I was now landed, and safe on shore; and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there were, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the grave: and I did not wonder now at the custom, viz., that when a malefactor who has the halter about his neck is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him,--I say I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it; that the 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.
Facsimile, somewhat reduced, of the frontispiece to the first edition of
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?
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.