Selected Reading:

An Excerpt from Chapter IV of Robinson Crusoe

(Robinson Crusoe, supposedly based on the real adventure of an Alexander Selkirk who once stayed alone on the uninhabited island Juan Fernandez for five years, is, in fact, a work of sheer imagination. The novel consists actually of three parts though only 

the first part is most well-known and widely read. In this part the hero of the story, Robinson Crusoe, narrates in the first person how he goes to sea, gets shipwrecked and marooned on a lonely island, struggles to live for twenty-four years there and finally gets relieved and returns to England. The story starts with Robinson Crusoe’s running away from home. An inexperienced teenager and a young man fall of bright fancies about the future, he naturally chooses going to sea, because in those days it meant a chance to live a chivalrous life, to see the wonders of the world and to make a fortune. After many setbacks and adventures on the sea, he settles down in Brazil as a planter. But the call of the sea is so strong that he soon embarks on another voyage, this time, to Africa. Unfortunately a frightful storm blows the boat off its course and ship-wrecks it near an island.

Of all the ship’s crew Robinson alone escapes to the shore after strenuous efforts. After salvaging from the wrecked ship some stores of necessities such as bread, rice, barley, corn, plants, lead and gunpowder, an axe and two sacos, which he later manages to bring to the island with a self-made raft. After several futile attempts to leave the island, Robinson settles himself down to a hard and lonely life. He grows crops, domesticates animals and builds comfortable homes for himself. His life takes a turn for the better when he saves from the hands of savages a young Negro, whom he names Friday. Robinson teaches him English and educates him in such a way that Friday soon becomes a loyal servant and an indispensable help to him. Finally they are picked up by an English ship and return to England. Thus ends the first part of the story.

In Robinson Crusoe, Defoe traces the growth of Robinson from a naive and artless youth into a shrewd and hardened man, tem

pered by numerous trials in his eventful life. The realistic account of the successful struggle of Robinson single-handedly against the hostile nature forms the best part of the novel. Robinson is here a real hero: a typical eighteenth-century English middle-class man, with a great capacity for work, inexhaustible energy, courage, patience and persistence in overcoming obstacles, in struggling against the hostile natural environment. He is the very prototype of the empire builder, the pioneer colonist. In describing Robinson's life on the island, Defoe glorifies human labor and the Puritan fortitude, which save Robinson from despair and are a source of pride and happiness. He tells for the sake of subsistence, and the fruits of his labor are his own.

The excerpt below is taken from Chapter IV, an account of the first days when Robinson is cast onto the shore of an island. Here he is trying to build himself a dwelling.

My thoughts were now wholly employed about securing myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this and what kind of dwelling to make, whether I should make me a cave in the earth or a tent upon the earth: and, in short, I resolved upon both, the manner and description of which it may not be improper to give an account of.

I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, particularly because it was upon a low moorish ground near the sea, and, I believed, would not be wholesome, and more particularly because there was no fresh water near it, so I resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.

I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper for me: 1st, health and fresh water I just now mentioned;

2ndly, shelter from the heat of the sun; 3rdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts; 4thly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advan- tage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet.

In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep as a house-side (1), so that nothing could come down upon me from the top; on the side of this rock there was a hollow place worn a lit- tle way in like the entrance or door of a cave, but there was not real- ly any cave or way into the rock at all.

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I re- solved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above a hundred yards broad and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door, and at the end of it descended irregularly every way down into the low-grounds by the seaside. It was on the N. N. W. side (2) of the hill, so that I was sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a w. and by s. sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is near the setting.

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half circle before the hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter, from its beginning and end- ing.

In this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest (3) end being out of the ground about five foot and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows did not stand above six inches from one another.

Then I took the piece of cable which I had cut in the ship, and I laid them in rows one upon another, within the circle, between

these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the in-side, leaning against them, about two foot and a half high, like a spur to a post, and this fence was so strong that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it. This cost me a great deal of time and labour, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth.

The entrance into this place I made to be not by a door, but by a short ladder to go over the top, which ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me, and so I was completely fenced in, and fortify’d, as I thought, from all the world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise I could not have done, tho’, as it appeared afterwards, there was no need of all this caution from the enemies that I apprehended danger from .

Into this fence or fortress, with infinite labour, I carry’d all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have the account above; and I made me a large tent, which, to pre- serve me from the rains that in one part of the year are very violent there, I made double, viz. one smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin (5) which I had saved among the sails.

And now I lay no more for a while in the bed which I had brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.

Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything that would spoil by the wet, and having thus enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance, which till now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder. When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down out thro’ my ten, I laid ‘em up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, that 

so it raised the ground within about a foot and a half; and thus I made me a cave just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.

It cost me much labour and many days, before all these things were brought to perfection, and therefore I must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts. At the same time it happened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that a great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it; I was not so much surprised with the lightning as I was with a thought which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself: O my powder! My very heart sunk within me when I thought that at one blast all my powder might be destroyed, on which not my defence only, but the providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended; I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, tho' had the powder took fire, I had never known who had hurt me.

Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, and apply'd myself to make bags and boxes to separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once, and to keep it so apart that it should not be possible to make one part fire another. I finished this work in about a fortnight, and I think my powder, which in all was about 240 lb. weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels; as to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from that, so I placed it in my new cave, which in my fancy I called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully where I laid it.

sary to provide a place to make fire in; and fuel to burn; and what I did for that, as also how I enlarged my cave, and what conveniences I made, I shall give a full account of in its place(11). But I must first give some little account of myself, and of my thoughts about living, which it may well be supposed were not a few.

Notes:

(1) house-side: wall.

(2) N. N. W. side: north by northwest side. 北偏西一侧。

(3) the biggest: the bigger.

(4) ...that I apprehended danger from: ...from which I sensed the coming of possible danger.

(5) tarpaulin: heavy cloth covered with wax, paint, or tar so that water will not pass through.

(6) nothing near: in no way, not in the least.

(7) ...I had never known who had hurt me: ...I would never have known who had hurt me.

(8) their haunts: the places which they frequented.

(9) optics: mechanisms for seeing.

(10) had frequently a fair mark: hit the target most of the time.

(11) in its place: in its proper place, that is, in the following account.