Robinson Crusoe | Page 8

my goods from the spray of the sea; and it
did not take me long to do this, for there were three large chests on
board which held all, and these I put on the raft. When the high tide
came up it took off my coat and shirt, which I had left on the shore; but
there were some fresh clothes in the ship.
"See here is a prize!" said I, out loud, (though there were none to hear
me), "now I shall not starve." For I found four large guns. But how was
my raft to be got to land? I had no sail, no oars; and a gust of wind
would make all my store slide off. Yet there were three things which I
was glad of; a calm sea, a tide which set in to the shore, and a slight
breeze to blow me there.
I had the good luck to find some oars in a part of the ship, in which I
had made no search till now. With these I put to sea, and for half a mile
my raft went well; but soon I found it drove to one side. At length I saw
a creek, to which, with some toil, I took my raft; and now the beach
was so near, that I felt my oar touch the ground.
Here I had well nigh lost my freight, for the shore lay on a slope, so
that there was no place to land on, save where one end of the raft would
lie so high, and one end so low, that all my goods would fall off. To
wait till the tide came up was all that could be done. So when the sea
was a foot deep, I thrust the raft on a flat piece of ground, to moor her
there, and stuck my two oars in the sand, one on each side of the raft.

Thus I let her lie till the ebb of the tide, and when it went down, she
was left safe on land with all her freight.
I saw that there were birds on the isle, and I shot one of them. Mine
must have been the first gun that had been heard there since the world
was made; for at the sound of it, whole flocks of birds flew up, with
loud cries, from all parts of the wood. The shape of the beak of the one
I shot was like that of a hawk, but the claws were not so large.
I now went back to my raft to land my stores, and this took up the rest
of the day. What to do at night I knew not, nor where to find a safe
place to land my stores on. I did not like to lie down on the ground, for
fear of beasts of prey, as well as snakes, but there was no cause for
these fears, as I have since found. I put the chests and boards round me
as well as I could, and made a kind of hut for the night.
As there was still a great store of things left in the ship, which would be
of use to me, I thought that I ought to bring them to land at once; for I
knew that the first storm would break up the ship. So I went on board,
and took good care this time not to load my raft too much.
The first thing, I sought for was the tool chest; and in it were some bags
of nails, spikes, saws, knives, and such things: but best of all I found a
stone to grind my tools on. There were two or three flasks, some large
bags of shot, and a roll of lead; but this last I had not the strength to
hoist up to the ship's side, so as to get it on my raft. There were some
spare sails too which I brought to shore.
I had some fear lest my stores might be run off with by beasts of prey,
if not by men; but I found all safe and sound when I went back, and no
one had come there but a wild cat, which sat on one of the chests.
When I came up I held my gun at her, but as she did not know what a
gun was, this did not rouse her. She ate a piece of dry goat's flesh, and
then took her leave.
Now that I had two freights of goods at hand, I made a tent with the
ship's sails, to stow them in, and cut the poles for it from the wood. I
now took all the things out of the casks and chests, and put