The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1808)

He satisfied us there was no danger of that kind in the way that we were to go: so we readily agreed to follow him; as did also twelve other gentlemen, with their servants, some French, some Spanish, who, as I said, had attempted to go, and were obliged to come back again.

Accordingly we all set out from Pampeluna, with our guide, on the fifteenth of November; and indeed I was surprised, when, instead of going forward, he came directly back with us, on the same road that we came from Madrid, above twenty miles; when having passed two rivers, and come into the plain country, we found ourselves in a warm climate again, where the country was pleasant, and no snow to be seen; but on a sudden, turning to the left, he approached the mountains another way; and though it is true, the hills and the precipices looked dreadfully, yet he made so many tours, such meanders, and led us by such winding ways, we insensibly passed the height of the mountains, without being much encumbered with the snow; and all on a sudden he shewed us the pleasant fruitful provinces of Languedoc and Gascoigne, all green and flourishing; though indeed they were at a great distance, and we had some rough way to pass yet.

We were a little uneasy, however, when we found it snowed one whole day and a night, so fast, that we could not travel; but he bid us be easy, we should soon be past it all: we found, indeed, that we began to descend every day, and to come more north than before; and so, depending upon our guide, we went on.

It was about two hours before night, when our guide being something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way, adjoining to a thick wood. Two of the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he been half a mile before us, he had been devoured indeed, before we could have helped him; one of them fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that violence, that he had not time, or not presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but hallooed and cried out to us most lustily. My man Friday being next to me, I bid him ride up, and see what was the matter. As soon as Friday came in sight of the man, he hallooed, as loud as the other, "O master' O master!" But, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the man, and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him in the head.

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for he, having been used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear upon him, but went close up to him, and shot him as above; whereas any of us would have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed the wolf, or endangered shooting the man.

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I, and indeed it alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday's pistol, we heard on both sides the dismallest howlings of wolves, and the noise redoubled by the echo of the mountains, that it was to us as if there had been a prodigious multitude of them; and perhaps indeed there was not such a few, as that we had no cause of apprehensions.

However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other, that had fastened upon the horse, left him immediately, and fled, having happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth, so that he had not done him much hurt; the man, indeed, was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit him twice, once on the arm, and the other time a little above his knee; and he was just as it were tumbling down by the disorder of the horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf.

It is easy to suppose, that at the noise of Friday's pistol we all mended our pace, and rid up as fast as the way (which was very difficult) would give us leave, to see what was the matter. As soon as we came clear of the trees which blinded us before, we saw plainly what had been the case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide; though we did not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.

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, which 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, I say not his proper prey, because though I can't say what excessive hunger might do, which was now their case, the ground being all covered with snow; yet as to men, he does not usually attempt them, unless they first attack him; on the contrary, if you meet him in the woods, if you don't meddle with him, he won't meddle with you; yet then you must take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road; for he is a very nice gentleman, he won't go a step out of the 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; and if you throw or toss any thing at him, and it hits him, though it were but a bit of stick as big as your finger, he takes it for an affront, and sets all other business aside to pursue his revenge; for he will have satisfaction in point of honour, and this is his first quality; the next is, that if he be once affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he has his revenge, but follow 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 from his horse; for the man was both hurt and frighted, and indeed the last more than the first; when, on a sudden, we espied the bear come out of the wood, and a very 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 pleased: "You fool you," said I, "he will eat you up." – "Eatee me up! eatee me up!" says Friday, twice over again; "me eatee him up; me make you good laugh; you all stay here, me shew you good laugh." So down he sits and gets his boots off in a moment, and put on a pair of pumps, (as we call the flat shoes they wear) and which he had in his pocket, and 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 wit you," We followed at a distance; for now being come down to the Gascoigne side of the mountains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country was plain, and pretty open, though 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 takes up a great stone, and throws 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 shew us some laugh, as he called it.

As soon as the bear felt the stone, and saw him, he turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long strides, and strolling along at a strange rate, so as he would put a horse to a middling gallop. Away runs 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 heartily 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 run away; and I called out, "You dog," said I, "is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature." He hears me, and cries out, "No shoot, no shoot, stand still, you get much laugh;" and as the nimble creature ran two feet for the beast's one, he turned on a sudden, on one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree, fit for his purpose, he beckoned us to follow, and doubling his pace, he gets 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 to 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 any thing to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode nearer to him.

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small of a large limb of the tree, 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 falls a-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 he sees him stand still, he calls 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 bough; and the bear, just as if he understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he fell a-jumping again, and the bear stopped again.

We thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and called to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out earnestly, "O pray! O 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 indeed, 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 get out far enough to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it, and where 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," said Friday, "you no come farther, me go, me go; you no come to me, me come to you;" and upon this he goes out to the smallest end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets 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, takes it up, and stands 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, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he comes back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty leisurely, 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 feet upon the ground, Friday stepped close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him as dead as a stone.

Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he falls a-laughing himself very loud; "So we kill bear in my country," says Friday. "So you kill them?" said I; "why, you have no guns." – "No," says he, "no guns, but shoot great much long arrow."

This was, indeed, 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 any thing 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 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, of which our guide told us, if there were any 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 first 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 and out of sight in a few moments.

Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched faint-hearted fellow, bade 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 of him, but picking of 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 were not half gone over the plain, but we began to hear the wolves howl in the woods, 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 that then those who had fired at first, should not pretend to load their fusils again, but stand ready, with every one a pistol, for we were all armed with a fusil and a pair of pistols each man; so we were, by this method, able to fire six vollies, 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 our company to halloo as loud as we could, and I found the notion not altogether mistaken; for upon our shout, they began to retire, and turn about; then I 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 doing; but we had but little more than loaded our fusils, and put ourselves into a 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 night began to be dusky, which made it the 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 two or three troops of wolves on our left, one behind us, and one on 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 large trot; and in this manner we only came in view of the entrance of the wood through which we were to pass, at the farther side of the plain; but we were greatly surprised, when, coming near 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: indeed the horse had the heels 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; and no question but they did.

Here we had a most horrible sight; for, riding up to the entrance where the horse came out, we found the carcass of another horse, and of two men devoured by these ravenous creatures, and of one the man was no doubt the same whom we heard fire a 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, were 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 by 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 these 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 us with a growling kind of a 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, which was the prey they aimed at. I ordered our men to fire as before, every man; and they took their aim so sure, that indeed 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 our second volley of fusils, 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 our vollies of pistols; and I believe in these four firings we killed seventeen or eighteen of them, and lamed twice as many; yet they came on again.

I was loath to spend our last shot too hastily; so I called my servant, not my man Friday, for he was better employed; for, with the greatest dexterity imaginable, he charged my fusil and his own, while we were engaged; but, as I said, I called my other man; and giving him a horn of powder, I bade him lay a train all along the piece of timber, and let it be a large train; he did so, and had but time to get away, when the wolves came up to it, and some were got up upon it; when I, snapping an uncharged pistol close to the powder, set it on fire; and 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 dispatched these in an instant, and the rest were so frighted with the light, which the night, for now it was 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, which we found struggling on the ground, and fell a-cutting them with our swords, which answered our expectation; for the crying and howling they made were better understood by their fellows; so that they fled and left us.

We had, first and last, killed about three score 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; so 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, that, the night before, the wolves and some bears had broken into that village, and put them in a terrible fright; and 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 so swelled with the rankling of his two wounds, that he could go no farther; so we were obliged to take a new guide there, and go to Tholouse, where we found a warm climate, a fruitful pleasant country, and no snow, no wolves, or any thing like them; but when we told our story at Tholouse, 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 a guide we had gotten, that would venture to bring us that way in such a severe season; and told us, it was very much 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 that made the wolves so furious, seeing their prey; and that at other times they are really afraid of a gun; but they being excessive 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 continued 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 all together, and left our horses, they would have been so eager to have devoured them, that we might have come off safe, especially having our fire-arms in our hands, and 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 were 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 Tholouse to Paris, and without any considerable stay came to Calais, and landed safe at Dover, the fourteenth 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 very currently paid.