Robinson Crusoe

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Having thus settled my affairs, sold my cargo, and turned all my
effects into good bills of exchange, my next difficulty was which
way to go to England: I had been accustomed enough to the sea, and
yet I had a strange aversion to go to England by the sea at that
time, and yet I could give no reason for it, yet the difficulty
increased upon me so much, that though I had once shipped my
baggage in order to go, yet I altered my mind, and that not once
but two or three times.

It is true I had been very unfortunate by sea, and this might be
one of the reasons; but let no man slight the strong impulses of
his own thoughts in cases of such moment: two of the ships which I
had singled out to go in, I mean more particularly singled out than
any other, having put my things on board one of them, and in the
other having agreed with the captain; I say two of these ships
miscarried. One was taken by the Algerines, and the other was lost
on the Start, near Torbay, and all the people drowned except three;
so that in either of those vessels I had been made miserable.

Having been thus harassed in my thoughts, my old pilot, to whom I
communicated everything, pressed me earnestly not to go by sea, but
either to go by land to the Groyne, and cross over the Bay of
Biscay to Rochelle, from whence it was but an easy and safe journey
by land to Paris, and so to Calais and Dover; or to go up to
Madrid, and so all the way by land through France. In a word, I
was so prepossessed against my going by sea at all, except from
Calais to Dover, that I resolved to travel all the way by land;
which, as I was not in haste, and did not value the charge, was by
much the pleasanter way: and to make it more so, my old captain
brought an English gentleman, the son of a merchant in Lisbon, who
was willing to travel with me; after which we picked up two more
English merchants also, and two young Portuguese gentlemen, the
last going to Paris only; so that in all there were six of us and
five servants; the two merchants and the two Portuguese, contenting
themselves with one servant between two, to save the charge; and as
for me, I got an English sailor to travel with me as a servant,
besides my man Friday, who was too much a stranger to be capable of
supplying the place of a servant on the road.

In this manner I set out from Lisbon; and our company being very
well mounted and armed, we made a little troop, whereof they did me
the honour to call me captain, as well because I was the oldest
man, as because I had two servants, and, indeed, was the origin of
the whole journey.

As I have troubled you with none of my sea journals, so I shall
trouble you now with none of my land journals; but some adventures
that happened to us in this tedious and difficult journey I must
not omit.

When we came to Madrid, we, being all of us strangers to Spain,
were willing to stay some time to see the court of Spain, and what
was worth observing; but it being the latter part of the summer, we
hastened away, and set out from Madrid about the middle of October;
but when we came to the edge of Navarre, we were alarmed, at
several towns on the way, with an account that so much snow was
falling on the French side of the mountains, that several
travellers were obliged to come back to Pampeluna, after having
attempted at an extreme hazard to pass on.

When we came to Pampeluna itself, we found it so indeed; and to me,
that had been always used to a hot climate, and to countries where
I could scarce bear any clothes on, the cold was insufferable; nor,
indeed, was it more painful than surprising to come but ten days
before out of Old Castile, where the weather was not only warm but
very hot, and immediately to feel a wind from the Pyrenean
Mountains so very keen, so severely cold, as to be intolerable and
to endanger benumbing and perishing of our fingers and toes.

Poor Friday was really frightened when he saw the mountains all
covered with snow, and felt cold weather, which he had never seen
or felt before in his life. To mend the matter, when we came to
Pampeluna it continued snowing with so much violence and so long,
that the people said winter was come before its time; and the
roads, which were difficult before, were now quite impassable; for,
in a word, the snow lay in some places too thick for us to travel,
and being not hard frozen, as is the case in the northern
countries, there was no going without being in danger of being
buried alive every step. We stayed no less than twenty days at
Pampeluna; when (seeing the winter coming on, and no likelihood of
its being better, for it was the severest winter all over Europe
that had been known in the memory of man) I proposed that we should
go away to Fontarabia, and there take shipping for Bordeaux, which
was a very little voyage. But, while I was considering this, there
came in four French gentlemen, who, having been stopped on the
French side of the passes, as we were on the Spanish, had found out
a guide, who, traversing the country near the head of Languedoc,
had brought them over the mountains by such ways that they were not
much incommoded with the snow; for where they met with snow in any
quantity, they said it was frozen hard enough to bear them and
their horses. We sent for this guide, who told us he would
undertake to carry us the same way, with no hazard from the snow,
provided we were armed sufficiently to protect ourselves from wild
beasts; for, he said, in these great snows it was frequent for some
wolves to show themselves at the foot of the mountains, being made
ravenous for want of food, the ground being covered with snow. We
told him we were well enough prepared for such creatures as they
were, if he would insure us from a kind of two-legged wolves, which
we were told we were in most danger from, especially on the French
side of the mountains. He satisfied us that there was no danger of
that kind in the way that we were to go; so we readily agreed to
follow him, as did also twelve other gentlemen with their servants,
some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and
were obliged to come back again.

Accordingly, we set out from Pampeluna with our guide on the 15th
of November; and indeed I was surprised when, instead of going
forward, he came directly back with us on the same road that we
came from Madrid, about twenty miles; when, having passed two
rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a
warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to
be seen; but, on a sudden, turning to his left, he approached the
mountains another way; and though it is true the hills and
precipices looked dreadful, yet he made so many tours, such
meanders, and led us by such winding ways, that we insensibly
passed the height of the mountains without being much encumbered
with the snow; and all on a sudden he showed us the pleasant and
fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascony, all green and
flourishing, though at a great distance, and we had some rough way
to pass still.

We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole
day and a night so fast that we could not travel; but he bid us be
easy; we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we
began to descend every day, and to come more north than before; and
so, depending upon our guide, we went on.

It was about two hours before night when, our guide being something
before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous
wolves, and after them a bear, from a hollow way adjoining to a
thick wood; two of the wolves made at the guide, and had he been
far before us, he would have been devoured before we could have
helped him; one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other
attacked the man with such violence, that he had not time, or
presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cried
out to us most lustily. My man Friday being next me, I bade him
ride up and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came in
sight of the man, he hallooed out as loud as the other, "O master!
O master!" but like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor
man, and with his pistol shot the wolf in the head that attacked
him.

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for,
having been used to such creatures in his country, he had no fear
upon him, but went close up to him and shot him; whereas, any other
of us would have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps
either missed the wolf or endangered shooting the man.

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I; and,
indeed, it alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of
Friday's pistol, we heard on both sides the most dismal howling of
wolves; and the noise, redoubled by the echo of the mountains,
appeared to us as if there had been a prodigious number of them;
and perhaps there was not such a few as that we had no cause of
apprehension: however, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other
that had fastened upon the horse left him immediately, and fled,
without doing him any damage, having happily fastened upon his
head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth. But
the man was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit him twice,
once in the arm, and the other time a little above his knee; and
though he had made some defence, he was just tumbling down by the
disorder of his horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf.

It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all
mended our pace, and rode up as fast as the way, which was very
difficult, would give us leave, to see what was the matter. As
soon as we came clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw
clearly what had been the case, and how Friday had disengaged the
poor guide, though we did not presently discern what kind of
creature it was he had killed.

CHAPTER XX - FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR

BUT never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising
manner as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which
gave us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him,
the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy
creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and
light, so he has two particular qualities, which generally are the
rule of his actions; first, as to men, who are not his proper prey
(he does not usually attempt them, except they first attack him,
unless he be excessively hungry, which it is probable might now be
the case, the ground being covered with snow), if you do not meddle
with him, he will not meddle with you; but then you must take care
to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he is a very
nice gentleman; he will not go a step out of his way for a prince;
nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way
and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and
look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you
throw or toss anything at him, though it were but a bit of stick as
big as your finger, he thinks himself abused, and sets all other
business aside to pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction in
point of honour - that is his first quality: the next is, if he be
once affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he has
his revenge, but follows at a good round rate till he overtakes
you.

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him
he was helping him off his horse, for the man was both hurt and
frightened, when on a sudden we espied the bear come out of the
wood; and a monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I
saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him; but when
Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow's
countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday, three times, pointing to him;
"O master, you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me
makee you good laugh."

I was surprised to see the fellow so well pleased. "You fool,"
says I, "he will eat you up." - "Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says
Friday, twice over again; "me eatee him up; me makee you good
laugh; you all stay here, me show you good laugh." So down he
sits, and gets off his boots in a moment, and puts on a pair of
pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his
pocket), gives my other servant his horse, and with his gun away he
flew, swift like the wind.

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody,
till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could
understand him. "Hark ye, hark ye," says Friday, "me speakee with
you." We followed at a distance, for now being down on the Gascony
side of the mountains, we were entered a vast forest, where the
country was plain and pretty open, though it had many trees in it
scattered here and there. Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of
the bear, came up with him quickly, and took up a great stone, and
threw it at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more
harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answered
Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did it
purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh as he
called it. As soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he
turns about and comes after him, taking very long strides, and
shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a
middling gallop; away reins Friday, and takes his course as if he
ran towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon
the bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him for
bringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his own
business another way; and especially I was angry that he had turned
the bear upon us, and then ran away; and I called out, "You dog! is
this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that we
may shoot the creature." He heard me, and cried out, "No shoot, no
shoot; stand still, and you get much laugh:" and as the nimble
creature ran two feet for the bear's one, he turned on a sudden on
one side of us, and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his purpose, he
beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly up
the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six
yards from the bottom of the tree. The bear soon came to the tree,
and we followed at a distance: the first thing he did he stopped at
the gun, smelt at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the
tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed
at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life
see anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we
all rode near to him.

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end
of a large branch, and the bear got about half-way to him. As soon
as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was
weaker, "Ha!" says he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear
dance:" so he began jumping and shaking the bough, at which the
bear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind
him, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh
heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when
seeing him stand still, he called out to him again, as if he had
supposed the bear could speak English, "What, you come no farther?
pray you come farther;" so he left jumping and shaking the tree;
and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a
little farther; then he began jumping again, and the bear stopped
again. We thought now was a good time to knock him in the head,
and called to Friday to stand still and we should shoot the bear:
but he cried out earnestly, "Oh, pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, me
shoot by and then:" he would have said by-and-by. However, to
shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so
ticklish, that we had laughing enough, but still could not imagine
what the fellow would do: for first we thought he depended upon
shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for
that too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but
clung fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could
not imagine what would be the end of it, and what the jest would be
at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the
bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to
come any farther, "Well, well," says Friday, "you no come farther,
me go; you no come to me, me come to you;" and upon this he went
out to the smaller end, where it would bend with his weight, and
gently let himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came
near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun,
took it up, and stood still. "Well," said I to him, "Friday, what
will you do now? Why don't you shoot him?" "No shoot," says
Friday, "no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one
more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did; for when the bear saw his
enemy gone, he came back from the bough, where he stood, but did it
very cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward
till he got into the body of the tree, then, with the same hinder
end foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws,
and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture,
and just before he could set his hind foot on the ground, Friday
stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his
ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue turned about to see if we
did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he
began to laugh very loud. "So we kill bear in my country," says
Friday. "So you kill them?" says I; "why, you have no guns." -
"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long arrow." This was
a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our
guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of
wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once
heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something
already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.

These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as
Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin
of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had
near three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left
him, and went forward on our journey.

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and
dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we
heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country,
pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had done a great deal of
mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people,
killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too.
We had one dangerous place to pass, and our guide told us if there
were more wolves in the country we should find them there; and this
was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long,
narrow defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the
wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to
lodge. It was within half-an-hour of sunset when we entered the
wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain: we met
with nothing in the first wood, except that in a little plain
within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five
great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another, as if
they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took
no notice of us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon
this, our guide, who, by the way, was but a fainthearted fellow,
bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were more
wolves a-coming. We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us;
but we saw no more wolves till we came through that wood, which was
near half a league, and entered the plain. As soon as we came into
the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first
object we met with was a dead horse; that is to say, a poor horse
which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work,
we could not say eating him, but picking his bones rather; for they
had eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fit to disturb
them at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us.
Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him by
any means; for I found we were like to have more business upon our
hands than we were aware of. We had not gone half over the plain
when we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a
frightful manner, and presently after we saw about a hundred coming
on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line,
as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce
knew in what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in
a close line was the only way; so we formed in a moment; but that
we might not have too much interval, I ordered that only every
other man should fire, and that the others, who had not fired,
should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if
they continued to advance upon us; and then that those that had
fired at first should not pretend to load their fusees again, but
stand ready, every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a
fusee and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method,
able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at present
we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with
the fire. Four of them being shot in the head, dropped; several
others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the
snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat;
whereupon, remembering that I had been told that the fiercest
creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all the
company to halloo as loud as they could; and I found the notion not
altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they began to retire and
turn about. I then ordered a second volley to be fired in their
rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the
woods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that
we might lose no time, we kept going; but we had but little more
than loaded our fusees, and put ourselves in readiness, when we
heard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left, only that it
was farther onward, the same way we were to go.

The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which
made it worse on our side; but the noise increasing, we could
easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling of those
hellish creatures; and on a sudden we perceived three troops of
wolves, one on our left, one behind us, and one in our front, so
that we seemed to be surrounded with them: however, as they did not
fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could make our
horses go, which, the way being very rough, was only a good hard
trot. In this manner, we came in view of the entrance of a wood,
through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain;
but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the lane or pass,
we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance.
On a sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of
a gun, and looking that way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and
a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and sixteen or seventeen
wolves after him, full speed: the horse had the advantage of them;
but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we
doubted not but they would get up with him at last: no question but
they did.

But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the
entrance where the horse came out, we found the carcasses of
another horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous creatures;
and one of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire the
gun, for there lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the man,
his head and the upper part of his body was eaten up. This filled
us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the
creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently,
in hopes of prey; and I verily believe there were three hundred of
them. It happened, very much to our advantage, that at the
entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay some
large timber-trees, which had been cut down the summer before, and
I suppose lay there for carriage. I drew my little troop in among
those trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long tree,
I advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a
breastwork, to stand in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our
horses in the centre. We did so, and it was well we did; for never
was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in this
place. They came on with a growling kind of noise, and mounted the
piece of timber, which, as I said, was our breastwork, as if they
were only rushing upon their prey; and this fury of theirs, it
seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behind
us. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other man; and they
took their aim so sure that they killed several of the wolves at
the first volley; but there was a necessity to keep a continual
firing, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on those
before.

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