CHAPTER XXXVI. _The boat;—progress in the abode of rocks._

CHAPTER XXXVI. _The boat;—progress in the abode of rocks._ 358

[Illustration: Map of Settlements of the Swiss Pastor and his

Family in the Desert Island]

PREFACE.

The following work has for its main purpose to be of use to children

and the friends of children. For the first however, it is not

all children for which it can pretend to be adapted, but only

such as are able to mix some reflection with their reading, as

already possess certain general ideas on the subjects of natural

history and geography; in a word, such as have acquired that

portion of instruction which is given from the age of eight to

fourteen years in most of the primary schools in the large towns,

and even in the villages.

For the second, I do not by the _friends of children_ particularly

understand that class of individuals who are engaged in philosophical

researches, theories, and experiments on the subject of education;

but such fathers, teachers, and others, who delight to employ

their attention on the youthful mind; who observe with pleasure

the actions and discourses of children; who reflect naturally and

without any preconcerted system upon their faculties, dispositions,

and characters; who find themselves prompted to infuse useful

knowledge into them through the medium of conversation; and who

will not regard with disdain a simple and well intended essay

towards their improvement, merely because it pretends to no novelty

of theorems, and is not founded upon the basis of a long series

of scientifical and metaphysical propositions.

Prefaces are not intended for the perusal of children; but the

_friends of children_ will perhaps be gratified to find in this

some account of the origin and object of the present work. In

such a detail they will perhaps find motives for indulgence,

if not for approbation, and will proceed to the work itself with

less severity of analysis and criticism.

It is now nearly twenty years since the writer of the following

sheets began to throw together the hints of his work in detached

parcels. The purpose he had in view was to amuse, to instruct,

and to fashion the character of four sons borne to him by an

exemplary mother: in doing this, he conceived the idea of faithfully

pourtraying these four children in correspondence with the germs

of character he already remarked in them. He made them act and

speak, exactly as they were accustomed to act and speak in the

ordinary train of their lives; with this difference only, that

he often strengthened and made more prominent whatever of excellence

or of frailty he found in them, representing them rather such

as he might suppose them to become at a period of greater maturity,

than such as they were at the moment of writing; entertaining

the idea, that by this means he should render their faults the

more displeasing to them, and alarm them the more with the

consequences that might result, and that he might render sound

judgement and integrity more lovely in their eyes. The portrait

of the mother was drawn with all that earnest esteem and affection

which she inspired in her husband, and which she well deserved.

On the one side he was anxious to paint his family just as

it was, and on the other he thought that the book so constructed

could not be without utility to children of the softer sex;

as in delineating his wife he should present to them a model

of the power given to the female sex over the happiness of

their families, both as wives and mothers. Various motives

prevented him from introducing girls in his uninhabited island.

The first was, that he had himself no girls, and that introducing

them would have spoiled the integrity of his painting: several

other motives may easily be conceived.

It appeared to his apprehension, that a book not less useful

than entertaining might be formed, by transporting in fancy a

single family from the civilized world, and placing it in the

midst of savage nature. Such a family would necessarily derive great

advantage from the knowledge they had acquired of the inventions

and contrivances of European society. To give children an interest in

the studies they pursue, it is necessary to excite their curiosity,

and to give them a wish to learn. The lessons of morality and

science that are interspersed will then be read with pleasure,

and devoured with avidity. Scarcely any thing appeared better

calculated for such a purpose, than a strange and untried scene

of action, and a multitude of small incidents of a striking nature,

but entirely within the reach of their early capacities to understand.

There is no book that has been more universally read and approved,

for the opening of the infant mind, than The Adventures of Robinson

Crusoe. Every child is impressed with the conception of this

solitary and forlorn individual, existing with no aids but those

of his own industry, and carrying on, single-handed, the tremendous

battle which man, wherever he lives alone, must have to fight

with nature. Robinson Crusoe shows us human nature in its origin

and in its weakness, and proves to us what reflection and labour

are capable of effecting in the most trying and perilous situations.

Here we are feelingly taught, how inestimably the social state,

whether in its domestic or its national form, together with the

arts and inventions that accompany it, conduces to the well-being

of every individual of whom it is composed.

The persuasion of this truth determined the author to give his

little family fiction the form under which it now appears, and

to entitle it The Family Robinson Crusoe. It has however in many

respects a different object from that of the original work;

purposing, as it does, to instruct its young readers in various

sciences, particularly that of natural history, and especially

the natural history of distant countries and climates. Some

things this book has in common with its model: the shipwreck,

the desert island, and the resources drawn by the hero from

the wreck of his unfortunate vessel. In other points the present

work is entirely different; for example, in painting the family

scene, in developing the different characters of the members

that compose it, and in the perpetual attention given by the

father to instruct his children in different sciences and arts,

and to forward and mature their moral and intellectual natures.

His own children were especially delighted at finding themselves

brought forward as the personages of this imaginary history,

and transported to the scene of a distant ocean.

The sheets now laid before the public were originally destined

to remain unknown beyond the circle of the family for which they

were composed; but one of the personages, who is brought forward

as a child in the course of this narrative, having felt in his

own person the deep interest and lively pleasure which the story

excited, and recollecting how many lasting advantages he had

himself derived from the use of this book, could not refrain

from ultimately resolving to render the benefit of it more general,

and has voluntarily undertaken the labour of giving to it the

form in which it now appears. The very name of Robinson Crusoe,

which it bears, will awaken the curiosity of the young reader;

and it is therefore confidently hoped that these new Adventures

will be graciously received by those for whose instruction they

are destined.

It only remains for the editor to declare that he lays no claim

to the merit of any one incident in the story; he has merely

taken the liberty to make some corrections in the style, and

to endeavour to dispose and connect the scattered fragments into a

regular story. His acquaintance with natural history is unfortunately

very limited, nor has he had leisure to make such researches

as would have been requisite to verify all the facts here brought

forward. He has equally to confess his incompetence with respect

to several of the arts that are here put into action; he has

therefore been obliged to refer himself on these two points to

the judgement of the author, and to adopt his descriptions as

he found them; he is at least well assured that the writer had

recourse to the best authorities, and was extensively acquainted

with those books of voyages and travels which are in the highest

esteem. Notwithstanding which, it may however have happened,

that in the twenty years which have elapsed since this work was

written, many new discoveries may have been made, and many juster

principles and conclusions have been established. It is therefore

to be desired, that such parents and teachers as shall put this

book into the hands of the children under their care, or shall

read it with them, would have the goodness to correct its errors,

and supply such omissions as they may discover. In reality,

it is very rarely, and perhaps never, proper that children should

read by themselves; few indeed are the individuals in those tender

years that are not either too indolent, too lively, or too capricious

to employ themselves usefully upon this species of occupation.

In the following Introduction will be found a brief detail of

what may be supposed respecting the manner in which the accompanying

narrative has been brought before the public.

INTRODUCTION.

It is well known that a Swiss, Counsellor Horner of Zurich, sailed

some years ago round the world on board a Russian vessel, the

Podesta, commanded by Captain Kreusenstern. They discovered a

number of islands, and one among the rest of a considerable size

and great fertility, situate to the south-west of Java, near

the coast of Papua or New Guinea, hitherto unknown to navigators,

and which appeared to them worthy to be examined. They landed

accordingly; and to the great surprise of the crew, but particularly

of Mr. Horner, they found this island, which they had conceived

to be uninhabited, already in the possession of a European family,

who met them on the bank, and saluted them in German. The family

consisted of a father, a mother, and four sons of a robust and

active appearance, who willingly communicated to Mr. Horner the

history of their adventures.

The father had been a pastor or clergyman of West Switzerland,

who having lost his fortune in the Revolution of 1798, and reflecting

on the family he had to bring up, resolved to become a voluntary

exile, and to seek in other climates the means of support. He

sailed accordingly with his wife and children, four sons, from

twelve to five years of age, for England, where he accepted an

appointment of missionary to Otaheite; not that he had any desire

to take up his abode in that island, but that he had conceived

the plan of passing from thence to Port Jackson, and domiciliating

himself there as a free settler. He possessed a considerable

knowledge of agriculture, and, with the aid of his sons, he hoped

to gain for himself there that advantageous establishment, which

his own country, convulsed with the horrors of war, denied him.

He turned all that yet remained to him into money, and then vested

his little property in seeds of various sorts and a few cattle,

as a farming stock. The family took their passage accordingly,

satisfied with this consolation that they should still remain

together, and sailed with favourable winds till they came in

sight of New Guinea. Here they were attacked by a most destructive

and unrelenting tempest; and it is in this crisis of their adventures

that the Swiss Pastor, or Family Robinson Crusoe, begins the

journal, which he liberally consigned to the care of Mr. Horner,

who carried it with him into Switzerland; and from the manuscript,

thus brought over from one of the remotest parts of the earth,

the following narrative has been faithfully printed.

THE FAMILY ROBINSON CRUSOE.