surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm
him.

"For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first."

I walked about the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I
may say, wrapped up in the contemplation of my deliverance; making a
thousand gestures and motions which I cannot describe; reflecting upon
my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul
saved but myself; for as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or
any sign of them, except three of the hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows.

[Illustration: _DEFOE._

Facsimile, somewhat reduced, of the frontispiece to the first edition of

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

1719.

The full title reads:--The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of
Robinson 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 Oroonoque: Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck,
wherein all the others perished but himself. With An Account how he was
at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself.]

I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel--when the breach and froth of the
sea being so big I could hardly see it, it lay so far off--and
considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?

CRUSOE MAKES A NEW HOME

I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, particularly
because it was upon a low moorish ground, near the sea, and I believed
it would not be wholesome; and more particularly because there was no
fresh water near it; so I resolved to find a more healthy and more
convenient spot of ground.

I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper
for me: first, air and fresh water, I just now mentioned; secondly,
shelter from the heat of the sun; thirdly, security from ravenous
creatures, whether men or beasts; fourthly, a view to the sea, that if
God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my
deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my expectation
yet.

I searched for a place proper for this. I found a little plain on the
side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep
as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top.
On the side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in,
like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really any cave,
or way into t