Robinson Crusoe | Page 7

in the words of the Psalm, "They that go down to the

sea in ships, these men see the works of the Lord in the deep. For at His
word the storms rise, the winds blow, and lift up the waves; then do
they mount to the sky, and from thence go down to the deep. My soul
faints, I reel to and fro, and am at my wit's end: then the Lord brings me
out of all my fears."
I felt so wrapt in joy, that all I could do was to walk up and down the
coast, now lift up my hands, now fold them on my breast, and thank
God for all that He had done for me, when the rest of the men were lost.
All lost but I, and I was safe! I now cast my eyes round me, to find out
what kind of a place it was that I had been thus thrown in, like a bird in
a storm. Then all the glee I felt at first left me; for I was wet and cold,
and had no dry clothes to put on, no food to eat and not a friend to help
me.
There were wild beasts here, but I had no gun to shoot them with, or to
keep me from their jaws. I had but a knife and a pipe. It now grew dark;
and where was I to go for the night? I thought the top of some high tree
would be a good place to keep me out of harm's way; and that there I
might sit and think of death, for, as yet, I had no hopes of life. Well, I
went to my tree, and made a kind of nest to sleep in. Then I cut a stick
to keep off the beasts of prey, in case they should come, and fell to
sleep just as if the branch I lay on had been a bed of down.
When I woke up it was broad day; the sky too was clear and the sea
calm. But I saw from the top of the tree that in the night the ship had
left the bank of sand, and lay but a mile from me; while the boat was on
the beach, two miles on my right. I went some way down by the shore,
to get to the boat; but an arm of the sea, half a mile broad, kept me
from it. At noon, the tide went a long way out, so that I could get near
the ship; and here I found that if we had but made up our minds to stay
on board, we should all have been safe.
I shed tears at the thought, for I could not help it; yet, as there was no
use in that, it struck me that the best thing for me to do was to swim to
the ship. I soon threw off my clothes, took to the sea, and swam up to
the wreck. But how was I to get on deck? I had swam twice round the
ship, when a piece of rope, caught my eye, which hung down from her
side so low, that at first the waves hid it. By the help of this rope I got
on board. I found that there was a bulge in the ship, and that she had
sprung a leak. You may be sure that my first thought was to look round

for some food, and I soon made my way to the bin, where the bread
was kept, and ate some of it as I went to and fro, for there was no time
to lose. There was, too, some rum, of which I took a good draught, and
this gave me heart. What I stood most in need of, was a boat to take the
goods to shore. But it was vain to wish for that which could not be had;
and as there were some spare yards in the ship, two or three large
planks of wood, and a spare mast or two, I fell to work with these, to
make a raft.
I put four spars side by side, and laid short bits of plank on them, cross
ways, to make my raft strong. Though these planks would bear my own
weight, they were too slight to bear much of my freight. So I took a
saw which was on board, and cut a mast in three lengths, and these
gave great strength to the raft. I found some bread and rice, a Dutch
cheese, and some dry goat's flesh. There had been some wheat, but the
rats had got at it, and it was all gone.
My next task was to screen