The Little Savage | Page 2

THE LITTLE SAVAGE
Chapter I
I am about to write a very curious history, as the reader will agree with
me when he has read this book. We have more than one narrative of

people being cast away upon desolate islands, and being left to their
own resources, and no works are perhaps read with more interest; but I
believe I am the first instance of a boy being left alone upon an
uninhabited island. Such was, however, the case; and now I shall tell
my own story.
My first recollections are, that I was in company with a man upon this
island, and that we walked often along the sea-shore. It was rocky and
difficult to climb in many parts, and the man used to drag or pull me
over the dangerous places. He was very unkind to me, which may
appear strange, as I was the only companion that he had; but he was of
a morose and gloomy disposition. He would sit down squatted in the
corner of our cabin, and sometimes not speak for hours--or he would
remain the whole day looking out at the sea, as if watching for
something, but what I never could tell; for if I spoke, he would not
reply; and if near to him, I was sure to receive a cuff or a heavy blow. I
should imagine that I was about five years old at the time that I first
recollect clearly what passed. I may have been younger. I may as well
here state what I gathered from him at different times, relative to our
being left upon this desolate spot. It was with difficulty that I did so;
for, generally speaking, he would throw a stone at me if I asked
questions, that is, if I repeatedly asked them after he had refused to
answer. It was on one occasion, when he was lying sick, that I gained
the information, and that only by refusing to attend him or bring him
food and water. He would be very angry, and say, that when he got well
again, he would make me smart for it; but I cared not, for I was then
getting strong, whilst he was getting weaker every day, and I had no
love for him, for he had never shown any to me, but always treated me
with great severity.
He told me, that about twelve years before (not that I knew what he
meant by a year, for I had never heard the term used by him), an
English ship (I did not know what a ship was) had been swamped near
the island, in a heavy gale, and that seven men and one woman had
been saved, and all the other people lost. That the ship had been broken
into pieces, and that they had saved nothing--that they had picked up
among the rocks pieces of the wood with which it had been made, and

had built the cabin in which we lived. That one had died after another,
and had been buried (what death or burial meant, I had no idea at the
time), and that I had been born on the island; (How was I born? thought
I)--that most of them had died before I was two years old; and that then,
he and my mother were the only two left besides me. My mother had
died a few months afterwards. I was obliged to ask him many questions
to understand all this; indeed, I did not understand it till long afterwards,
although I had an idea of what he would say. Had I been left with any
other person, I should, of course, by conversation, have learnt much;
but he never would converse, still less explain. He called me, Boy, and
I called him, Master. His inveterate silence was the occasion of my
language being composed of very few words; for, except to order me to
do this or that, to procure what was required, he never would converse.
He did however mutter to himself, and talk in his sleep, and I used to
lie awake and listen, that I might gain information; not at first, but
when I grew older. He used to cry out in his sleep constantly.--"A
judgment, a judgment on me for my sins, my heavy sins--God be
merciful!" But what judgment, or what sin was, or what was God, I did
not then know, although I mused on words repeated so often.
I will now describe the island, and the way in which we lived. The
island was very small, perhaps not three miles round; it was of rock,
and there was no beach nor landing place, the sea washing its sides
with deep water. It was, as I afterwards discovered, one of the group