chapter one my first sea journey before i begin my story i would like to tell you a little about myself i was born in the year 1632 in the city of york in the north of england my father was german but he came to live and work in england soon after that he married my mother who was english her family name was robinson so when i was born they called me robinson after her my father did well in his business and i went to a good school he wanted me to get a good job and
live a quiet comfortable life but i didn't want that i wanted adventure and an exciting life i want to be a sailor and go to sea i told my mother and father they were very unhappy about this please don't go my father said you won't be happy you know sailors have a difficult and dangerous life and because i loved him and he was unhappy i tried to forget about the sea but i couldn't forget and about a year later i saw a friend in town his father had a ship and my friend said to me
we're sailing to london tomorrow why don't you come with us and so on september the 1st 1651 i went to hull and the next day we sailed for london but a few days later there was a strong wind the sea was rough and dangerous and the ship went up and down up and down i was very ill and very afraid oh i don't want to die i cried i want to live if i live i'll go home and never go to sea again the next day the wind dropped and the sea was quiet and beautiful
again well bob my friend laughed how do you feel now the wind wasn't too bad what i cried it was a terrible storm oh that wasn't a storm my friend answered just a little wind forget it come and have a drink after a few drinks with my friend i felt better i forgot about the danger and decided not to go home i didn't want my friends and family to laugh at me i stayed in london for some time but i still wanted to go to sea so when the captain of a ship asked me to
go with him to guinea in africa i agreed and so i went to sea for the second time it was a good ship and everything went well at first but i was very ill again then when we were near the canary islands a turkish pirate ship came after us they were famous thieves of the sea at that time there was a long hard fight but when it finished we and the ship were prisoners the turkish captain and his men took us to sally in morocco they wanted to sell us as slaves in the markets there
but in the end the turkish captain decided to keep me for himself and took me home with him this was a sudden and terrible change in my life i was now a slave and this turkish captain was my master chapter 2 down the coast of africa for two long years i lived the life of a slave i worked in the house and the garden and every day i plan to escape but it was never possible i thought about it day and night my master liked to go fishing in a little boat and he always took
me with him a man called murli and a young boy also went with us one day my master said to us some of my friends want to go fishing tomorrow get the boat ready so we put a lot of food and drink on the boat and the next morning we waited for my master and his friends but when my master arrived he was alone my friends don't want to go fishing today he said to me but you go with murli and the boy and catch some fish for our supper tonight yes master i answered quietly
but inside i was excited perhaps now i can escape i said to myself my master went back to his friends and we took the boat out to sea for a time we fished quietly and then i moved carefully behind murli and knocked him into the water swim i cried swim to the shore my master liked to shoot seabirds and so there were guns on the boat quickly i took one of these guns and i shouted to him go back to the shore you can swim there it's not too far i won't hurt you but if
you come near the boat i'll shoot you through the head so murli turned and swam back to the shore as quickly as he could then i said to the boy ziori if you help me i'll be a good friend to you if you don't help me i'll push you into the sea too but zuri was happy to help me i'll go all over the world with you he cried i wanted to sail to the canary islands but i was afraid to go too far from the shore it was only a small boat and so we
sailed on south for some days we had very little water and it was dangerous country here with many wild animals we were afraid but we often had to go on shore to get more water once i used a gun to shoot a wild animal i don't know what animal it was but it made a good meal for about 10 or 12 days we sailed on south down the coast of africa then one day we saw some people on the shore strange wild people who did not look friendly by now we had very little food and
we really needed help we were afraid but we had to go on shore at first they were afraid of us too perhaps white people never visited this coast we did not speak their language of course so we used our hands and faces to show that we were hungry they came with food for us but then they moved away quickly we carried the food to our boat and they watched us i tried to thank them but i had nothing to give them just then two big wild cats came down to the shore from the mountains i
think they were leopards the people were afraid of these wild cats and the women cried out quickly i took a gun and shot one of the animals the second wild cat ran back up into the mountains guns were new to these african people and they were afraid of the loud noise and the smoke but they were happy about the dead wild cat i gave them the meat of the dead animal and they gave us more food and water we now had a lot of food and water and we sailed on eleven days later we came
near the cape verde islands we could see them but we couldn't get near because there was no wind we waited suddenly zuri called to me look a ship he was right we called and shouted and sailed our little boat as fast as we could but the ship did not see us then i remembered the guns which made a lot of smoke a few minutes later the ship saw us and turned when we were on the ship the portuguese captain listened to my story he was going to brazil and agreed to help me but he wanted
nothing for his help no he said when i tried to pay him perhaps one day someone will help me when i need it but he gave me money for my boat and for zuri too at first i did not want to sell ziri as a slave after all our dangerous adventures together but suri was happy to go to the captain and the captain was a good man in ten years time he said zuri can go free when we arrived in brazil three weeks later i said goodbye to the captain and ziori left the ship and
went to begin a new life chapter 3 the storm and the shipwreck i stayed in brazil and worked hard for some years by then i was rich but also bored one day some friends came to me and said we're going to africa to do business why don't you come with us we'll all be rich after this journey how stupid i was i had an easy comfortable life in brazil but of course i agreed and so in 1659 i went to see again at first all went well but then there was a terrible storm for 12
days the wind and the rain didn't stop we lost three men in the sea and soon the ship had holes in its sides we're all going to die this time i said to myself then one morning one of the sailors saw land but the next minute our ship hit some sand just under the sea the ship could not move and we were really in danger now the sea was trying to break the ship into pieces and we had very little time quickly we put a boat into the sea and got off the ship but the
sea was very rough and our little boat could not live for long in that wild water half an hour later the angry sea turned our boat over and we were all in the water i looked round for my friends but i could see nobody i was alone that day i was lucky and the sea carried me to the shore i could not see the land only mountains of water all around me then suddenly i felt the ground under my feet another mountain of water came pushed me up the beach and i fell on the wet
sand at first i was very thankful to be alive slowly i got to my feet and went higher up the shore from there i looked out to sea i could see our ship but it was wrecked and there was nobody near it there was nobody in the water all my friends were dead i was alive but in a strange wild country with no food no water and no gun it was dark now and i was tired i was afraid to sleep on the shore there were wild animals there so i went up into a tree
and i stayed there all night chapter four a new life on an island when day came the sea was quiet again i looked for our ship and to my surprise it was still there and still in one piece i think i can swim to it i said to myself so i walked down to the sea and before long i was at the ship and was swimming rounded but how could i get onto it in the end i got in through a hole in the side but it wasn't easy there was a lot of water in
the ship but the sand under the sea was still holding the ship in one place the back of the ship was high out of the water and i was very thankful for this because all the ships food was there i was very hungry so i began to eat something at once then i decided to take some of it back to the shore with me but how could i get it there i looked around the ship and after a few minutes i found some long pieces of wood i tied them together with rope then i got
the things that i wanted from the ship there was a big box of food rice and salted meat and hard ships bred i also took many strong knives and other tools the ship's sails and ropes paper pens books and seven guns now i needed a little sail from the ship and then i was ready slowly and carefully i went back to the shore it was difficult to stop my things from falling into the sea but in the end i got everything onto the shore now i needed somewhere to keep my things there were some hills
around me so i decided to build myself a little house on one of them i walked to the top of the highest hill and looked down i was very unhappy because i saw then that i was on an island there were two smaller islands a few miles away and after that only the sea just the sea for mile after mile after mile after a time i found a little cave in the side of a hill in front of it there was a good place to make a home so i used the ship's sails rope and
pieces of wood and after a lot of hard work i had a very fine tent the cave at the back of my tent was a good place to keep my food and so i called it my kitchen that night i went to sleep in my new home the next day i thought about the possible dangers on the island were there wild animals and perhaps wild people too on my island i didn't know but i was very afraid so i decided to build a very strong fence i cut down young trees and put them in the
ground in a half circle around the front of my tent i used many of the ship's ropes too and in the end my fence was as strong as a stone wall nobody could get over it through it or round it making tents and building fences is hard work i needed many tools to help me so i decided to go back to the ship again and get some more things i went back 12 times but soon after my 12th visit there was another terrible storm the next morning when i looked out to sea there was no
ship when i saw that i was very unhappy why am i alive and why are all my friends dead i asked myself what will happen to me now alone on this island without friends how can i ever escape from it then i told myself that i was lucky lucky to be alive lucky to have food and tools lucky to be young and strong but i knew that my island was somewhere off the coast of south america ships did not often come down this coast and i said to myself i'm going to be on this island
for a long time so on a long piece of wood i cut these words i came here on the 30th of september 1659 after that i decided to make a cut for each day chapter five learning to live alone i still needed a lot of things well i said i'm going to have to make them so every day i worked first of all i wanted to make my cave bigger i carried out stone from the cave and after many days hard work i had a large cave in the side of the hill then i needed
a table and a chair and that was my next job i had to work on them for a long time i also wanted to make places to put all my food and all my tools and guns but every time i wanted a piece of wood i had to cut down a tree it was long slow difficult work and during the next months i learned to be very clever with my tools there was no hurry i had all the time in the world i also went out every day and i always had my gun with me
sometimes i killed a wild animal and then i had meat to eat but when it got dark i had to go to bed because i had no light i couldn't read or write because i couldn't see for a long time i didn't know what to do but in the end i learned how to use the fat of dead animals to make a light the weather on my island was usually very hot and there were often storms and heavy rain the next june it rained all the time and i couldn't go out very often i was
also ill for some weeks but slowly i got better when i was stronger i began to go out again the first time i killed a wild animal and the second time i caught a big turtle i was on the island for ten months before i visited other parts of it during those months i worked hard on my cave and my house and my fence now i was ready to find out more about the rest of the island first i walked along the side of a little river there i found open ground without trees later i
came to more trees with many different fruits i decided to take a lot of the fruit and to put it to dry in the sun for a time then i could keep it for many months that night i went to sleep in a tree for the second time and the next day i went on with my journey soon i came to an opening in the hills in front of me everything was green and there were flowers everywhere there were also a lot of different birds and animals i saw that my house was on the worst
side of the island but i didn't want to move from there it was my home now i stayed away for three days and then i came home but i often went back to the other greener side of the island and so my life went on every month i learned to do or to make something new but i had troubles and accidents too once there was a terrible storm with very heavy rain the roof of my cave fell in and nearly killed me i had to build it up again with many pieces of wood i had
a lot of food now i cooked it over a fire or dried it in the sun so i always had meat during the rainy months when i could not go out with a gun i learned to make pots to keep my food in but i wanted very much to make a harder stronger pot a pot that would not break in a fire i tried many times but i could not do it then one day i was lucky i made some new pots and put them in a very hot fire they changed color but did not
break i left them there for many hours and when they were cold again i found that they were hard and strong that night i was very happy i had hot water for the first time on the island by then i also had my own bread that was luck too one day i found a little bag we used it on the ship to keep the chicken's food in there was still some of the food in the bag and i dropped some of it onto the ground a month later i saw something bright green there and after
six months i had a very small field of corn i was very excited perhaps now i could make my own bread it was easy to say but not so easy to do it is a lot of work to make bread from corn many people eat bread but how many people can take corn from a field and make bread out of it without help i had to learn and to make many new things and it was a year before i cooked and ate my first bread during all this time i never stopped thinking about escape when
i traveled across to the other side of the island i could see the other islands and i said to myself perhaps i can get there with a boat perhaps i can get back to england one day so i decided to make myself a boat i cut down a big tree and then began to make a long hole in it it was hard work but about six months later i had a very fine canoe next i had to get it down to the sea how stupid i was why didn't i think before i began work of
course the canoe was too heavy i couldn't move it i pulled and pushed and tried everything but it didn't move i was very unhappy for a long time after that that happened in my fourth year on the island in my sixth year i did make myself a smaller canoe but i did not try to escape in it the boat was too small for a long journey and i did not want to die at sea the island was my home now not my prison and i was just happy to be alive a year or two later
i made myself a second canoe on the other side of the island i also built myself a second house there and so i had two homes my life was still busy from morning to night there were always things to do or to make i learned to make new clothes for myself from the skins of dead animals they looked very strange it is true but they kept me dry in the rain i kept food and tools at both my houses and also wild goats there were many goats on the island and i made fields with high
fences to keep them in they learned to take food from me and soon i had goats milk to drink every day i also worked hard in my corn fields and so many years went by chapter six a footprint then one year something strange and terrible happened i often walked along the shore and one day i saw something in the sand i went over to look at it more carefully and stopped in sudden surprise it was a footprint the footprint of a man who could this be afraid i looked around me i listened i waited nothing
i was more and more afraid perhaps this man was one of those wild people who killed an eight other men i looked everywhere but there was nobody and no other footprint i turned and hurried home there's someone on my island i said to myself perhaps he knows about me perhaps he's watching me now from behind a tree perhaps he wants to kill me that night i couldn't sleep the next day i got all my guns ready and i put more wood and young trees around my house nobody could see me now but after 15 years
alone on the island i was afraid and i did not leave my cave for three days in the end i had to go out to milk my goats but for two years i was afraid i stayed near my home and i never used my guns because i didn't want to make a noise i could not forget the footprint but i saw and heard nothing more and slowly i began to feel happier one day a year later i was over on the west side of the island from there i could see the other islands and i
could also see a boat far out to sea if you have a boat i thought it's easy to sail across to this island perhaps that explains the footprint it was a visitor from one of the other islands i began to move more freely around the island again and built myself a third house it was a very secret place in a cave no wild man will ever find that i said to myself then one year something happened which i can never forget i was again on the west side of the island and was walking along the
shore suddenly i saw something which made me feel ill there were heads arms feet and other pieces of men's bodies everywhere for a minute i couldn't think and then i understood sometimes there were fights between the wild men on the other islands then they came here to my island with their prisoners to kill them cook them and eat them slowly i went home but i was very angry how could men do this for many months i watched carefully for the smoke from fires but i didn't see anything somehow the wild men came and went and
i never saw them i was angry and afraid i wanted to shoot them all but there were many of them and only one of me perhaps i can shoot two or three i said to myself but then they will kill and eat me then one morning in my 23rd year on the island i was out in my fields and i saw the smoke from a fire quickly i went up the hill to watch there were nine men around the fire and they were cooking their terrible food then these wild men danced around the fire singing
and shouting this went on for about two hours then they got into their boats and sailed away i went down to the shore and saw the blood of the dead men on the sand the next time they come i'm going to kill them i said angrily chapter 7 man friday for two years i never went anywhere without my gun i felt lonely and afraid and had many sleepless nights one night there was a very bad storm and i thought i heard the sound of guns out at sea the next morning i looked out and saw
a ship it was lying on its side not far from the shore quickly i put my little boat in the water and sailed out to it there were two dead men on the ship but no one alive the bodies of the other sailors were lost in the sea i took some clothes and tools and also a box of spanish gold and silver money i was a rich man now but what use was money to me i could not buy anything with it i wanted people a friend somebody to talk to somebody who could help me
escape from my island one morning i woke up and made a plan i'll try to catch one of the prisoners of the wild men i said to myself he'll be happy to be alive and perhaps he'll help me to escape i watched day and night but for a year and a half there were no boats then one day five boats came there were about thirty men and they had two prisoners they made their fire on the sand and danced round it then they killed one of the prisoners and began to cook that terrible meal the
second prisoner waited under the trees with two men to watch him suddenly the prisoner turned and ran the two men ran after him but the other wild men were busy round the fire and did not see what was happening the prisoner ran like a wild goat and soon i saw that he was coming near the bottom of my hill as fast as i could i ran down the hill and jumped out of the trees between the prisoner and the two wild men i hit the first man with the wooden end of my gun and he
fell down but i had to shoot the second man the poor prisoner did not move he was afraid of the noise of my gun i called to him and tried to show him that i was friendly slowly he moved nearer to me but just then the first wild man began to get up from the ground then the prisoner spoke and i understood that he wanted my sword how happy i was to hear words again i gave him my sword and at once he cut off the head of his enemy hurriedly we hid the dead bodies
under some leaves and then left quickly i took my prisoner to my secret cave on the other side of the island and gave him food and drink after that he went to sleep he was a fine young man about 25 years old tall and well built with a kind face and a nice smile he had a brown skin black hair bright eyes and strong white teeth i decided to give him the name of man friday because i first saw him on a friday when he woke up in the morning he ran out to me i
was milking my goats in the field and he got down on the ground and put his head near my foot i understood that he was thanking me and i tried to show him that i was his friend i began to teach him to speak english and soon he could say his name master and yes and no how good it was to hear a man's voice again later that day we went back to my first house we went carefully along the beach but there were no boats and no wild men just blood and bones all over
the sand i felt ill but friday wanted to eat the pieces of men's bodies which was still on the ground i showed him that this was terrible for me and he understood when we got to my house i gave man friday some trousers and i made him a coat and a hat he liked his new clothes very much then i made him a little tent to sleep in but for a few weeks i always took my gun to bed with me perhaps friday was still a wild man and would try to kill me in the
night at first friday was very afraid of my gun sometimes he talked to it and asked it not to kill him friday was a quick learner and his english got better day by day he helped me with the goats and with the work in the cornfields and soon we were good friends i enjoyed teaching him and most of all having a friend to talk to this was the happiest of all my years on the island friday and i lived together happily for three years i told him the story of my adventures and about life in
england and he told me about his country and his people one day we were at the top of the highest hill on the island and we were looking out to sea it was a very clear day and we could see a long way suddenly friday began to jump up and down very excited what's the matter i said look master look friday cried i can see my country look over there i looked and there to the northwest between the sea and the sky was a long thin piece of land i learned later that it was the
island of trinidad and that my island was in the mouth of the river orinoco on the north coast of south america i began to think again about escape perhaps friday wanted to go home too perhaps together we could get to his country but what then would friday still be my friend or would his people kill me and eat me i took friday to the other side of the island and showed him my big canoe it still lay under the trees it was very old now and there were holes in the wood could a boat like
this sail to your country friday i asked him oh yes he answered a boat like this can carry a lot of food and drink then we'll make another canoe like it and you can go home in it i said but friday looked very unhappy why are you angry with me he asked what have i done why do you want to send me home but i thought you wanted to go home i said yes but you must come with me kill me if you want but don't send me away from you then i saw that friday
was a true friend and so i agreed to go with him we began work on the canoe at once friday chose the tree himself he understood wood better than i did and we cut it down we worked hard and in a month the boat was finished two weeks later it was in the sea and we began to get ready for our long journey chapter 8 escape from the island i was now in my 27th year on the island and i did not want to be there for another year we worked hard to get the corn
in and to make a lot of bread we had dried fruit and salted meat and big pots to keep water in one evening friday went out to look for a turtle for meat and eggs but in less than an hour he was back and he looked very afraid master master he cried there's a great ship near the island and men are coming to the shore in a boat i jumped up and ran with him down to the shore to my great surprise i saw that it was an english ship but why was it here english
ships never came this way perhaps they were pirates don't let them see you friday i called we'll hide in the trees and watch there were eleven men in the boat but three of them were prisoners their arms were tied with rope but their legs were free and they could walk the other sailors pushed the three prisoners up the beach laughing and shouting and hitting them then some of them sat down on the sand and began to drink others walked away to look at the island and two men stayed to watch the boat the three prisoners
walked slowly along the beach and sat down under a tree not far from us they looked very unhappy very quietly i came up behind them through the trees and called out to them in english don't be afraid i said i'm an englishman perhaps i can help you the three men turned and looked at me they did not answer at once they were too surprised perhaps they thought i was a wild man myself in my strange homemade clothes of animal skins and with my long hair and beard then the oldest man spoke i am the captain
of that ship he said and these two men are my first and second officers last night there was a mutiny and the seamen took the ship from me now they're going to leave the three of us here to die on this island do these mutineers have guns only two he answered and they've left those on the boat all right i said we'll fight them but if we get your ship back for you you must take me back to england the captain agreed immediately and thanked me very warmly for my help friday ran back to my
house to get all the guns and the captain and i made a plan the first part was easy because the seamen were not ready for a fight we shot the two men at the boat and the captain shot another man this man tom smith was the worst of them all and he began the mutiny on the ship then the captain talked to the other five men and they agreed to help him they did not really want to be mutineers but they were afraid of tom smith now i said to the captain we must get back
your ship how many men are on it 26 the captain replied and they will fight hard because they won't want to go home it is death for all mutineers in england but not all the men are bad i'm sure that some of them will help me just then we saw another boat which was coming from the ship to the shore there were ten men in it and they all had guns we ran into the trees and waited it was a long hard fight but by now it was dark and this helped us very much we
ran here and there in the trees calling and shouting the seamen could not see us and did not know how many men they were fighting in the end the first officer shouted to them put down your guns and stop fighting the captain has 50 island people to help him we can kill you all so the seamen stopped fighting and we took their guns three of the men agreed to come back to the captain and we put the others in my cave and i stayed to watch the prisoners while the captain and his men went back
to fight for the ship all night we listened to the sound of guns and shouting but in the morning when the sun came up the captain was master of his ship again i went down to the shore to meet him my dear friend he cried there's your ship i'll take you to the ends of the world in it i put my arms around him and we laughed and cried together how happy i was to leave the island my good friend friday came with me of course but we left the mutineers on the island we decided
not to kill them they could begin a new life on the island i showed them my three houses my cornfields and my goats and all my tools their life would be easy because of all my hard work for so many years and so on the 19th of december 1686 after 27 years two months and nineteen days i said goodbye to my island and sailed home to england chapter nine home in england when i came back to england i felt like a stranger in the country many things were different and not many people remembered me i
went home to york but my father and mother were dead and also my two brothers i did find the two sons of one of my brothers they were happy to learn that i was alive and i was pleased to find some family after some months i decided to go down to lisbon in portugal i had friends there who could help me to sell my land in brazil and i needed the money friday came with me he was always a good and true friend to me in lisbon i found the portuguese captain who took me in
his ship to brazil all those years ago it was good to see him again and he helped me with my business soon i was ready to go home again by land no more adventures and dangers by sea for me it was a long hard journey we had to cross the mountains between spain and france in winter and the snow was deep poor friday was very afraid of the snow in his country it was always hot and he did not like cold weather back in england i found a house and began to live a quiet life
my two nephews came to live with me the younger one wanted to be a sailor and so i found him a place on a ship after a while i married and had three children two sons and a daughter then my wife died and my nephew who was now the captain of a ship came home to see me he knew that i did not really like a quiet life i have a fine ship uncle he said i'm going out to the east indies india malaya the philippines why don't you come with me and so in 1694
i went to see again and had many more adventures perhaps one day i'll write another book about them
