1719
ROBINSON CRUSOE
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight
and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the
Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but
himself. With an Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by Pyrates.
Written by Himself.
Daniel Defoe
Oxford University Press, London 1972
Defoe, Daniel (1660-1731) - English journalist and novelist known for the dramatic realism in his fiction.
Robinson Crusoe (1719) - One of Defoe’s most famous novels, it relates the experiences of a man stranded on an
island near the Orinoco river for twenty-four years.
T
HE
L
IFE AND
S
TRANGE
S
URPRIZING
A
DVENTURES OF
R
OBINSON
C
RUSOE
,
OF
Y
ORK
, M
ARINER
:
Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the Coast of A
MERICA
, near the Mouth
of the Great River of O
ROONOQUE
; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but
himself;
W
ITH
An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver’d by P
YRATES
.
Written by Himself.
T
HE
P
REFACE
If ever the Story of any private Man’s Adventures in the World were worth making Publick, and were
acceptable when Publish’d, the Editor of this Account thinks this will be so.
The Wonders of this Man’s Life exceed all that (he thinks) is to be found extant; the Life of one Man
being scarce capable of a greater Variety.
The Story is told with Modesty, with Seriousness, and with a religious Application of Events to the uses to
which wise Men always apply them (
viz
.) to the Instruction of others by this Example, and to justify and honour
the Wisdom of Providence in all the Variety of our Circumstances, let them happen how they will.
The Editor believes the thing to be a just History of Fact; neither is there any Appearance of Fiction in it:
And however thinks, because all such things are dispatch’d, that the Improvement of it, as well to the Diversion,
as to the Instruction of the Reader, will be the same; and as such, he thinks, without farther Compliment to the
World, he does them a great Service in the Publication.
Robinson Crusoe
2
THE LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, &
I was born in the Year 1632, in the City of
York
, of a good Family, tho’ not of that Country, my Father being a
Foreigner of
Bremen
, who settled first at
Hull
: He got a good Estate by Merchandise, and leaving off his Trade
lived afterward at
York
, from whence he had married my Mother, whose Relations were named
Robinson
, a very
good Family in that Country, and from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer
; but by the usual Corruption of
Words in England we are now called, nay, we call ourselves, and write our name,
Crusoe
, and so my
Companions always called me.
I had two elder Brothers, one of which was Lieutenant-Colonel to an
English
Regiment of Foot in
Flanders
, formerly commanded by the famous Coll.
Lockhart
,
1
and was killed at the Battle near
Dunkirk
against
the
Spaniards
; what became of my second Brother I never knew, any more than my Father and Mother did know
what was become of me.
Being the third Son of the Family, and not bred to any Trade, my Head began to be fill’d very early with
rambling Thoughts: My Father, who was very ancient, had given me a competent Share of Learning, as far as
House-Education and a Country Free-School generally goes, and design’d me for the Law; but I would be
satisfied with nothing but going to Sea, and my Inclination to this led me so strongly against the Will, nay, the
Commands, of my Father, and against all the Entreaties and Perswasions of my Mother and other Friends, that
there seem’d to be something fatal in that Propension of Nature tending directly to the Life of misery which was
to befal me.
My Father, a wise and grave Man, gave me serious and excellent Counsel against what he foresaw was my
Design. He call’d me one Morning into his Chamber, where he was confined by the Gout, and expostulated very
warmly with me upon this Subject. He ask’d me what Reasons more than a meer wandering Inclination I had for
leaving my Father’s House and my native Country, where I might be well introduced, and had a Prospect of
raising my Fortunes by Application and Industry, with a Life of Ease and Pleasure. He told me it was for Men of
desperate Fortunes on one Hand, or of aspiring, superior Fortunes on the other, who went abroad upon
Adventures, to rise by Enterprize, and make themselves famous in Undertakings of a Nature out of the common
Road; that these things were all either too far above me, or too far below me; that mine was the middle State, or
what might be called the upper Station of
Low Life
, which he had found by long Experience was the best State in
the World, the most suited to human Happiness, not exposed to the Miseries and Hardships, the Labour and
Sufferings, of the mechanick Part of Mankind, and not embarrass’d with the Pride, Luxury, Ambition, and Envy
of the upper Part of Mankind. He told me, I might judge of the Happiness of this State by one thing,
viz
., That
this was the State of Life which all other People envied; that Kings have frequently lamented the miserable
Consequences of being born to great things, and wish’d they had been placed in the Middle of the two Extremes,
between the Mean and the Great; that the wise Man gave his Testimony to this as the just Standard of true
Felicity, when he prayed to have neither Poverty nor Riches.
2
He bid me observe it, and I should always find that the Calamities of Life were shared among the upper
and lower Part of Mankind; but that the middle Station had the fewest Disasters, and was not expos’d to so many
Vicissitudes as the higher or lower Part of Mankind; nay, they were not subjected to so many Distempers and
Uneasiness either of Body or Mind, as those were who, by vicious Living, Luxury, and Extravagancies on one
Hand, or by hard Labour, Want of Necessaries, and mean or insufficient Diet on the other Hand, bring
Distempers upon themselves by the natural Consequences of their Way of Living;
That
the middle Station of Life
was calculated for all kind of Vertues and all kind of Enjoyments; that Peace and Plenty were the Hand-maids of
a middle Fortune; that Temperance, Moderation, Quietness, Health, Society, all agreeable Diversions, and all
desirable Pleasures, were the Blessings attending the middle Station of Life; that this Way Men went silently and
smoothly thro’ the World, and comfortably out of it, not embarrass’d with the Labours of the Hands or of the
Head, not sold to the Life of Slavery for daily Bread, or harasst with perplex’d Circumstances, which rob the
Soul of Peace, and the Body of Rest; not enrag’d with the Passion of Envy, or secret burning Lust of Ambition
for great things; but in easy Circumstances sliding gently thro’ the World, and sensibly tasting the Sweets of
living, without the bitter, feeling that they are happy, and learning by every Day’s Experience to know it more
sensibly.
After this, he press’d me earnestly, and in the most affectionate manner, not to play the young Man, not to
precipitate myself into Miseries which Nature and the Station of Life I was born in, seem’d to have provided
1
Sir William Lockhart (1621-76). a soldier who defeated the Spaniards at Dunkirk in 1658.
2
Solomon. Prov. 30: 8.
Robinson Crusoe
3
against; that I was under no Necessity of seeking my Bread; that he would do well for me, and endeavour to enter
me fairly into the Station of Life which he had been just recommending to me; and that if I was not very easy and
happy in the World, it must be my meer
3
Fate or Fault that must hinder it, and that he should have nothing to
answer for, having thus discharg’d his Duty in warning me against Measures which he knew would be to my
Hurt; In a word, that as he would do very kind things for me if I would stay and settle at Home as he directed, so
he would not have so much Hand in my Misfortunes, as to give me any Encouragement to go away: And to close
all, he told me I had my elder Brother for an Example, to whom he had used the same earnest Perswasions to
keep him from going into the Low Country Wars, but could not prevail, his young Desires prompting him to run
into the Army, where he was kill’d; and tho’ he said he would not cease to pray for me, yet he would venture to
say to me, that if I did take this foolish Step, God would not bless me, and I would have Leisure hereafter to
reflect upon having neglected his Counsel when there might be none to assist in my Recovery.
I observed in this last Part of his Discourse, which was truly Prophetick, tho’ I suppose my Father did not
know it to be so himself; I say, I observed the Tears run down his Face very plentifully, and especially when he
spoke of my Brother who was kill’d; and that when he spoke of my having Leisure to repent, and none to assist
me, he was so mov’d that he broke off the Discourse, and told me his Heart was so full he could say no more to
me.
I was sincerely affected with this Discourse, as indeed who could be otherwise?
4
and I resolved not to
think of going abroad any more, but to settle at home according to my Father’s Desire. But alas! a few Days wore
it all off; and, in short, to prevent any of my Father’s farther Importunities, in a few Weeks after I resolv’d to run
quite away from him. However, I did not act so hastily neither as my first Heat of Resolution prompted, but I
took my Mother, at a time when I thought her a little pleasanter than ordinary, and told her that my Thoughts
were so entirely bent upon seeing the World that I should never settle to anything with Resolution enough to go
through with it, and my Father had better give me his Consent than force me to go without it; that I was now
Eighteen Years old, which was too late to go Apprentice to a Trade, or Clerk to an Attorney; that I was sure if I
did, I should never serve out my time, and I should certainly run away from my Master before my Time was out,
and go to Sea; and if she would speak to my Father to let me go but one Voyage abroad, if I came home again
and did not like it, I would go no more, and I would promise by a double Diligence to recover that Time I had
lost.
This put my mother into a great Passion: She told me she knew it would be to no Purpose to speak to my
Father upon any such Subject; that he knew too well what was my Interest to give his Consent to anything so
much for my Hurt, and that she wondered how I could think of any such thing after such a Discourse as I had had
with my Father, and such kind and tender Expressions as she knew my Father had us’d to me; and that, in short, if
I would ruine my self there was no Help for me; but I might depend I should never have their Consent to it; That
for her Part, she would not have so much Hand in my Destruction, and I should never have it to say, that my
Mother was willing when my Father was not.
Tho’ my Mother refused to move
5
it to my Father, yet, as I have heard afterwards, she reported all the
Discourse to him, and that my Father, after shewing a great Concern at it, said to her with a Sigh, That Boy might
be happy if he would stay at home, but if he goes abroad he will be the miserablest Wretch that was ever born: I
can give no consent to it.
It was not till almost a Year after this that I broke loose, tho’ in the meantime I continued obstinately deaf
to all Proposals of settling to Business, and frequently expostulating with my Father and Mother, about their
being so positively determin’d against what they knew my Inclinations prompted me to. But being one day at
Hull
, where I went casually, and without any Purpose of making an Elopement that time; but I say, being there,
and one of my Companions being going by Sea to
London
, in his Father’s Ship, and prompting me to go with
them, with the common Allurement of Seafaring Men,
viz
., That it should cost me nothing for my Passage, I
consulted neither Father nor Mother any more, nor so much as sent them Word of it; but leaving them to hear of
it as they might, without asking God’s Blessing, or my Father’s, without any Consideration of Circumstances or
Consequences, and in an ill Hour, God knows. On the first of
September
1651 I went on Board a Ship bound for
London
; never any young Adventurer’s Misfortunes, I believe, began sooner, or continued longer than mine. The
Ship was no sooner gotten out of the
Humber
, but the Wind began to blow, and the Winds
6
to rise in a most
frightful manner; and as I had never been at Sea before, I was most inexpressibly sick in Body, and terrify’d in
The first-edition reading is ‘otherwise;’. The emendation here and at several other points is based on the
probability that the printers mistook Defoe’s manuscript question marks and semicolons for each other. One such
obvious misreading in the first edition occurs at 91.26 of the present text. The punctuation in both direct and
indirect questions, however, is irregular.
5
‘Propose’.
6
Perhaps a printer’s misreading of ‘Waves’, perhaps unconscious repetition.
3
‘completely my’.
4
Robinson Crusoe
4
my Mind. I began now seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was overtaken by the Judgment
of Heaven for my wicked leaving my Father’s House, and abandoning my Duty; all the good Counsel of my
Parents, my Father’s Tears and my Mother’s Entreaties, came now fresh into my Mind, and my Conscience,
which was not yet come to the Pitch of Hardness which it has been since, reproach’d me with the Contempt of
Advice and the Breach of my Duty to God and my Father.
All this while the Storm increas’d, and the Sea, which I had never been upon before, went very high, tho’
nothing like what I have seen many times since; no, nor like what I saw a few Days after: But it was enough to
affect me then, who was but a young Sailor, and had never known anything of the matter. I expected every Wave
would have swallowed us up, and that every time the Ship fell down, as I thought, in the Trough or Hollow of the
Sea, we should never rise more; and in this Agony of Mind I made many Vows of Resolutions, that if it would
please God here to spare my Life this one Voyage, if ever I got once my Foot upon dry Land again, I would go
directly home to my Father, and never set it into a Ship again while I liv’d; that I would take his Advice, and
never run myself into such Miseries as these any more. Now I saw plainly the Goodness of his Observations
about the middle Station of Life, how easy, how comfortably he had liv’d all his Days, and never had been
exposed to Tempests at Sea, or Troubles on Shore; and I resolv’d that I would, like a true repenting Prodigal, go
home to my Father.
These wise and sober Thoughts continued all the while the Storm continued, and indeed some time after;
but the next Day the Wind was abated and the Sea calmer, and I began to be a little inur’d to it: However, I was
very grave for all that Day, being also a little Sea sick still; but towards Night the Weather clear’d up, the Wind
was quite over, and a charming fine Evening follow’d; the Sun went down perfectly clear, and rose so the next
Morning; and having little or no Wind, and a smooth Sea, the Sun shining upon it, the Sight was, as I thought, the
most delightful that ever I saw.
I had slept well in the Night, and was now no more Sea sick but very cheerful, looking with Wonder upon
the Sea that was so rough and terrible the Day before, and could be so calm and so pleasant in so little time after.
And now lest my good Resolutions should continue, my Companion, who had indeed entic’d me away, comes to
me:
Well,
Bob, says he, clapping me on the Shoulder,
How do you do after it? I warrant you were frighted,
wa’n’t you, last Night, when it blew but a Cap full of Wind? A Cap full d’you call it?
said I,
’twas a terrible
Storm: A Storm, you Fool you
, replies he,
do you call that a Storm, why, it was nothing at all; give us but a good
Ship and Sea Room, and we think nothing of such a Squal of Wind as that; but you’re but a fresh Water Sailor,
Bob; come, let us make a Bowl of Punch, and we’ll forget all that, d’ye see what charming Weather ‘tis now
. To
make short this sad Part of my Story, we went the old way of all Sailors, the Punch was made, and I was made
drunk with it, and in that one Night’s Wickedness I drowned all my Repentance, all my Reflections upon my past
Conduct, and all my Resolutions for my future. In a word, as the Sea was returned to its Smoothness of Surface
and settled Calmness by the Abatement of that Storm, so the Hurry of my Thoughts being over, my Fears and
Apprehensions of being swallow’d up by the Sea being forgotten, and the Current of my former Desires returned,
I entirely forgot the Vows and Promises that I made in my Distress. I found indeed some Intervals of Reflection,
and the serious Thoughts did, as it were, endeavour to return again sometime; but I shook them off, and rouz’d
myself from them as it were from a Distemper, and applying myself to Drink and Company, soon master’d the
Return of those Fits, for so I call’d them, and I had in five or six Days got as complete a Victory over Conscience
as any young Fellow that resolv’d not to be troubled with it could desire: But I was to have another Trial for it
still; and Providence, as in such Cases generally it does, resolv’d to leave me entirely without Excuse. For if I
would not take this for a Deliverance, the next was to be such a one as the worst and most harden’d Wretch
among us would confess both the Danger and the Mercy.
The sixth Day of our being at Sea we came into
Yarmouth
Roads; the Wind having been contrary, and the
Weather calm, we made but little Way since the Storm. Here we were obliged to come to an Anchor, and here we
lay, the Wind continuing contrary,
viz
., at South-west, for seven or eight Days, during which time a great many
Ships from
Newcastle
came into the same Roads, as the common Harbour where the Ships might wait for a Wind
for the River.
We had not however rid here so long, but should have Tided it up the River, but that the Wind blew too
fresh; and after we had lain four or five Days, blew very hard. However, the Roads being reckoned as good as a
Harbour, the Anchorage good, and our Ground-Tackle very strong, our Men were unconcerned, and not in the
least apprehensive of Danger, but spent the Time in Rest and Mirth, after the manner of the Sea; but the eighth
Day in the Morning the Wind increased, and we had all Hands at Work to strike our Top-Masts, and make
everything snug and close, that the Ship might ride as easy as possible. By Noon the Sea went very high indeed,
and our Ship rid
Forecastle in
,
7
shipp’d several Seas, and we thought once or twice our Anchor had come home;
7
Rode with the deck under water.
Robinson Crusoe
5
upon which our Master order’d out the Sheet Anchor;
8
so that we rode with two Anchors a-Head, and the Cables
veered out to the better End.
9
By this Time it blew a terrible Storm indeed, and now I began to see Terror and Amazement in the Faces
even of the Seamen themselves. The Master, tho’ vigilant to the Business of preserving the Ship, yet as he went
in and out of his Cabbin by me, I could hear him softly to himself say several times,
Lord be merciful to us, we
shall be all lost, we shall be all undone
; and the like. During these first Hurries I was stupid, lying still in my
Cabbin, which was in the Steerage, and cannot describe my Temper: I could ill reassume the first Penitence,
which I had so apparently trampled upon, and harden’d my self against: I though the Bitterness of Death had
been past, and that this would be nothing too like the first. But when the Master himself came by me, as I said
just now, and said we should be all lost, I was dreadfully frighted: I got up out of my Cabbin, and look’d out but
such a dismal Sight I never saw: the Sea went Mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four Minutes:
when I could look about, I could see nothing but Distress round us: Two Ships that rid near us we found had cut
their Masts by the Board, being deep loaden; and our Men cry’d out that a Ship which rid about a Mile a-Head of
us was foundered. Two more Ships being driven from their Anchors, were run out of the Roads to Sea at all
Adventures,
10
and that was not a Mast standing. The light Ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in the
Sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running away with only their Sprit-sail out before the
Wind.
Towards Evening the Mate and Boat-Swain begg’d the Master of our Ship to let them cut away the
Foremast, which he was very unwilling to: But the Boat-Swain protesting to him, that if he did not, the Ship
would founder, he consented; and when they had cut away the Foremast, the Main-Mast stood so loose, and
shook the Ship so much, they were obliged to cut her away also, and make a clear Deck.
Any one may judge what a Condition I must be in all this, who was but a young Sailor, and who had been
in such a Fright before at but a little. But if I can express at this Distance the Thoughts I had about me at that
time, I was in tenfold more Horror of Mind upon Account of my former Convictions, and then having returned
from them to the Resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at Death itself; and these added to the
Terror of the Storm, put me into such a Condition, that I can by no Words describe it. But the worst was not
come yet, the Storm continued with such Fury that the Seamen themselves acknowledged they had never known a
worse. We had a good Ship, but she was deep loaden, and wallowed in the Sea, that the Seamen every now and
then cried out, she would founder. It was my Advantage in one respect, that I did not know what they meant by
Founder, till I enquir’d. However, the Storm was so violent that I saw what is not often seen, the Master, the
Boat-Swain, and some others more sensible than the rest, at their Prayers, and expecting every Moment when the
Ship would go to the Bottom. In the Middle of the Night, and under all the rest of our Distresses, one of the Men
that had been down on Purpose to see, cried out we had sprung a Leak; another said there was four Foot Water in
the Hold. Then all Hands were called to the Pump. At that very Word my Heart, as I thought, died within me, and
I fell backwards upon the Side of my Bed where I sat, into the Cabbin. However, the Men roused me, and told
me, that I that was able to do nothing before, was as well able to pump as another; at which I stirr’d up and went
to the Pump and work’d very heartily. While this was doing, the Master seeing some light Colliers,
11
who not
able to ride out the Storm, were oblig’d to slip and run away to Sea, and would come near us, ordered to fire a
Gun as a Signal of Distress. I who knew nothing what that meant, was so surprised, that I thought the Ship had
broke, or some dreadful thing had happen’d. In a word, I was so surprised, that I fell down in a Swoon. As this
was a time when every Body had his own Life to think of, no Body minded me, or what was become of me; but
another Man stepped up to the Pump, and thrusting me aside with his Foot, let me lye, thinking I had been dead;
and it was a great while before I came to my self.
We work’d on, but the Water increasing in the Hold, it was apparent that the Ship would founder, and tho’
the Storm began to abate a little, yet as it was not possible she could swim till we might run into a Port, so the
Master continued firing Guns for Help; and a light Ship, who had rid it out just a Head of us, ventured a Boat out
to help us. It was with the utmost Hazard the Boat came near us, but it was impossible for us to get on Board, or
for the Boat to lie near the Ship Side, till at last the Men rowing very heartily, and venturing their Lives to save
ours, our Men cast them a Rope over the Stern with a Buoy to it, and then veered it out a great Length, which
they after great Labour and Hazard took hold of, and we hall’d
12
them close under our Stern, and got all into their
Boat. It was to no Purpose for them or us after we were in the Boat to think of reaching to their own Ship, so all
agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards Shore as much as we could, and our Master promised
The largest anchor on the ship.
9
Bitter end or utmost length.
10
Taking their chances.
11
Coal-carrying barges.
12
Hauled.
8
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