The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe Of York, Mariner, Vol. 1 by Daniel Defoe

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THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE,

OF YORK, MARINER.

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF

HIS TRAVELS ROUND THREE PARTS OF THE GLOBE.

_WRITTEN BY HIMSELF_.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL.I.

BY C. WHITTINGHAM;

FOR J. CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET; J. BOOKER, NEW BOND
STREET; SHARPS AND HAILES, MUSEUM, PICCADILLY; AND
GALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER, PATERNOSTER ROW; LONDON.

1812.

THE LIFE OF

_DANIEL DE FOE_.

Daniel De Foe was descended from a respectable family in the county of
Northampton, and born in London, about the year 1663. His father, James
Foe, was a butcher, in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and a
protestant dissenter. Why the subject of this memoir prefixed the _De_
to his family name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at any period
of his life think it necessary to give his reasons to the public. The
political scribblers of the day, however, thought proper to remedy this
lack of information, and accused him of possessing so little of the
_amor patriae_, as to make the addition in order that he might not be
taken for an Englishman; though this idea could have had no other
foundation than the circumstance of his having, in consequence of his
zeal for King William, attacked the prejudices of his countrymen in his
"Trueborn Englishman."

After receiving a good education at an academy at Newington, young De
Foe, before he had attained his twenty-first year, commenced his career
as an author, by writing a pamphlet against a very prevailing sentiment
in favour of the Turks, who were at that time laying siege to Vienna.
This production, being very inferior to those of his maturer years, was
very little read, and the indignant author, despairing of success with
his pen, had recourse to the sword; or, as he termed it, when boasting
of the exploit in his latter years, "displayed his attachment to liberty
and protestanism," by joining the ill-advised insurrection under the
Duke of Monmouth, in the west. On the failure of that unfortunate
enterprise, he returned again to the metropolis; and it is not
improbable, but that the circumstance of his being a native of London,
and his person not much known in that part of the kingdom where the
rebellion took place, might facilitate his escape, and be the means of
preventing his being brought to trial for his share in the transaction.
With the professions of a writer and a soldier, Mr. De Foe, in the year
1685, joined that of a trader; he was first engaged as a hosier, in
Cornhill, and afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near Tilbury
Fort, in Essex; but in consequence of spending those hours in the
hilarity of the tavern which he ought to have employed in the
calculations of the counting-house, his commercial schemes proved
unsuccessful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond from his creditors,
not failing to attribute those misfortunes to the war and the severity
of the times, which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct. It is
much to his credit, however, that after having been freed from his debts
by composition, and being in prosperous circumstances from King
William's favour, he voluntarily paid most of his creditors both the
principal and interest of their claims. This is such an example of
honesty as it would be unjust to De Foe and to the world to conceal. The
amount of the sums thus paid must have been very considerable, as he
afterwards feelingly mentions to Lord Haversham, who had reproached him
with covetousness; "With a numerous family, and no helps but my own
industry, I have forced my way through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced
my debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than
five thousand pounds."

At the beginning of the year 1700, Mr. De Foe published a satire in
verse, which excited very considerable attention, called the "Trueborn
Englishman." Its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who were
continually abusing King William and some of his friends as
_foreigners_, by showing that the present race of Englishmen was a mixed
and heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to native
purity of blood. The satire was in many parts very severe; and though it
gave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the public
attention. The reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of this
production, wherein he endeavours to account for--

"What makes this discontented land appear
Less happy now in times of peace, than war;
Why civil fends disturb the nation more,
Than all our bloody wars had done before:
Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace:
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they, who would be in them, would be worse.
'Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in."

It will be immediately perceived that De Foe could have no pretensions
to the character of a _poet_; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervous
and well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in
general excellent. The Trueborn Englishman concludes thus:

Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate;
How we contend for birth and names unknown,
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And openly disown the vile degenerate race.
For fame of families is all a cheat;
'TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT.

For this defence of foreigners De Foe was amply rewarded by King
William, who not only ordered him a pension, but, as his opponents
denominated it, appointed him _pamphlet-writer general to the court_; an
office for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with a
strong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience which
allowed him to support the measures of his benefactors, though convinced
they were injurious to his country. De Foe now retired to Newington with
his family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of his
royal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene of
sorrow which probably embittered his future life.

He had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religious
controversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, which
ensued on the accession of Queen Anne, gave him an opportunity of
gratifying his favourite passion. He therefore published a tract,
entitled "The shortest Way with the Dissenters, or Proposals for the
Establishment of the Church," which contained an ironical recommendation
of persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons,
particularly Dissenters, at first mistook its real intention. The high
church party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by their
influence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamation
published in the Gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1].
When De Foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet were
about to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer and
bookseller being taken into custody, he surrendered, being resolved, as
he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather
than that others should be ruined for his mistakes." In July, 1703, he
was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, to
stand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks. He
underwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, and
it seems to have been generally thought that he was treated with
unreasonable severity. So far was he from being ashamed of his fate
himself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alluding
to his accusers:

Tell them, the men that plac'd him here
Are scandals to the times;
Are at a loss to find his guilt,
And can't commit his crimes.

Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his Dunciad, (probably
from no other reason than party difference) characterizes him in the
following line:

Earless on high stood unabash'd De Foe.

This is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which so
frequently occur in the Dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on the
author than on the parties traduced. De Foe lay friendless and
distressed in Newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes of
deliverance, till Sir Robert Harley, who approved of his principles, and
foresaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted to
many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the Queen, and at
length procured his release. The treasurer, Lord Godolphin, also sent a
considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his
fine and the expense of his discharge. Gratitude and fidelity are
inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that
prompted De Foe to support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when
Anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was
persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered,
by violence.

The talents and perseverance of De Foe began now to be properly
estimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent by
Lord Godolphin to Scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far from
being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform. His
knowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and, above
all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility in promoting
the union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able history in
1709, with two dedications, one to the Queen, and another to the Duke of
Queensbury. Soon afterwards he unhappily, by some equivocal writings,
rendered himself suspected by both parties, so that he once more retired
to Newington, in hopes of spending the remainder of his days in peace.
His pension being withdrawn, and wearied with politics, he began to
compose works of a different kind.--The year 1715 may therefore be
regarded as the period of De Foe's political life. Faction henceforth
found other advocates, and parties procured other writers to disseminate
their suggestions, and to propagate their falsehoods.

In 1715 De Foe published the "Family Instructor;" a work inculcating the
domestic duties in a lively manner, by narration and dialogue, and
displaying much knowledge of life in the middle ranks of society.
"Religious Courtship" also appeared soon after, which, like the "Family
Instructor," is eminently religious and moral in its tendency, and
strongly impresses on the mind that spirit of sobriety and private
devotion for which the dissenters have generally been distinguished. The
most celebrated of all his works, "The Life and Adventures of Robinson
Crusoe," appeared in 1719. This work has passed through numerous
editions, and been translated into almost all modern languages. The
great invention which is displayed in it, the variety of incidents and
circumstances which it contains, related in the most easy and natural
manner, together with the excellency of the moral and religious
reflections, render it a performance of very superior and uncommon
merit, and one of the most interesting works that ever appeared. It is
strongly recommended by Rosseau as a book admirably calculated to
promote the purposes of natural education; and Dr. Blair says, "No
fiction, in any language, was ever better supported than the Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe. While it is carried on with that appearance of truth
and simplicity, which takes a strong hold of the imagination of all
readers, it suggests, at the same time, very useful instruction; by
showing how much the native powers of man may be exerted for
surmounting the difficulties of any external situation." It has been
pretended, that De Foe surreptitiously appropriated the papers of
Alexander Selkirk, a Scotch mariner, who lived four years alone on the
island of Juan Fernandez, and a sketch of whose story had before
appeared in the voyage of Captain Woodes Rogers. But this charge, though
repeatedly and confidently brought, appears to be totally destitute of
any foundation. De Foe probably took some general hints for his work
from the story of Selkirk, but there exists no proof whatever, nor is it
reasonable to suppose that he possessed any of his papers or memoirs,
which had been published seven years before the appearance of Robinson
Crusoe. As a farther proof of De Foe's innocence, Captain Rogers'
Account of Selkirk may be produced, in which it is said that the latter
had neither preserved pen, ink, or paper, and had, in a great measure,
lost his language; consequently De Foe could not have received any
written assistance, and we have only the assertion of his enemies to
prove that he had any verbal.

The great success of Robinson Crusoe induced its author to write a
number of other lives and adventures, some of which were popular in
their times, though at present nearly forgotten. One of his latest
publications was "A Tour through the Island of Great Britain," a
performance of very inferior merit; but De Foe was now the garrulous
old man, and his spirit (to use the words of an ingenious biographer)
"like a candle struggling in the socket, blazed and sunk, blazed and
sunk, till it disappeared at length in total darkness." His laborious
and unfortunate life was finished on the 26th of April, 1731, in' the
parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate.

Daniel De Foe possessed very extraordinary talents; as a commercial
writer, he is fairly entitled to stand in the foremost rank among his
contemporaries, whatever may be their performances or their fame. His
distinguishing characteristics are originality, spirit, and a profound
knowledge of his subject, and in these particulars he has seldom been
surpassed. As the author of Robinson Crusoe he has a claim, not only to
the admiration, but to the gratitude of his countrymen; and so long as
we have a regard for supereminent merit, and take an interest in the
welfare of the rising generation, that gratitude will not cease to
exist. But the opinion of the learned and ingenious Dr. Beattie will be
the best eulogium that can be pronounced on that celebrated romance:
"Robinson Crusoe," says the Doctor, "must be allowed, by the most rigid
moralist, to be one of those novels which one may read, riot only with
pleasure, but also with profit. It breathes throughout a spirit of
piety and benevolence; it sets in a very striking light the importance
of the mechanic arts, which they, who know not what it is to be without
them, are so apt to under-value; it fixes in the mind a lively idea of
the horrors of solitude, and, consequently, of the sweets of social
life, and of the blessings we derive from conversation and mutual aid;
and it shows how, by labouring with one's own hands, one may secure
independence, and open for one's self many sources of health and
amusement. I agree, therefore, with Rosseau, that it is one of the best
books that can be put into the hands of children."

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: _St. James's, January 10, 1702-5._ "Whereas Daniel De Foe,
alias De Fooe, is charged with writing a scandalous and seditious
pamphlet, entitled 'The shortest Way with the Dissenters:' he is a
middle-sized spare man, about 40 years old, of a brown complexion, and
dark-brown coloured hair, but wears a wig, a hooked nose, a sharp chin,
grey eyes, and a large mole near his mouth, was born in London, and for
many years was a hose-factor, in Freeman's Yard, in Cornhill, and now is
owner of the brick and pantile works near Tilbury Fort, in Essex;
whoever shall discover the said Daniel De Foe, to one of her Majesty's
Principal Secretaries of State, or any of her Majesty's Justices of
Peace, so as he may be apprehended, shall have a reward of L50, which
her Majesty has ordered immediately to be paid upon such discovery."
_London Gaz._ No. 3879.]

THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

I was born in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good family,
though 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 afterwards 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 whom was lieutenant-colonel to an
English regiment of foot in Flanders, formerly commanded by the famous
Colonel Lockhart, 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 or 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 filled 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 go, and designed 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 persuasions of
my mother and other friends, that there seemed to be something fatal in
that propension of nature, tending directly to the life of misery which
was to befall me.

My father, a wise and grave man, gave me serious and excellent counsel
against what he foresaw was my design. He called me one morning into his
chamber, where he was confined by the gout, and expostulated very warmly
with me upon this subject: he asked me what reasons more than a mere
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 fortune 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 enterprise, 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 mechanic part of mankind,
and not embarrassed 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 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.

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 exposed to so many
vicissitudes as the higher or lower part of mankind; nay, they were not
subjected to so many distempers and uneasinesses, either of body or
mind, as those were, who, by vicious living, luxury, and extravagances,
on one hand, or by hard labour, want of necessaries, and mean and
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 virtues and all kind of
enjoyments; that peace and plenty were the handmaids 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 through the world, and comfortably out of it, not
embarrassed with the labours of the hands or of the head, not sold to
the life of slavery for daily bread, or harassed with perplexed
circumstances, which rob the soul of peace, and the body of rest; not
enraged with the passion of envy, or secret burning lust of ambition for
great things; but, in easy circumstances, sliding gently through 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 pressed 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, seemed to
have provided 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 mere
fate or fault that must hinder it; and that he should have nothing to
answer for, having thus discharged 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
persuasions 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 killed; and though 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
prophetic, though 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 killed: and that when he
spoke of my having leisure to repent, and none to assist me, he was so
moved, 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? 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 further
importunities, in a few weeks after I resolved 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
any thing 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 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 any such thing
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 used to me; and that,
in short, if I would ruin myself, 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.

Though my mother refused to move it to my father, yet, as I have heard
afterwards, she reported all the discourse to him, and that my father,
after showing 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 most miserable 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, though, in
the mean time, I continued obstinately deaf to all proposals of settling
to business, and frequently expostulating with my father and mother
about their being so positively determined 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 at that time;
but, I say, being there, and one of my companions then 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 or mother any more, not 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 waves to rise in a
most frightful manner; and, as I had never been at sea before, I was
most inexpressibly sick in body, and terrified in mind. I began now
seriously to reflect upon what I had done, and how justly I was
overtaken by the judgment of Heaven for wickedly 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 to
which it has been since, reproached me with the contempt of advice, and
the breach of my duty to God and my father.

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