Robinson Crusoe, Told to the Children by John Lang

by Daniel Defoe

It was near the end of the month of December, his harvest time, and Robinson used then to be much out in his fields even before daylight. One morning, being anxious to finish cutting the crop, he had left his house even earlier than usual, long before the stars had ceased to shine or the first flush of dawn had showed in the sky, and as he crossed the higher lying ground between his castle and the cornfield, it chanced that he glanced in the direction of the sea.

There, on the shore, to his great horror on his own side of the island, he saw a fire burning, and he knew that this could only have been lit by the cannibals, who had once more landed.

Straight back to his castle he ran, and climbed hurriedly over the fence, pulling the ladder up after him. Quickly he loaded all his muskets and pistols, ready to defend himself to the last gasp, for he was sure that, if these savage men should happen to see his crops growing in the fields, they would know that some one was living on the island, and would never rest till they found him.

But when Robinson had waited some time without anything happening, he could bear the suspense no longer. Taking the telescope, he put his ladder against the rock where there was a flat ledge, and climbing up to this, pulled the ladder after him, and again resting it there, so climbed to the top of the rock, where he lay down and looked eagerly through the glass.

There were no less than nine savages, he saw, all sitting round the fire, cooking something, but what it was that they cooked he could not tell, though it was not difficult to guess.

After a time they began a kind of dance round the fire, all of them stark naked, and Robinson watched them at this for nearly two hours.

The cannibals had two canoes, which were hauled up on the shore, and as it was then low water he fancied they must be waiting for the tide to rise again. And so it turned out, for when the tide had been flowing for a time, they shoved off, jumped on board, and paddled away.

As soon as Robinson was sure that they were really gone, he went with all his speed to the hill from where, first of all, long ago, he had seen signs of savages, and looking through his glass, he saw three more canoes at sea, all paddling away from the island. On going down to the shore, there he saw a dreadful sight. Skulls, bits of flesh, and bones, lay about, and fresh blood was everywhere, hardly yet soaked into the sand.

This awful sight so horrified and roused Robinson that once more he determined, whenever the next chance came, to attack the cannibals, however many there might be, and kill all that he could. But always, for long after, he lived in great uneasiness, never sure that at any moment he might not be taken by surprise. Often he wished the time had come when he could run at them; for suspense is always harder to bear than any action, however dangerous.

But many months went by, and no savages were seen, and nothing disturbed Robinson except dreadful dreams, from which in the night he often started out of his sleep, crying out and struggling, thinking that the savages were trying to kill him.