.

I made other discoveries: my island was completely uncultivated and, by all indications, even uninhabited. Perhaps there were predatory animals on it, but so far I have not seen one. On the other hand, there were many birds, but all of unknown breeds, so that later, when I happened to kill game, I could never determine by its appearance whether it was suitable for food or not. Coming down the hill, I shot a large bird sitting in a tree at the edge of the forest. I think that this was the first shot that had been heard here since the creation of the world: before I had time to shoot, a cloud of birds soared over the grove; each of them screamed in its own way, but none of these cries resembled the cries of the breeds known to me. As for the bird I killed, I think it was a variety of our hawk: it very much resembled it in the color of its feathers and the shape of its beak, only its claws were much shorter. Her meat gave off carrion and was not suitable for food.

Satisfied with these discoveries, I returned to the raft and began to drag things ashore. It took me the rest of the day. I didn't know how and where to settle down for the night. I was afraid to lie down directly on the ground, not being sure that some kind of predator would not bite me. It later turned out that these fears were unfounded.

Therefore, having outlined a place for an overnight stay on the shore, I blocked it from all sides with chests and boxes, and inside this fence I built something like a hut from planks. As for food, I did not yet know how I would subsequently earn my living: except for birds and some kind of animals, like our hare, which jumped out of the grove at the sound of my shot, I did not see any living creatures here.

But now I was thinking only about how to take from the ship everything that was left there and that could be useful to me, first of all the sails and ropes. So I decided, if nothing would interfere, to take a second voyage to the ship. And since I knew that at the first storm it would be smashed to pieces, I decided to postpone all other affairs until I had brought everything I could take ashore. I began to take advice (with myself, of course) whether I should take the raft with me. This seemed impractical to me, and, waiting for the ebb, I set off on my way, as for the first time. Only this time I undressed in the hut, remaining in one lower checkered shirt, in linen underpants and in shoes on my bare feet.

Like the first time, I climbed onto the ship with a rope; then built a new raft. But, wiser by experience, I made it not as clumsy as the first, and not so heavily loaded. However, I still carried a lot of useful things on it: firstly, everything that was found in the stocks of our carpenter, namely; two or three bags of nails (large and small), a screwdriver, two dozen axes, and most importantly, such a useful thing as a sharpener. Then I took a few things from our gunner's warehouse, including three scrap iron, two barrels of rifle bullets, seven muskets, another hunting rifle and some gunpowder, then a large bag of shot and a bundle of sheet lead. However, the latter turned out to be so heavy that I did not have the strength to lift and lower it onto the raft.

In addition to these things, I took from the ship all the clothes that I found, and also took a spare sail, a hammock and several mattresses and pillows. All this I loaded onto a raft and, to my great pleasure, brought it to the shore in one piece.

Going to the ship, I was a little afraid that in my absence some predators would not destroy my food supplies. But, returning to the shore, I did not notice any traces of the guests. Only on one of the chests sat some kind of animal, very similar to a wild cat. At my approach, he ran a little to the side and stopped, then spun on his hind legs and quite calmly, without any fear, looked me straight in the eyes, as if expressing a desire to get to know me. I aimed my rifle at him, but this movement was obviously incomprehensible to him; he was not at all frightened, he did not even move. Then I threw him a piece of biscuit, showing great extravagance, as my provisions were very small. Anyway, I gave him this piece. He came up, sniffed it, ate it and licked his lips with a satisfied look, as if waiting for the continuation. But I didn't give him anything else, and he left.

Having brought the second transport of things ashore, I wanted to open the heavy barrels of gunpowder and move it in parts, but first I set about building a tent. I made it from a sail and poles that I cut in a grove for this purpose. I moved into the tent everything that could be spoiled by the sun and rain, and around it I piled empty boxes and barrels in case of a sudden attack from people or animals.

I blocked the entrance to the tent from the outside with a large chest, placing it sideways, and from the inside I blocked it with boards. Then he spread out a bed on the ground, put two pistols in his head, next to the mattress - a gun and lay down. For the first time since the shipwreck, I spent the first night in bed. From fatigue and exhaustion, I slept soundly until morning, and no wonder: the previous night I slept very little, and worked all day, first loading things from the ship to the raft, and then ferrying them ashore.

No one, I think, arranged for himself such a huge warehouse as was arranged by me. But everything was not enough for me: as long as the ship was intact and stood in the same place, as long as there was at least one thing left on it that I could use, I considered it necessary to replenish my supplies. So every day at low tide I went to the ship and brought something with me. My third trip was especially successful. I dismantled all the gear, took with me all the small rigging (both cable and twine that could fit on the raft). I also took a large piece of spare canvas, which served us for repairing sails, and a barrel of soaked gunpowder, which I had left on the ship. In the end, I brought all the sails to the shore to the last; only I had to cut them into pieces and transport them piece by piece; the sails were useless to me, and all their value to me lay in the material.

But here's what made me even happier. After five or six such expeditions, when I thought that there was nothing more to gain on the ship, I unexpectedly found in the hold a large barrel of crackers, three barrels of rum, a box of sugar, and a barrel of excellent grains. It was a pleasant surprise; I no longer expected to find any provisions on the ship, being sure that all the supplies left there were wet. I took the crackers out of the barrel and transferred them to the raft piece by piece, wrapping them in canvas. All this I managed to safely deliver to the shore.

The next day I took another trip. Now, having taken from the ship absolutely all the things that one person could lift, I set to work on the ropes. I cut each rope into pieces of such a size that it would not be too difficult for me to manage them, and brought two ropes and mooring lines to the shore. In addition, I took from the ship all the iron parts that I could separate. Then, cutting off all the remaining yards, I built a larger raft from them, loaded all these heavy things on it and set off on my way back. But this time my luck changed: my raft was so clumsy and so heavily loaded that it was very difficult for me to manage it. Entering the cove where my other possessions were unloaded, I failed to navigate it as skilfully as before: the raft capsized, and I fell into the water with all my cargo. As for me, the trouble was not great, since it happened almost at the very shore; but my cargo, at least a significant part of it, was gone, the main thing is iron, which would be very useful to me and which I especially regretted. However, when the water subsided, I pulled almost all the pieces of rope and a few pieces of iron ashore, although with great difficulty: I was forced to dive for each piece, and this very tired me. After that, my visits to the ship were repeated every day, and each time I brought new booty.

For thirteen days I have lived on the island and during this time I have been on the ship eleven times, dragging ashore absolutely everything that a pair of human hands is able to drag. If the calm weather had lasted longer, I am convinced that I could have carried the whole ship in pieces, but, making preparations for the twelfth voyage, I noticed that the wind was picking up. Nevertheless, after waiting for the ebb, I went to the ship. For the first time, I searched our cabin so thoroughly that it seemed to me that nothing could be found there; but then I noticed a chiffonier with two drawers: in one I found three razors, large scissors, and a dozen good forks and knives; the other contained money, part European, part Brazilian silver and gold coin, up to thirty-six pounds in all.

I smiled at the sight of this money. "Unnecessary rubbish! - I said, - why do you need me now? You're not even worth it to bend down and pick you up off the floor. I am ready to give all this heap of gold for any of these knives. I have nowhere to put you: so stay where you are and go to the bottom of the sea, like a creature whose life is not worth saving!” However, on reflection, I decided to take them with me and wrapped everything I found in a piece of canvas. Then I began to think about building a raft, but while I was getting ready, the sky frowned, the wind blowing from the shore began to grow stronger and in a quarter of an hour it was completely fresh. With a coastal wind, a raft would be useless to me; besides, I had to hurry to get to the shore before a big wave broke out, otherwise I would not have got on it at all. I wasted no time in diving into the water and swimming. Partly because of the weight of the things that were on me, partly because I had to struggle with oncoming waves, I barely had the strength to swim across the strip of water that separated the ship from my cove. The wind grew stronger every minute and even before the low tide turned into a real storm.

But by this time I was already at home, safe, with all my wealth, and lying in a tent. The storm roared all night, and when I looked out of the tent in the morning, there was no sign of the ship! At first this struck me unpleasantly, but I consoled myself with the thought that, without wasting time and sparing no effort, I got out everything that could be useful to me, so that even if I had more time at my disposal, I still would have almost nothing. take from the ship.

So, I no longer thought about the ship, nor about the things that still remained on it. True, after the storm, some debris could have been washed ashore. So it then happened. But all this was of little use to me.

My thoughts were now completely absorbed in the question of how I could protect myself from savages, if any, and from animals, if they are found on the island. I thought for a long time how to achieve this and what kind of accommodation I should better: whether to dig a cave, or put up a tent and fortify it well. In the end, I decided to do both. I think it would not be superfluous to tell here about my work and describe my home.

I soon became convinced that the place I had chosen on the coast was not suitable for a settlement: it was a lowland, near the sea, with marshy soil and probably unhealthy; but most importantly, there was no fresh water nearby. In view of all these considerations, I decided to look for another place, healthier and more suitable for living.

At the same time, I wanted to comply with a number of necessary, from my point of view, conditions. First, my dwelling should be located in a healthy area and near fresh water; secondly, it should shelter from the heat of the sun; thirdly, it must be safe from attack by predators, both bipedal and quadrupedal; and, finally, fourthly, it should have a view of the sea, so as not to miss the opportunity to be saved if God sends any ship. With the hope of deliverance, I still did not want to part.

After quite a long search, I finally found a small, flat clearing on a slope, a high hill, descending to it in a steep cliff, sheer as a wall, so that nothing threatened me from above. There was a small depression in this steep wall, as if the entrance to a cave, but there was no further cave or entrance to the rock.

It was on this green clearing, near the very recess, that I decided to pitch my tent. The site was not more than a hundred yards wide and two hundred yards long, so that in front of my dwelling there was like a lawn; at the end of it, the mountain descended in irregular ledges into the lowland, to the seashore. This corner was located on the northwestern slope of the hill. Thus, he would be in shade all day until evening, when the sun moves to the southwest, i.e. nearing sunset (I mean in those latitudes).

Before pitching the tent, I described in front of the depression a semi-circle, ten yards in radius, therefore twenty yards in diameter. Then, all around the semicircle, I stuffed two rows of strong stakes, driving them deep into the ground. I sharpened the tops of the stakes. My stockade was about five and a half feet high. Between the two rows of stakes, I left no more than six inches of free space.

I filled all this gap between the stakes to the very top with pieces of rope taken from the ship, laying them in rows one on top of the other, and from the inside I strengthened the fence with supports, for which I prepared thicker and shorter stakes (about two and a half feet in length). The fence turned out to be solid: neither man nor beast could climb through it, nor climb through it. This work required a lot of time and labor from me; cutting stakes in the forest was especially difficult, he moved them to the place of construction and hammered them into the ground. To enter this enclosed place, I did not arrange a door, but a short staircase through the palisade; when I entered my room, I cleaned the stairs. Thus, in my opinion, I completely fenced off and fortified myself from the outside world and slept peacefully at night, which under other conditions would have been impossible for me. However, it later turned out that there was no need to take so many precautions against enemies created by my imagination.

With incredible difficulty I dragged all my wealth to my fence or fortress; provisions, weapons and other things listed. Then I pitched a big tent in it. In order to protect myself from rains, which are very strong in tropical countries at certain times of the year, I made a double tent, i.e. first he pitched one smaller tent, and above it he set up a large one, which he covered on top with a tarpaulin captured by me. from the ship along with the sails.

Now I no longer slept on a bedding thrown directly on the ground, but in a very comfortable hammock that belonged to our captain's assistant.

I moved into the tent all the food supplies, in general, everything that could spoil from the rain. When all the things were thus stacked inside the fence, I tightly sealed the entrance, which until then I had kept open, and began to enter by the ladder, as already mentioned above.

Having repaired the fence, I began to dig a cave in the mountain. I dragged the dug stones and earth through the tent into the courtyard and made a kind of mound of them inside the fence, so that the soil in the courtyard rose a foot and a half. The cave was just behind the tent and served as my cellar.

It took many days and a lot of work to complete all this work. During this time, many other things occupied my thoughts, and there were several incidents that I want to tell about. Once, when I was preparing to put up a tent and dig a cave, suddenly a thick cloud came running in, and pouring rain poured down. Then lightning flashed, and there was a terrible roll of thunder. Of course, there was nothing unusual in this, and it was not so much the lightning itself that frightened me, but the thought that flashed faster than lightning in my brain: “My gunpowder!” My heart sank when I thought that all my gunpowder could be destroyed by one lightning strike, and after all, not only my personal defense, but also the ability to get my own food depends on it. It never occurred to me what danger I myself was exposed to in the event of an explosion, although if the gunpowder had exploded, I probably would never have known this.

This incident made such a strong impression on me that, as soon as the storm stopped, I put aside for the time being all the work on the arrangement and strengthening of my dwelling and began to make bags and boxes for gunpowder. I decided to divide it into parts and store it little by little in different places, so that it could by no means flare up all at once and the parts themselves could not ignite from each other. This job took me almost two weeks. All in all I had about two hundred and forty pounds of gunpowder. I put it all in bags and boxes, dividing it into at least a hundred parts. I hid the bags and boxes in the clefts of the mountain in places where dampness could in no way penetrate, and carefully marked each place. I was not afraid of a keg of wet gunpowder, so I put it, as it was, in my cave, or "kitchen", as I mentally called it.

In the course of erecting my fence, I went out at least once a day with a gun, partly for amusement, partly to shoot some game, and to become better acquainted with the natural riches of the island. On my first walk, I discovered that there are goats on the island. I was very happy about this, but the trouble was that these goats were terribly wild, sensitive and agile, so that it was almost impossible to sneak up on them. However, this did not bother me; I was sure that sooner or later I would learn to hunt them. When I tracked down the places where they used to gather, I noticed the following thing; when they were on the mountain, and I appeared under them in the valley, the whole herd rushed away from me in fear; but if it happened that I was on the mountain, and the goats were grazing in the valley, then they did not notice me. This led me to the conclusion that the eyes of these animals are not adapted for looking up and that, consequently, they often do not see what is above them. From that time on, I began to follow this method: I always climbed some rock first in order to be above them, and then I often managed to shoot them. With the first shot I killed a goat; in which there was a sucker. I felt sorry for the kid from the bottom of my heart. When the mother fell, he continued to stand quietly beside her. Not only that: when I approached the dead goat, put it on my shoulders and carried it home, the kid ran after me. So we got to the house. At the fence, I laid the goat on the ground, took the goat in my hands and transplanted it through the palisade. I hoped to raise him and tame him, but he did not yet know how to eat, and I was forced to slaughter and eat him. The meat of these two animals was enough for me for a long time, because I ate little, trying to conserve my supplies as much as possible, especially bread.

After I had finally settled into my new dwelling, the most urgent thing was for me to arrange some kind of hearth in which I could kindle a fire. It was also necessary to stock up on firewood. How I coped with this task, as well as how I enlarged my cellar and how I gradually surrounded myself with certain comforts, I will tell in detail in my place, but now I would like to talk about myself, tell what thoughts at that time visited me. And, of course, there were a lot of them.

My situation presented itself to me in the most gloomy light. I had been blown by a storm to a desert island, which lay far from the destination of our ship and several hundred miles from the usual trade sea routes, and I had every reason to conclude that it was so ordained by heaven that here, in this sad place, in I ended my days in hopeless longing of loneliness. Copious tears streamed from my eyes. when I thought about it, and more than once I wondered why Providence destroys its own creations, leaves them to their fate, leaves them without any support and makes them so hopelessly unhappy, plunges them into such despair that one can hardly be grateful for such a life.

But every time an inner voice quickly stopped these thoughts in me and reproached me for them. I remember one such day in particular. In deep thought, I wandered along the seashore with a gun. I thought about my bitter share. And suddenly the voice of reason spoke to me. “Yes,” said that voice, “your position is unenviable: you are alone—it is true. But remember: where are those who were with you? After all, eleven people got into the boat: where are the other ten? Why did they die? Why do you have such a preference? And who do you think is better: you or them? And I looked out to sea. So in every evil you can find good, you just have to think that something worse could happen.

Then I clearly imagined how well I provided myself with everything necessary and what would happen to me if it happened (and out of a hundred times it happens ninety-nine) ... if it happened that our ship remained on the shallows where it was first washed up , if later he had not been driven so close to the shore that I managed to grab all the things I needed. What would happen to me if I had to live on this island in the conditions in which I spent the first night on it - without shelter, without food and without any means to get both? In particular, I reasoned aloud to myself, what would I do without a gun and without charges, without tools? How would I live here alone if I had no bed, no piece of clothing, no tent to hide in? Now I had all this and plenty of everything, and I was not even afraid to look into the eyes of the future: I knew that by the time my charges and gunpowder came out, I would have in my hands another means of obtaining food for myself. I will live tolerably well without a gun until my death.

In fact, from the very first days of my life on the island, I decided to provide myself with everything necessary for the time when I not only exhausted my entire supply of gunpowder and charges, but also began to change my health and strength.

I confess that I completely lost sight of the fact that my firearms can be destroyed with a single blow, that lightning can set fire to my gunpowder and blow it up. That's why I was so amazed when I had this thought during a thunderstorm.

Coming now to a detailed description of the most silent and sad life that ever fell to the lot of a mortal, I will begin at the very beginning and will tell in order.

It was, by my account, the 30th of September, when my foot first set foot on the terrible island. It happened, then, during the autumnal equinox; in the same latitudes (i.e., according to my calculations, 9° 22" north of the equator), the sun in this month is almost vertically overhead.

Ten or twenty days had passed of my life on the island, and I suddenly realized that I would lose track of time, thanks to the absence of books, pens and ink, and that in the end I would even cease to distinguish weekdays from Sundays. To prevent this, I erected a large wooden post on the spot where the sea threw me, and cut out with a knife in large letters the inscription: “Here I set foot on this shore on September 30, 1659,” which I nailed crosswise to the post. Every day I made a notch on the sides of this pillar with a knife; and every six notches he made one more authentic: this meant Sunday; the notches that marked the first of each month I made even longer. So I kept track of my calendar, marking days, weeks, months, and years.

In enumerating the objects which I brought from the ship, as I have already said, in several stages, I did not mention many small things, although not particularly valuable, but which nonetheless served me well. Thus, for example, in the rooms of the captain and the captain's mate I found ink, pens and paper, three or four compasses, some astronomical instruments, spyglasses, maps and books on navigation. I put all this in one of the chests just in case, not even knowing if I would need any of these things. In addition, three very good bibles were found in my own luggage (I received them from England along with the goods I had written out and put them with my things when I set sail). Then I came across several books in Portuguese, including three Catholic prayer books and a few more books. I picked them too. Whereupon I must also mention that we had two cats and a dog on the ship (I will tell in due time the curious story of the life of these animals on the island). I carried the cats ashore on a raft, while the dog, on my first expedition to the ship, jumped into the water and swam after me. She has been my faithful companion and servant for many years. She did everything she could for me and almost replaced human society for me. I just wish she could talk. But this was not given to her. As already said, I took pens, ink and paper from the ship. I saved them to the last possible, and while I had ink, carefully wrote down everything that happened to me; but when they came out, I had to stop my notes, because I did not know how to make ink and could not think of a substitute for them.

In general, in spite of my huge warehouse of all kinds of things, besides ink, I still lacked a lot; I had no shovel, no spade, no pick, so there was nothing to dig or loosen the earth, there were no needles or thread. I didn't even have linen, but I soon learned to do without it without much deprivation.

Due to the lack of tools, all work went slowly and hard for me. It took me almost a whole year to complete the fence with which I decided to enclose my dwelling. Chop thick poles in the forest, carve stakes out of them, drag them. These stakes for my tent - all this took a long time. The stakes were very heavy, so that I could only lift one at a time, and it sometimes took me two days just to cut the stake and bring it home, and the third day to drive it into the ground. For this last work I used at first a heavy wooden club, and then I remembered the crowbars I brought from the ship, and replaced the club with a crowbar, although I will not say that this brought me great relief. In general, driving in stakes was for me one of the most tedious and painstaking work.

But I was not embarrassed by this, since all the same I had nowhere to put my time; after the completion of the building, I had no other business foreseen than wandering around the island in search of food, which I indulged in more or less every day.

Meanwhile, I began seriously and at length to discuss my position and began to write down my thoughts - not to perpetuate them for the edification of people who would be in my position (for there would hardly be many such people), but simply to put them into words. everything that tormented and tormented me, and thereby at least somewhat relieve my soul. But no matter how painful my reflections were, my reason began, little by little, to gain the upper hand over despair. To the best of my ability, I tried to comfort myself with the thought that something worse could have happened, and opposed good to evil. With complete impartiality, I, like a creditor and debtor, wrote down all the sorrows I endured, and next to everything that happened to me that was gratifying.

EVIL - GOOD

I am abandoned by fate to the gloomy. - But I'm alive, I didn't drown like everyone else on an uninhabited island and don't have my comrades. no hope of deliverance.

I seem to be singled out and cut off from the whole world and doomed to grief. - But on the other hand, I am separated from our entire crew; death spared me alone, and he who so miraculously saved me from death can save me from my desolate situation.

I am distant from all mankind; I am a hermit, expelled from human society. - But I did not die of hunger and did not perish in this deserted place where a person has nothing to eat.

I have few clothes and soon I will have nothing to cover my body with. - But I live in a hot climate, where you can do without clothes.

I am defenseless against the attack of people and animals. - But the island where I ended up is deserted, and I did not see a single predatory animal on it, as on the shores of Africa. What would happen to me if I was thrown onto the African coast?

I have no one to talk to and no one to console me. - But God miraculously drove our ship so close to the shore that I not only managed to stock up on everything necessary to meet my current needs, but also got the opportunity to get my livelihood for the rest of my days.

This record clearly shows that hardly anyone in the world fell into a more distressful situation, and yet it contained both negative and positive aspects for which one should be grateful - the bitter experience of a man who has known the worst misfortune on earth, shows that we will always find some kind of consolation, which, in the account of our troubles and blessings, should be recorded in the parish.

So, having listened to the voice of reason, I began to put up with my position. Before, I kept looking at the sea in the hope that a ship would not appear somewhere; now I have already put an end to vain hopes and directed all my thoughts to making my existence as easy as possible.

I have already described my dwelling. It was a tent pitched on the side of a mountain and surrounded by a palisade. But now my fence could be called rather a wall, because close to it, on its outer side, I brought out an earthen mound two feet thick. And some time later (as far as I remember, a year and a half later) I put poles on the embankment, leaning them against the slope, and made a flooring from branches and large leaves on top. Thus my yard was under a roof, and I could not be afraid of the rains, which, as I have already said, at certain times of the year poured down continuously on my island.

I mentioned before that I transferred all my possessions to my enclosure and to the cave which I dug behind the tent. But I must say that at first things were piled up at random, cluttering up the entire square, so I had nowhere to turn. In view of this, I decided to enlarge my cave. It was not difficult to do this, as the mountain was loose, sandy rock, which easily yielded to my efforts. So, when I saw that I was not in danger from predatory animals, I began to expand the cave. Having dug to the side, namely to the right, as much as was necessary according to my calculation, I turned again to the right and brought the passage outside of my fortification.

This gallery not only served as a back door to my tent, allowing me to leave and return freely, but also greatly enlarged my pantry.

Having finished this work, I set about making the most necessary furnishings, first of all, a table and a chair: without them I could not fully enjoy even those modest pleasures that were allotted to me on earth, I could neither eat nor write with complete comfort.

And so I started carpentry. Here I must note that reason is the basis and source of mathematics, and therefore, by defining and measuring things with reason and making the most reasonable judgment about them, everyone can, after a certain time, master any craft. Never before in my life had I taken a carpenter's tool in my hands, and yet, thanks to diligence and diligence, I gradually got so good at it that I could, I'm sure, do anything, especially if I had the tools. But even without tools or almost without tools, with only an ax and a planer, I made a lot of things, although, probably, no one has ever made them in this way and has not expended so much labor on it. So, for example, when I needed a board, I had to cut down a tree, clear the trunk of branches and, placing it in front of me, hew on both sides until it acquired the required shape. And then the board had to be planed with a planer. True, with this method, only one board came out of the whole tree, and the dressing of this board took me a lot of time and labor. But I had only one remedy for this, and that was patience. In addition, my time and my work were inexpensive, and therefore it didn’t matter where and what they went for?

So, first of all, I made myself a table and a chair. I used short boards on them, which I brought on a raft from the ship. When I then hewed long boards in the manner described above, I fitted in my cellar along one wall, several regiments one above the other, a foot and a half wide, and put my tools, nails, iron and other small belongings on them, - in a word, I distributed everything according to places to easily find every thing. I also hammered pegs into the wall of the cellar and hung on them my guns and, in general, everything that could be hung.

Anyone who would see my cave after that would probably take it for a warehouse of essentials. Everything was at my fingertips, and it gave me real pleasure to look into this warehouse: such an exemplary order reigned there and there was so much goodness there.

Only after the completion of this work did I begin to keep my diary, writing down everything I did during the day. At first I was so busy and so dejected that my gloomy mood would inevitably be reflected in my diary. For example, what kind of entry would I have to make on September 30th:

“When I got ashore and thus escaped death, I vomited profusely with salt water, which I swallowed. Little by little I came to my senses, but instead of thanking the creator for my salvation, I began to run along the shore in despair. I wringed my hands, beat myself on the head and on the linden, and shouted in a frenzy, saying: “I died, I died!” - until he fell to the ground, exhausted. But I did not close my eyes; fearing that wild beasts would not tear me to pieces.

For many days after that (already after all my expeditions to the ship, when all the things were taken from it), I kept running up the hillock and looking at the sea in the hope of seeing a ship on the horizon. How many times it seemed to me as if a sail was whitening in the distance, and I indulged in joyful hopes! I looked and looked until my eyes were blurred, then falling into despair, I threw myself on the ground and wept like a child, only aggravating my misfortune by my own stupidity.