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The Life and Adventures
of Robinson Crusoe
By Daniel Defoe
CHAPTER XX—FIGHT BETWEEN FRIDAY AND A BEAR But never was a fight managed so hardily,
and in such a surprising manner as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which
gave us all, though at first we were surprised and afraid for him, the greatest diversion
imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the wolf
does, who is swift and light, so he has two particular qualities, which generally are
the rule of his actions; first, as to men, who are not his proper prey (he does not usually
attempt them, except they first attack him, unless he be excessively hungry, which it
is probable might now be the case, the ground being covered with snow), if you do not meddle
with him, he will not meddle with you; but then you must take care to be very civil to
him, and give him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman; he will not go a step out
of his way for a prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way
and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at him,
he takes it for an affront; but if you throw or toss anything at him, though it were but
a bit of stick as big as your finger, he thinks himself abused, and sets all other business
aside to pursue his revenge, and will have satisfaction in point of honour—that is
his first quality: the next is, if he be once affronted, he will never leave you, night
or day, till he has his revenge, but follows at a good round rate till he overtakes you.
My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him he was helping him
off his horse, for the man was both hurt and frightened, when on a sudden we espied the
bear come out of the wood; and a monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I
saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him; but when Friday saw him, it was easy
to see joy and courage in the fellow's countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday, three times, pointing
to him; "O master, you give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him; me makee you good
laugh." I was surprised to see the fellow so well
pleased. "You fool," says I, "he will eat you up."—"Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says
Friday, twice over again; "me eatee him up; me makee you good laugh; you all stay here,
me show you good laugh." So down he sits, and gets off his boots in a moment, and puts
on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear, and which he had in his pocket),
gives my other servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.
The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody, till Friday coming
pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understand him. "Hark ye, hark ye,"
says Friday, "me speakee with you." We followed at a distance, for now being down on the Gascony
side of the mountains, we were entered a vast forest, where the country was plain and pretty
open, though it had many trees in it scattered here and there. Friday, who had, as we say,
the heels of the bear, came up with him quickly, and took up a great stone, and threw it at
him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it
against a wall; but it answered Friday's end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he
did it purely to make the bear follow him, and show us some laugh as he called it. As
soon as the bear felt the blow, and saw him, he turns about and comes after him, taking
very long strides, and shuffling on at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling
gallop; away reins Friday, and takes his course as if he ran towards us for help; so we all
resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him
for bringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his own business another way;
and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and then ran away; and I
called out, "You dog! is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse,
that we may shoot the creature." He heard me, and cried out, "No shoot, no shoot; stand
still, and you get much laugh:" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the bear's
one, he turned on a sudden on one side of us, and seeing a great oak-tree fit for his
purpose, he beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he got nimbly up the tree,
laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree.
The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance: the first thing he did he stopped
at the gun, smelt at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like
a cat, though so monstrous heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man,
and could not for my life see anything to laugh at, till seeing the bear get up the
tree, we all rode near to him. When we came to the tree, there was Friday
got out to the small end of a large branch, and the bear got about half-way to him. As
soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker, "Ha!" says
he to us, "now you see me teachee the bear dance:" so he began jumping and shaking the
bough, at which the bear began to totter, but stood still, and began to look behind
him, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday
had not done with him by a great deal; when seeing him stand still, he called out to him
again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, "What, you come no farther?
pray you come farther;" so he left jumping and shaking the tree; and the bear, just as
if he understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he began jumping again,
and the bear stopped again. We thought now was a good time to knock him in the head,
and called to Friday to stand still and we should shoot the bear: but he cried out earnestly,
"Oh, pray! Oh, pray! no shoot, me shoot by and then:" he would have said by-and-by. However,
to shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had
laughing enough, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do: for first we thought
he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that
too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but clung fast with his great
broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and what
the jest would be at last. But Friday put us out of doubt quickly: for seeing the bear
cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, "Well,
well," says Friday, "you no come farther, me go; you no come to me, me come to you;"
and upon this he went out to the smaller end, where it would bend with his weight, and gently
let himself down by it, sliding down the bough till he came near enough to jump down on his
feet, and away he ran to his gun, took it up, and stood still. "Well," said I to him,
"Friday, what will you do now? Why don't you shoot him?" "No shoot," says Friday, "no yet;
me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh:" and, indeed, so he did; for
when the bear saw his enemy gone, he came back from the bough, where he stood, but did
it very cautiously, looking behind him every step, and coming backward till he got into
the body of the tree, then, with the same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree,
grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely. At this juncture,
and just before he could set his hind foot on the ground, Friday stepped up close to
him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead. Then the rogue
turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our looks,
he began to laugh very loud. "So we kill bear in my country," says Friday. "So you kill
them?" says I; "why, you have no guns."—"No," says he, "no gun, but shoot great much long
arrow." This was a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our guide
very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of wolves ran much in my head;
and, indeed, except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said
something already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.
These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as Friday would have had
us, we should certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was
worth saving; but we had near three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left
him, and went forward on our journey. The ground was still covered with snow, though
not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards,
were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger, to seek for food, and had
done a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people, killed
a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too. We had one dangerous place
to pass, and our guide told us if there were more wolves in the country we should find
them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long, narrow
defile, or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come
to the village where we were to lodge. It was within half-an-hour of sunset when we
entered the wood, and a little after sunset when we came into the plain: we met with nothing
in the first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood, which was not above
two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed, one after another,
as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of
us, and were gone out of sight in a few moments. Upon this, our guide, who, by the way, was
but a fainthearted fellow, bid us keep in a ready posture, for he believed there were
more wolves a-coming. We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us; but we saw no more
wolves till we came through that wood, which was near half a league, and entered the plain.
As soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first
object we met with was a dead horse; that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had
killed, and at least a dozen of them at work, we could not say eating him, but picking his
bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before. We did not think fit to disturb
them at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly
at them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I found we were like to have more
business upon our hands than we were aware of. We had not gone half over the plain when
we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner, and presently
after we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them
in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in
what manner to receive them, but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only
way; so we formed in a moment; but that we might not have too much interval, I ordered
that only every other man should fire, and that the others, who had not fired, should
stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us; and
then that those that had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusees again, but
stand ready, every one with a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusee and a pair
of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire six volleys, half of us at a
time; however, at present we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy
made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire. Four of them
being shot in the head, dropped; several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we
could see by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon,
remembering that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice
of a man, I caused all the company to halloo as loud as they could; and I found the notion
not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout they began to retire and turn about. I then
ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and away
they went to the woods. This gave us leisure to charge our pieces again; and that we might
lose no time, we kept going; but we had but little more than loaded our fusees, and put
ourselves in readiness, when we heard a terrible noise in the same wood on our left, only that
it was farther onward, the same way we were to go.
The night was coming on, and the light began to be dusky, which made it worse on our side;
but the noise increasing, we could easily perceive that it was the howling and yelling
of those hellish creatures; and on a sudden we perceived three troops of wolves, one on
our left, one behind us, and one in our front, so that we seemed to be surrounded with them:
however, as they did not fall upon us, we kept our way forward, as fast as we could
make our horses go, which, the way being very rough, was only a good hard trot. In this
manner, we came in view of the entrance of a wood, through which we were to pass, at
the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when coming nearer the
lane or pass, we saw a confused number of wolves standing just at the entrance. On a
sudden, at another opening of the wood, we heard the noise of a gun, and looking that
way, out rushed a horse, with a saddle and a bridle on him, flying like the wind, and
sixteen or seventeen wolves after him, full speed: the horse had the advantage of them;
but as we supposed that he could not hold it at that rate, we doubted not but they would
get up with him at last: no question but they did.
But here we had a most horrible sight; for riding up to the entrance where the horse
came out, we found the carcasses of another horse and of two men, devoured by the ravenous
creatures; and one of the men was no doubt the same whom we heard fire the gun, for there
lay a gun just by him fired off; but as to the man, his head and the upper part of his
body was eaten up. This filled us with horror, and we knew not what course to take; but the
creatures resolved us soon, for they gathered about us presently, in hopes of prey; and
I verily believe there were three hundred of them. It happened, very much to our advantage,
that at the entrance into the wood, but a little way from it, there lay some large timber-trees,
which had been cut down the summer before, and I suppose lay there for carriage. I drew
my little troop in among those trees, and placing ourselves in a line behind one long
tree, I advised them all to alight, and keeping that tree before us for a breastwork, to stand
in a triangle, or three fronts, enclosing our horses in the centre. We did so, and it
was well we did; for never was a more furious charge than the creatures made upon us in
this place. They came on with a growling kind of noise, and mounted the piece of timber,
which, as I said, was our breastwork, as if they were only rushing upon their prey; and
this fury of theirs, it seems, was principally occasioned by their seeing our horses behind
us. I ordered our men to fire as before, every other man; and they took their aim so sure
that they killed several of the wolves at the first volley; but there was a necessity
to keep a continual firing, for they came on like devils, those behind pushing on those
before. When we had fired a second volley of our fusees,
we thought they stopped a little, and I hoped they would have gone off, but it was but a
moment, for others came forward again; so we fired two volleys of our pistols; and I
believe in these four firings we had killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice
as many, yet they came on again. I was loth to spend our shot too hastily; so I called
my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed, for, with the greatest dexterity
imaginable, he had charged my fusee and his own while we were engaged—but, as I said,
I called my other man, and giving him a horn of powder, I had him lay a train all along
the piece of timber, and let it be a large train. He did so, and had but just time to
get away, when the wolves came up to it, and some got upon it, when I, snapping an unchanged
pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; those that were upon the timber were scorched
with it, and six or seven of them fell; or rather jumped in among us with the force and
fright of the fire; we despatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frightened
with the light, which the night—for it was now very near dark—made more terrible that
they drew back a little; upon which I ordered our last pistols to be fired off in one volley,
and after that we gave a shout; upon this the wolves turned tail, and we sallied immediately
upon near twenty lame ones that we found struggling on the ground, and fell to cutting them with
our swords, which answered our expectation, for the crying and howling they made was better
understood by their fellows; so that they all fled and left us.
We had, first and last, killed about threescore of them, and had it been daylight we had killed
many more. The field of battle being thus cleared, we made forward again, for we had
still near a league to go. We heard the ravenous creatures howl and yell in the woods as we
went several times, and sometimes we fancied we saw some of them; but the snow dazzling
our eyes, we were not certain. In about an hour more we came to the town where we were
to lodge, which we found in a terrible fright and all in arms; for, it seems, the night
before the wolves and some bears had broken into the village, and put them in such terror
that they were obliged to keep guard night and day, but especially in the night, to preserve
their cattle, and indeed their people. The next morning our guide was so ill, and
his limbs swelled so much with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther;
so we were obliged to take a new guide here, and go to Toulouse, where we found a warm
climate, a fruitful, pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, nor anything like them;
but when we told our story at Toulouse, they told us it was nothing but what was ordinary
in the great forest at the foot of the mountains, especially when the snow lay on the ground;
but they inquired much what kind of guide we had got who would venture to bring us that
way in such a severe season, and told us it was surprising we were not all devoured. When
we told them how we placed ourselves and the horses in the middle, they blamed us exceedingly,
and told us it was fifty to one but we had been all destroyed, for it was the sight of
the horses which made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey, and that at other times
they are really afraid of a gun; but being excessively hungry, and raging on that account,
the eagerness to come at the horses had made them senseless of danger, and that if we had
not by the continual fire, and at last by the stratagem of the train of powder, mastered
them, it had been great odds but that we had been torn to pieces; whereas, had we been
content to have sat still on horseback, and fired as horsemen, they would not have taken
the horses so much for their own, when men were on their backs, as otherwise; and withal,
they told us that at last, if we had stood altogether, and left our horses, they would
have been so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe, especially
having our firearms in our hands, being so many in number. For my part, I was never so
sensible of danger in my life; for, seeing above three hundred devils come roaring and
open-mouthed to devour us, and having nothing to shelter us or retreat to, I gave myself
over for lost; and, as it was, I believe I shall never care to cross those mountains
again: I think I would much rather go a thousand leagues by sea, though I was sure to meet
with a storm once a-week. I have nothing uncommon to take notice of
in my passage through France—nothing but what other travellers have given an account
of with much more advantage than I can. I travelled from Toulouse to Paris, and without
any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover the 14th of January,
after having had a severe cold season to travel in.
I was now come to the centre of my travels, and had in a little time all my new-discovered
estate safe about me, the bills of exchange which I brought with me having been currently
paid. My principal guide and privy-counsellor was
my good ancient widow, who, in gratitude for the money I had sent her, thought no pains
too much nor care too great to employ for me; and I trusted her so entirely that I was
perfectly easy as to the security of my effects; and, indeed, I was very happy from the beginning,
and now to the end, in the unspotted integrity of this good gentlewoman.
And now, having resolved to dispose of my plantation in the Brazils, I wrote to my old
friend at Lisbon, who, having offered it to the two merchants, the survivors of my trustees,
who lived in the Brazils, they accepted the offer, and remitted thirty-three thousand
pieces of eight to a correspondent of theirs at Lisbon to pay for it.
In return, I signed the instrument of sale in the form which they sent from Lisbon, and
sent it to my old man, who sent me the bills of exchange for thirty-two thousand eight
hundred pieces of eight for the estate, reserving the payment of one hundred moidores a year
to him (the old man) during his life, and fifty moidores afterwards to his son for his
life, which I had promised them, and which the plantation was to make good as a rent-charge.
And thus I have given the first part of a life of fortune and adventure—a life of
Providence's chequer-work, and of a variety which the world will seldom be able to show
the like of; beginning foolishly, but closing much more happily than any part of it ever
gave me leave so much as to hope for. Any one would think that in this state of
complicated good fortune I was past running any more hazards—and so, indeed, I had been,
if other circumstances had concurred; but I was inured to a wandering life, had no family,
nor many relations; nor, however rich, had I contracted fresh acquaintance; and though
I had sold my estate in the Brazils, yet I could not keep that country out of my head,
and had a great mind to be upon the wing again; especially I could not resist the strong inclination
I had to see my island, and to know if the poor Spaniards were in being there. My true
friend, the widow, earnestly dissuaded me from it, and so far prevailed with me, that
for almost seven years she prevented my running abroad, during which time I took my two nephews,
the children of one of my brothers, into my care; the eldest, having something of his
own, I bred up as a gentleman, and gave him a settlement of some addition to his estate
after my decease. The other I placed with the captain of a ship; and after five years,
finding him a sensible, bold, enterprising young fellow, I put him into a good ship,
and sent him to sea; and this young fellow afterwards drew me in, as old as I was, to
further adventures myself. In the meantime, I in part settled myself
here; for, first of all, I married, and that not either to my disadvantage or dissatisfaction,
and had three children, two sons and one daughter; but my wife dying, and my nephew coming home
with good success from a voyage to Spain, my inclination to go abroad, and his importunity,
prevailed, and engaged me to go in his ship as a private trader to the East Indies; this
was in the year 1694. In this voyage I visited my new colony in
the island, saw my successors the Spaniards, had the old story of their lives and of the
villains I left there; how at first they insulted the poor Spaniards, how they afterwards agreed,
disagreed, united, separated, and how at last the Spaniards were obliged to use violence
with them; how they were subjected to the Spaniards, how honestly the Spaniards used
them—a history, if it were entered into, as full of variety and wonderful accidents
as my own part—particularly, also, as to their battles with the Caribbeans, who landed
several times upon the island, and as to the improvement they made upon the island itself,
and how five of them made an attempt upon the mainland, and brought away eleven men
and five women prisoners, by which, at my coming, I found about twenty young children
on the island. Here I stayed about twenty days, left them
supplies of all necessary things, and particularly of arms, powder, shot, clothes, tools, and
two workmen, which I had brought from England with me, viz. a carpenter and a smith.
Besides this, I shared the lands into parts with them, reserved to myself the property
of the whole, but gave them such parts respectively as they agreed on; and having settled all
things with them, and engaged them not to leave the place, I left them there.
From thence I touched at the Brazils, from whence I sent a bark, which I bought there,
with more people to the island; and in it, besides other supplies, I sent seven women,
being such as I found proper for service, or for wives to such as would take them. As
to the Englishmen, I promised to send them some women from England, with a good cargo
of necessaries, if they would apply themselves to planting—which I afterwards could not
perform. The fellows proved very honest and diligent after they were mastered and had
their properties set apart for them. I sent them, also, from the Brazils, five cows, three
of them being big with calf, some sheep, and some hogs, which when I came again were considerably
increased. But all these things, with an account how
three hundred Caribbees came and invaded them, and ruined their plantations, and how they
fought with that whole number twice, and were at first defeated, and one of them killed;
but at last, a storm destroying their enemies' canoes, they famished or destroyed almost
all the rest, and renewed and recovered the possession of their plantation, and still
lived upon the island. All these things, with some very surprising
incidents in some new adventures of my own, for ten years more, I shall give a farther
account of in the Second Part of my Story.