The life and strange surprizing adventures of Robinson Crusoe

Front matter

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Preface

Crusoe ” which delighted English bo37^s when first published.

2nd, — A Memoir of De Foe, carefully based on the most trustworthy authorities, has been prefixed.

3rd, — In the Appendix will be found a Memoir of Alexander Selkirk, who, whether rightly or wrongly, is inseparably connected with De Foe’s fiction; a Narrative of his Residence on the Island of Juan Fernandez; Cow'pers Poem, suggested by Selkirk’s narrative ; and a Brief Account of the Famous Spanish Crusoe, Peter Serrano.

4th, — The Illustrations have been expressly designed for this edition by Mr. Keeley Halswelle, with the exception, of course, of the Facsimiles occasionally introduced of the Title-pages and Engravings in the original work. The Head-pieces are by Clark Stanton, A.R.A. In a word, no pains have been spared to render the present edition complete in every detail ; and worthy, it is hoped, of a place in the library of all good English boys.

Part the Second . . . . . . . . . . . Siil

4. APPENDIX—

I. — Alexander Selkirk : A Memoir . . . . . . . . 629

II.— Narrative of Selkirk’s Residence on the Island of Juan

III. — Verses Supposed to be written by Alexander Selkirk 644

IV. — A Spanish Robinson Crusoe .. .. .. .. 645

“ The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Kobinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner; Who lived eight and twenty Years all alone, on an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroouoque ; Having been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last Strangely delivered by Pyrates. Written by Himself. London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship, in Paternoster Row.” (1st Edition, 25 April, 1719.)

“ The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. Being the Second and Last Part of his Life, and of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels round Three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself. To which is added a Map of the World, in which is Delineated the Voyages of Robinson Crusoe. London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship, in Paternoster Row.” (1st Edition, 20 August, 1719.)

“ Serious Reflections during the Life and Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. With his Vision of the Angelick World. Written by Himself. London. Printed for W. Taylor, at the Ship, in Paternoster Row.” (1st Edition, 6 August, 1720.)

DANIEL DE FOE:

CHAPTER I.

HIS EARLY YEARS.

f;he preface to the third part of his immortal fiction (“ Serious Eeflections on Morals and Keligion ”) , Daniel De Foe bids the reader trace a parallelism between the fiction and the biography of its author. There is a man alive, he says, and well known too, the actions of whose life are the first subject of these volumes, and to whom all or most part of the story most directly alludes ; this, he adds, may be depended upon for truth. In a word, there’s not a circumstance in the imaginary story but has its just allusion to a real story, and chimes part for part, and step for step, with the inimitable “ Life of Eobinson Crusoe.”

Notwithstanding this assertion, I am inclined to think that much of the pretended allegory was an after-thought of De Foe’s, and that between his active career and that of the solitary in the wave-washed island there exists no more resemblance than between Macedon and Monmouth in Fluellen’s famous comparison. We may see, perhaps, some degree of likeness in the loneliness of De Foe in the world which he buffeted so stoutly, and the caged condition of the castaway may remind us of his creator’s imprisonment ; but we refuse to carry the allegory any further, or to identify every incident in the romance with every event in the real life. For the rest, De Foe was a greater, a braver, and a more self-controlled man than “ Eobinson Crusoe,” as the following brief biographical sketch will, I hope, abundantly prove.

Daniel Defoe, or De Foe, was born in the parish of St. Giles, Cripplegate, in 1660; the son of James Foe, citizen and butcher, of London; and the

HIS EARLY YEARS AND EDUCATION.

grandson of Daniel Foe, a gentleman of good estate in Northamptonshire, who kept a pack of hounds. Nothing more than this can he said of Daniel De Foe’s grandfather ; of his father some particulars are recorded. “That he was an excellent father,” says Mr. Lee,* “ may he concluded from the affectionate reverence with which his son alludes to him ; that he was prosperous is evident from his ability to give that son the best education then open to Dissenters. No doubt can be entertained that he was a good man, and a sincere Christian. He had, in all probability, been a constant attendant at his parish church during the ministry of the pious and reverend Samuel Annesley, LL.D. ; and when that divine was ejected, under the Act of Uniformity, James Foe accompanied his beloved pastor, and became a Nonconformist. He died about 1706-7, full of years, and the last act recorded of him (though not by his son) is his giving a testimonial to the character of a female domestic who had formerly lived two years in his service. He says he should not have recommended her to Mr. Cave, ‘ that godly minister, had not her conversation been becoming the gospel.’ ”

Under such auspices passed the earliest years of the life of De Foe, and his mind seems to have been carefully imbued with religious sentiments. He was a bold, generous, vivacious boy, who, as he himself tells us, never struck an enemy when he was down. His perseverance was of no ordinary description, and when the poor Nonconformists had reason to fear that the Government would deprive them of their printed copies of the Bible, he set to work on the difficult task of transcribing the Old Testament, and never abandoned it until he had completed the whole of the Pentateuch.

At the age of fourteen this bright, enthusiastic hoy — whom his parents designated for the ministry — was sent to the celebrated Dissenting Academy at Newington Green, kept by a ripe scholar and able man, the Rev. Charles Morton. Here he made rapid progress in the various departments of learning ; and here, too, as his mind developed and his intellect matured, his moral sense of responsibility grew stronger, so that he was induced to ask himself whether he was suited for a clerical career, and whether it was suited for him, replying to both questions in the negative. Nevertheless, he went through a course of theology, which, in truth, was incumbent on all Mr. Morton’s pupils ; he also studied the rudiments of political science ; he acquired a satisfactory knowledge of mathematics, logic, natural philosophy, history, geography ; something considerable he knew, too, of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and Italian ; and — not least useful accomplishment — he , learned to write his mother tongue with ease, accuracy, and vigour.

That he profited by his studies at school, and that he afterwards improved to the uttermost the scanty leisure of a busy life, is abundantly proved by the variety and erudition of his writings.

Soon after he had completed his education, he was placed in the warehouse of a wholesale hose-factor, to be instructed, perhaps, in book-keeping * Lee, “Daniel De Foe, his Life,” &c., vol. i. p. 5.

A CHAKAOTERISTIC ANECDOTE.

and business management. Such details were little in accordance with his tastes, and we do not wonder that, with his strong Protestant principles and enlarged sympathies, he early plunged into the fierce joys of political contest. He was no bigot, however — no fanatical exponent of his own views ; and though a sound Protestant, he was little inclined to join in the unreasoning persecution of Roman Catholics which characterized the closing yeai-s of Charles the Second’s reign. At a later time he wrote : “ I never blame men who, professing principles destructive of the Constitution they live under, and believing it their just right to supplant it, act in conformity to the principles they profess. I believe, if I were a Papist, I should do the same. Believing the merit of it would carry me to heaven, I doubt not I should go as far as another. But when we ran up that plot to general massacres, fleets of pilgrims, bits and bridles, knives, handcuffs, and a thousand such things, I confess, though a boy, I could not then, nor can now, come up to them. And my reasons were, as they still are, because I see no cause to believe the Papists to be fools, whatever else we had occasion to think them. A general massacre, truly ! when the Papists are not five to a hundred, in some countries not one, and within the city hardly one to a thousand ! ”

This liberal and tolerant spirit De Foe preserved throughout his career, and few of his contemporaries, if any, more thoroughly comprehended the true principles of civil and religious freedom. For bigotry, whether Protestant or Roman Catholic, he had a great contempt. On one occasion he entered a crowd of listeners who, with mouths and ears open, were devouring the latest scandal against “ the Papishes.” An itinerant sweater was retailing an invention in reference to the newly-erected Monv'.iient. “ Last night,” said he, unblushingly, “ six Frenchmen came up and stole it away ; and but for the watch, who stopped them as they went over the bridge, and made them carry it back again, they might, for aught we know, have carried it over into France. These Papishes will never have done.” Some of the bystanders looked incredulous at this very bold assertion, and Mr. Daniel Foe stepped forward, with grave satirical air, to clench the monstrous absurdity. He repeated the story, but added a touch of characteristic realism ; for, said he, if you do but hasten to the spot, you will see the workmen employed in making all fast again ! *

Seven years later, De Foe, or Foe, as he then called himself, started in business on his own account. He became a liveryman of London, and established himself as hose-factor in Freeman’s Court, Cornhill. His interest in politics, however, was of so deep and absorbing a kind that his commercial speculations must greatly have suffered by it. Pie could not serve twe masters — he was too earnest a patriot to attain success as a man of business. Now-a-days, it is quite possible for any one of us to combine both capacities. The political questions which demand attention may well be considered in * Forster, “ Historical and Biographical Essays,” ii. 8.

DE FOE AS A POLITICIAN.

the intervals of our leisure, and they are seldom of that order on which the safety of an empire depends. But in De Foe’s time it was quite otherwise. He who plunged into the raging strife was compelled to throw aside every impediment, and to fight, if he fought at all, with arms and hands unencumbered. The seven years of his apprenticeship had been seven most eventful years, and De Foe, with his far-seeing sagacity, could not but rightly estimate the importance of the issue. He was too courageous and too wise to fear that issue. As Mr. Forster eloquently and truly says, hope would brighten in his sensible, manly heart, when it most deserted weaker men’s. When the King, alarmed at last for the safety of the crown he dishonoured, fiung off his licentious negligence for crueller enjoyments ; when the street ballads and lampoons against his shameless court grew daily bitterer and more daring ; when a Sidney and a Kussell were brought to the block for advocating such a measure of liberty as would now-a-days be considered moderate by the most slavish partisan of Csesarism ; no alarm was likely to depress D( Foe’s clear, calm, and unshaken intellect. And the end of that Saturnalia of license and shame, of foul cruelty, of fouller luxuriousness, of tyranny at home and disgrace abroad, which we call the reign of Charles II., came at length — Charles II. was dead, and caps were thrown in the air for James II.

This is not the place for an historical summary, and yet in the history ol his time De Foe played so prominent a part that an occasional glance at its leading events must be permitted us. The intentions of James II. he fully unaerstood and appreciated. He saw that he aimed at the establishment of Popery ix=i his end in religion, and the absolutism of the Crown as the goal of his policy. He heard bishops preach of the divine right and infallibility of Kings ; he heard it publicly asserted, that if the King commanded his head, and sent his messengers to fetch it, he was bound to submit, and stand still while it was cut off. We need not wonder that, under such circumstances, De Foe gladly hailed the so-called rebellion of the Duke of Monmouth as affording a prospect of deliverance for his country. Its religion and its freedom seemed to him to be intimately bound up with the success of the Duke’s expedition ; and mounting his horse, he rode away to enlist under his standard. He was with the invaders at Bath and Bristol ; but — how or why I know not — he was absent from the great fight at Sedgemoor, when the King’s cause was so nearly lost. On learning of Monmouth’s disastrous defeat, he would seem to have gained the sea-shore and taken ship to the Continent. With his usual energy he turned his self-banishment to advantage, traversing Spain, and Germany, and France, and gathering a vast fund of experience and information, which in due time proved to him of the highest value.

It was probably in the following year that he returned to Freeman’s Court, Cornhill. Thenceforth he wrote himself De Foe. Whether, says Mr. Forster, the change was a piece of innocent vanity picked up in his what’s in a name ?

travels, or had any more serious motive, it would now be idle to inquire. He was known both as Foe and De Foe to the last ; but it is the latter name which he inscribed on the title-page of almost every one of his books, and it is the name by which he has become immortal.

Mr. Lee, De Foe’s latest biographer, differs from all preceding authorities in dating the change of name as late as 1703. “ I am inclined to think,” he says, “it began accidentally, or was adopted for convenience, to distinguish him from his father.” But surely such a distinction was unnecessary, when the son was called Daniel and the father James ! I think the change far more likely to have been a foreign affectation, adopted during tlie exile’s Continental travels, and afterwards persevered in from habit ; but the reader shall have an opportunity of following up the chain of Mr. Lee’s reasoning, which is ingenious, if unsatisfactory.

“ The father,” he says, “ from his age and experience, and the son from his commanding ability, were both influential members of the Dissenting interest in the city. They would respectively be spoken of and addressed, orally, as Mr. Foe, and Mr. D. Foe. The name as spoken would in writing become Mr. De Foe,* and thus what originated in accident might be used for convenience, and become more or less settled by time. This simple explanation is favoured by the following proofs of De Foe’s indifference in the matter. His initials and name appear in various forms in his works, subscribed to dedications, prefaces, &c., and this maybe presumed to have been done by himself. Before 1703 I find only D. F. In that year Mr. De Foe, and Daniel De Foe. In the following year, D. D. F. ; De Foe ; and Daniel De Foe. In 1705, D. F. ; and three autograph letters, all addressed to the Earl of Halifax, are successively signed D. Foe; De Foe; Daniel De Foe. In 1706, D. F. ; D; Foe; De Foe; Daniel De Foe. And in 1709, D. F. ; De Foe; and Daniel De Foe.”

The first printed production from De Foe’s pen was a political pamphlet, the precursor of a legion of similar writings, entitled “A Letter, containing some Reflections on His Majesty’s Declaration for Liberty of Conscience,” dated the 4th of April 1687.

In the following year William of Orange landed at Torbay, and De Foe, zealous as ever in the noble cause of civil and religious liberty, hastened to welcome “ The Deliverer,” in whose success lay the only hope of the release of England from the thraldom of bigotry and absolutism. Armed, and on horseback, he joined the second line of W illiam’s army at Henley-on-Thames. He probably accompanied the Prince on his entry into London. At the stirring debates of the Convention he was unquestionably present, and his heart must have leaped with joy when he heard the famous resolution passed, on the 13th of February, that no King had reigned in England since the day of James’s flight. Gallantly mounted and accoutred, he was one of “ the

* Surely not ! There is a great difference in sound between the English D. and the French He.

DE FOE AND HIS SOVEREIGN.

royal regiment of volunteer horse, made up of the chief citizens,” who attended William and Mary on their first visit to Guildhall. Between William and the sturdy political Dissenter there was a striking resemblance of character. Both were self-reserved, self-controlled men, masters of their emotions, able to preserve silence and to “ stand alone.” Both had a sincere respect for the principles of an enlightened toleration. Both shared the same opinions on the necessity of counter-checking the preponderant power of France. Even in religious matters the views and thoughts of the Lutheran King must have closely approximated to those of his Nonconformist subject. Certain it is that the sympathy between the two was considerable. William honoured De Foe with his confidence, and De Foe looked up to his King with esteem and admiration. To the close of his life he celebrated as a festival the memorable 4th of November, the day on which William landed at Torbay, — “ a day,” he exultingly wrote, “ famous on various accounts, and every one of them dear to Britons who love their country, value the Protestant interest, or have an aversion to tyranny and oppression. On this day he was born ; on this day he married the daughter of England ; and on this day he rescued the nation from a bondage worse than that of Egypt — a bondage of soul as well as bodily servitude — a slavery to the ambition and raging lust of a generation set on fire by pride, avarice, cruelty, and blood.” *

* Review, vol. iv. p. 458.

Chapter II. A Life Of Struggle

FOE celebrated the first anniversary of the Day of Deliverance at a country house in the pleasant village of Tooting. Ho resided here for some time, forming the Dissenters of the neighbourhood into a regular congregation, and supplying them with a devout and learned man for minister. He afterwards removed to the neighbourhood of Mickleham, “ the Happy Valley,” as it has not unjustly been called, in allusion to the rich and cultivated loveliness of its landscapes.

In 1689 and 1690 we hear but little of DeFoe, except that he still attempted, and, as we shall see, with but little success, to combine the pursuit of politics with that of business. In 1691 appeared his first effort in verse, entitled “ A New Discovery of an Old Intrigue : a Satire level’d at Treachery and Ambition ; calculated to the Nativity of the Eapparee Plott, and the Modesty of the Jacobite Clergy.” Like all De Foe’s productions in metre, it contains much solid sense, and many vigorous lines ; but it is utterly destitute of imagination and fancy, and not less destitute of all melody of language and harmony of rliythm.

In the following year began the series of distressing commercial difiiculties which finally terminated in De Foe’s insolvency. There can be no reasonable doubt that they were due to his own want of business habits. A politician and a wit, he was wholly unsuited for the proper management of commercial speculations. In his book, “ The Compleat Tradesman,” he shows that he perfectly understood the causes of his ill-success. “ A wit turned tradesman ! ” he exclaims, “ what an incongruous part of nature is there brought together, consisting of direct contraries ! No apron strings will hold him ; ’tis in vain to lock him in behind the compter — he’s gone in a moment ; instead of journal and ledger, he runs away to his Virgil and Horace ; his iournal entries are all Pindaricks, and his ledger all Heroicks : he is truly dramatic from one end to the other, through the whole scene of his trade ; and as the first part is all comedy, so the two last acts are all made up with tragedy ; a statute of bankrupt is, his Exeunt omnes, and he generally speaks the epilogue in the Fleet Prison or the Mint.”

An angry creditor took out against De Foe a commission of bankruptcy.

“ AN ESSAY ON PROJECTS.”

wliich, however, was soon superseded at the request of his other creditors ; and De Foe’s proposal of composition was accepted on his single bond. It should be added, to his honour, that this he punctually paid b}’’ the most indefatigable exertion of industry and self-denial. And afterwards, when misfortune overtook some of these more lenient creditors, De Foe, whom King William’s favour had meanwhile raised to a position of comparative affluence, voluntarily paid the whole amount of their claims.

While his proposal was being debated by his creditors, De Foe, to avoid imprisonment, had taken refuge in Bristol ; and here, it is said, he was known as the “ Sunday gentleman,” because, from fear of the bailiffs, he could not appear in public on any other day. But on these public appearances ho was gaily dressed, in a fine flowing wig, lace ruffles, and with a sword by his side. His enforced leisure he occupied in the composition of his admirably practical “ Essay on Projects;” which, however, was not published until two years afterwards.

Forster describes it as “ a most shrewd, wise, and memorable piece of writing.” It suggested various reforms in the English system of banking, and a plan for central county banks ; it demonstrated the immense advantages of an efflcient improvement of the public roads, as a source of public benefit and revenue ; it recommended, for the security of trade, a mitigation of the severities of the law against the honest bankrupt, and a more effectual system of check against practised knavery ; it proposed the general establishment of offices for insurance “ in every case of risk ; ” it enforced in impressive language the expediency of friendly societies, and of a kind of savings’ bank, among the poor ; and, with a sagacity far in advance of the age, urged the solemn necessity of a more humane custody of lunatics, which was aptly described as “ a particular rent-charge on the great family of mankind.”

His banishment at Bristol being terminated by his creditors’ frank acceptance of his proposal of composition, De Foe returned to London, where he was soon afterwards concerned, “ with some eminent persons at home,” in proposing financial ways and means to the English Government for conducting the great war with France. This service led to his appointment as accountant to the Commissioners of the Glass Duty (1694-1699) ; and this appointment probably furnished him with resources for the establishment of extensive tile-kiln and brick-kiln works at Tilbury,* on the Thames, where, for several years, he gave employment to upwards of a hundred poor workmen, and where, among the rough and daring men who frequented the banks of the great river, he probably gathered much of that nautical knowledge and information about strange countries which he afterwards turned to so excellent an ad vantage, f

* He appears, at first, to have been one of a companv, but, after a while, became sole proprietor.

+ Mr. Lee describes an interesting visit which he paid to the site of these works. “In

THE TRUE-BOEN ENGLISHMAN.

He now began to pay off his debts rapidly, and yearly to increase in worldly prosperity. He supported with indefatigable pen the principal measures of William III. ; advocated the formation of a small standing army ; defended the great principle of religious toleration ; and lent his powerful influence to the creation in England of an enlightened public opinion on these and other important subjects. His second poetical satire, “ The Pacificator,” appeared in 1700, and is superior to the first in cogency and point. Early in the following year he published the best of his poems, ” The True-born Englishman ; ” which, more than any of his previous works, tended to attract the attention of the public. It was designed as a reply to “ a vile abhorred pamphlet, in very ill verse, written by one Mr. Tutchin, and called The Foreigners ; in which the author fell personally upon the King himself, and then upon the Hutch nation.” The satire is strong and trenchant, and commanded such general popularity that it passed through nine genuine editions in a twelvemonth, and through twelve pirated editions in less than three years. Its object was to show the composite character of the English race —

“ Saxon, and Norman, and Dane are we ; ”

and to prove that its success was owing to its very admixture of blood. The first four lines have become familiar as household words —

“ Wherever God erects a house of prayer.

The Devil always builds a chapel there ;

And ’twill be found, upon examination,

The latter has the largest congregation.”

But the satire itself has now fallen into oblivion, simply because, clever

the year 1860,” he says, “ when the London, Tilbury, and Southend Railway was com pleted, thinking that the excavations might discover some remains of De Foe’s tile-works, I made a day’s excursion to the locality. Immediately on the west side of the Tilbury Station a large plot of land was being dug over to form potato-ground for the railway servants ; and a deep trench had been previously cut through the same to the river to drain the company’s estate. In this way the whole of De Foe’s brick and pan-tile works had been laid open, including the clay-pits, drying-floors, foundations of kilns, and other buildings. Large quantities of bricks and tiles had been excavated, and thrown into heaps, to clear the land for its intended purpose. The pan-tiles appear to have attracted very little notice ; but the narrowness of the bricks, and the peculiar forms of certain tobacco-pipes, found mixed with both, had excited some little wonderment among the labourers. I asked several how they thought these things came there, and was answered by an ignorant shake of the head. But when I said, ‘ These bricks and tiles were made a hundred and sixty years since, by the same man that made Robinson Crusoe ! ’ I touched a chord that connected these railway ‘ navvies ’ with the shipwrecked mariner, and that bounded over the intervening period in a single moment. Every eye brightened, every tongue was ready to ask or give information, and every fragment became interesting. Porters, inspector, and station-master soon gathered round me, wondering at what was deemed an important historical revelation. The pan-tUes made at Tilbury were of excellent manufacture, and still retain a fine red colour, close texture, and are quite sonorous. Neither the Dutch nor any other tiles could have driven them out of the market, and the maker would have been able, from proximity to London and facilities of conveyance, either to undersell the foreign dealer or to realize a proportionately larger profit.” — Lee, “ Daniel De Foe,” i. 32.

A PLEA FOR CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT, and incisive, and shrewd though it is, it lacks the elements of genuine poetry.*

King William deeply felt the value of the service which De Foe had rendered him. He sent for him to the palace ; received him with marked kindness ; employed him in confidential commissions ; and from that time accorded him free access to his cabinet. In these interviews the great questions of the day were frankly discussed, and especially that all-important question, the union of England and Scotland. On this point De Foe pressed the King closely : “ It shall be done,” said William, “ but not

PORTRAIT OP KINO WILLIAM III.

yet.

Cheered and encouraged by the royal confidence, De Foe resumed his pen with more energy than ever. In the limits to which we are confined it would be impossible to record even the titles of the numerous forcible and well-reasoned pamphlets produced by his indefatigable industry. It is a significant mark of the fulness of his mind and the versatility of his intellect that not one of them is below mediocrity, while many rise far above it. The most interesting and the ablest of those which appeared prior to the death of William is the celebrated pamphlet entitled “ The Original Power of the Collective Body of the People of England, Examined and Asserted. With a Double Dedication to the King and to the Parliament,” Mr. Chalmers rightly says of it, “ Every lover of liberty must be pleased with the perusal of a treatise which vies with Mr. Locke’s famous tract in power of reasoning, and is superior to it in the graces of style.” Mr. Forster, a still more competent judge, describes it as distinguished for its plain and nervous diction. The grounds of popular representation, he says, are so happily condensed and so clearly stated in it, that it became the text-book of political disputants from the days of the expulsion of Walpole and of Wilkes to those ot the Reform Bill. It may be briefly described, he continues, as a demonstra-