Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dejoe

4.9

My name is Robinson Crusoe and I was born in the city of York. When I was a small boy, it was my dream to go to sea, as I could not be happy living quietly at home.

When I was eighteen years old, I went to Hull one day, and there I met a boy whom I knew. His father was Captain of a ship. That boy said to me, “Will you sail with us, Rob? We start for London today.” I was very glad of course and agreed at once.

When we got out to sea, the wind was strong and a great storm began. Just when we thought our end had come and we must all sink into the sea, a ship that was not far from us sent a small boat out to help us. We all got into the boat.

The storm was so great that our ship soon sank. It took us some hours to reach the shore, but at last we were safe on land.

Though the voyage had been dangerous I did not stay long on land and made up my mind to go on a sea voyage again. I soon made friends with the Captain of a ship, who said I could go with him. I did so, and as all went well I had a very good time.

But on my third voyage we met a pirate ship, which chased us. We sailed as fast as we could, but she caught us and we had to fight. We all fought bravely for our lives, but the pirates were too many for us, so they won.

The pirates destroyed our ship and she sank. We became slaves and had to work for the pirates. While I was a slave, all I could think of was how to get myself free. At last I found a way to do so.

One day my master told me to take a gun to go out in a boat, with two other slaves, a man and a boy, and catch some fish for him. When all was ready, I went with these two, and as we were far from the shore, I threw the man into the water. I knew he was a good swimmer and could get back to the shore.

Then I said to the boy, whose name was Xury, “Xury, if you promised to be true to me, I’ll take you with me, but if you do not do so, I must throw you into the sea too."

The boy promised to be true to me. We sailed in this boat for some days. At last we saw a large ship. We put up a flag, made signs and fired a gun. To our great joy the sailors on the ship noticed us. The ship waited for us to come. Then they took us on board.

I told the Captain about myself and asked him to allow me to stay on board the ship which he kindly did. He also said he wanted to buy Xury from me. The Captain promised to be very kind to him and make him a free man in ten years, so when Xury said he would like to work for the Captain, I let him go. This ship took me to land once more.

Some time passed and I began to think about the sea again. Soon I found myself on board a ship in the open sea. We had not gone many days when a very great storm came on. We saw that the ship was in great danger and put out the ship’s boat. But a great wave came upon us, turned over the boat, and threw us all into the water. I cannot tell you how I felt when I sank into the sea, but as I swam very well I made my way to the shore. Each wave took me a little nearer the shore till at last I felt the bottom with my feet. I ran with all my strength to the shore. And there I sat down upon the grass, safe from the danger of the sea.

Part II

As soon as I knew I was safe, I looked around me. I was quite alone. The other men were drowned. Then I began to think about myself. I was in despair. I had no dry clothes, I had no food or drink. I had no gun.

It was getting dark. I had to find a place where I could spend the night.

I saw a large fir-tree and made up my mind to spend the night in it. When it grew dark, I got into the fir-tree and soon fell into a deep sleep.

When I woke it was day. All the wind had gone, the sea was quite calm. I saw that our ship was not far from the shore. As soon as I saw it, I made up my mind to swim to her and try to get some clothes and food.

So I swam out to where she was. I got on board the ship with the help of a piece of rope which hung over the side. The first thing I did was to go to the bread-room, where I was glad to find the food all quite dry.

Then I made a raft from the parts of the ship and put a lot of things in three boxes — some bread and rice, meat, corn, some clothes and wood-working tools? I also took some guns and powder? And with these things I safely reached the shore.

Next I decided to try and see where I was. There was a hill not far from the shore, so I went to the top of it. I saw I was on an island, with the sea all round me, and that there were no other men on it.

Tire next day I went back on board the ship. This time I brought a bed and a sail. Then I made a tent out of the sail. It was dark when I bad done all this, so I soon lay down to sleep.

Each day I went to the ship and brought back my raft full of useful things, till I had quite a lot.

On the thirteenth day, there was a storm. When I went out to look at the sea the next day, I saw no ship. The waves and the rocks had broken her to pieces. I was glad that I had got all I could out of her.

The next thing I did was to build me a house. I made it of thick trees and grass. Then I made a chair and a table. I found a cave in the rock near my home and I made it my store-place where I kept all my things.

Each day I went out to hunt for food. There were a lot of birds and wild goats on the island. Once I shot at a young goat and broke its leg. I caught the goat, tied up its legs and brought it home. Soon I made it tame.

In my walks I caught some young birds, which were very good to eat. I had brought from the ship a small bag with a few seeds of corn in it. I threw them on the ground by my tent. About four weeks after, I saw a few stalks of green just out of the ground which seemed to me a very strange thing at first.

These later grew into barley. Then I understood that these stalks came from the few seeds I had thrown on the ground. I planted barley seeds and later I was able to make bread.

Some years passed. I did lots of things to make my life on the island better.

One day I saw five boats on my side of the island. I went to my look-out place on the hill with my spy-glass. Through it I saw about thirty men. They had a fire and were dancing. Then some of the men went to the boats and pulled out two prisoners. They killed one of them. The other one, who was quite young, started to run towards my look-out. Only two savages’ followed him. I left my look-out, got my gun, ran down the hill and killed the savages.

When the young man heard the noise of the gun, he stopped. He turned round and saw that the savages who followed him were dead.

He fell on his knees and put his head on the ground in front of me. Then he put my foot on his head. He wanted to show that he was my slave.

I took the man to my house and gave him some meat and fruit to eat and some fresh water to drink.

I gave my slave the name of Friday, because Friday was the day on which I saved him. I began to teach Friday to speak English. He was very clever and soon learned to understand me and even answer me in English. I taught him to do all the work that I did. Soon he helped me in everything. We became friends.

Many years passed. Robinson worked hard to make his life on the island better. He and Friday worked every day. Robinson had two houses, a boat to sail along the shore, some tame goats which gave him milk, and he could make butter and cheese. Friday helped him in everything.

But all these long years Robinson Crusoe’s dream was to leave the island and to go back to England.

And the day came when his dreams came true. An English ship came to the shores of the island and Robinson Crusoe was able to return to England. He had lived on the island for twenty-eight years.