Robinson Crusoe (42 page)

It was about two hours before night, when our guide being something before us, and not just in sight, out rushed three monstrous wolves, and after them a bear, out of a hollow way, adjoining to a thick wood; two of the wolves flew upon the guide, and had he been half a mile before us, he had been devoured indeed before we could have helped him. One of them fastened upon his horse, and the other attacked the man with that violence that he had not time, or not presence of mind enough, to draw his pistol, but holloed and cried out to us most lustily; my man Friday being next to me, I bade him ride up and see what was the matter; as soon as Friday came in sight of the man, he holloed as loud as the other, "O master! O master!’’ but, like a bold fellow, rode directly up to the poor man and with his pistol shot the wolf that attacked him into the head.

It was happy for the poor man that it was my man Friday; for he, having been used to that kind of creature in his country, had no fear upon him, but went close up to him and shot him, as above; whereas any of us would have fired at a farther distance, and have perhaps either missed the wolf, or endangered shooting the man.

But it was enough to have terrified a bolder man than I, and indeed it alarmed all our company, when, with the noise of Friday’s pistol, we heard on both sides the dismalest howling of wolves, and the noise redoubled by the echo of the mountains, that it was to us as if there had been a prodigious multitude of them; and perhaps, indeed, there was not such a few as that we had no cause of apprehensions.

However, as Friday had killed this wolf, the other that had fastened upon the horse left him immediately and fled; having happily fastened upon his head, where the bosses of the bridle had stuck in his teeth, so that he had not done him much hurt. The man, indeed, was most hurt; for the raging creature had bit him twice, once on the arm, and the other time a little above his knee; and he was just as it were tumbling down by the disorder of his horse, when Friday came up and shot the wolf.

It is easy to suppose that at the noise of Friday’s pistol we all mended our pace and rid up as fast as the way (which was very difficult) would give us leave, to see what was the matter; as soon as we came clear of the trees, which blinded us before, we saw clearly what had been the case, and how Friday had disengaged the poor guide; though we did not presently discern what kind of creature it was he had killed.

But never was a fight managed so hardily, and in such a surprising manner, as that which followed between Friday and the bear, which gave us all (though at first we were surprised and afraid for him) the greatest diversion imaginable. As the bear is a heavy, clumsy creature, and does not gallop as the wolf does, who is swift and light, so he has two particular qualities, which generally are the rule of his actions; first, as to men, who are not his proper prey; I say, not his proper prey, because though I can’t say what excessive hunger might do, which was now their case, the ground being all covered with snow; but as to men, he does not usually attempt them, unless they first attack him. On the contrary, if you meet him in the woods, if you don’t meddle with him, he won’t meddle with you; but then you must take care to be very civil to him, and give him the road, for he is a very nice gentleman, he won’t go a step out of his way for a prince; nay, if you are really afraid, your best way is to look another way and keep going on; for sometimes if you stop, and stand still, and look steadfastly at him, he takes it for an affront; but if you throw or toss anything at him, and it hits him, though it were but a bit of a stick as big as your finger, he takes it for an affront and sets all his other business aside to pursue his revenge; for he will have satisfaction in point of honour; that is his first quality. The next is, that if he be once affronted, he will never leave you, night or day, till he has his revenge; but follows at a good round rate till he overtakes you.

My man Friday had delivered our guide, and when we came up to him, he was helping him off from his horse; for the man was both hurt and frighted, and indeed, the last more than the first; when on the sudden, we spied the bear come out of the wood, and a vast monstrous one it was, the biggest by far that ever I saw. We were all a little surprised when we saw him, but when Friday saw him, it was easy to see joy and courage in the fellow’s countenance. "O! O! O!" says Friday, three times, pointing to him; "O master! You give me te leave, me shakee te hand with him, me make you good laugh.’’

I was surprised to see the fellow so pleased. ‘‘You fool you,’’ says I, ‘‘he will eat you up.’’ ‘‘Eatee me up! Eatee me up!’’ says Friday, twice over again; ‘‘me eatee him up. Me make you good laugh. You all stay here, me show you good laugh!’’ So down he sits, and gets his boots off in a moment, and put on a pair of pumps (as we call the flat shoes they wear) and which he had in his pocket, gives my other servant his horse, and with his gun away he flew, swift like the wind.

The bear was walking softly on, and offered to meddle with nobody till Friday coming pretty near, calls to him, as if the bear could understand him. ‘‘Hark ye, hark ye,’’ says Friday, ‘‘me speakee wit you.’’ We followed at a distance; for now being come down on the Gascoigne side of the mountains, we were entered a vast great forest, where the country was plain and pretty open, though many trees in it scattered here and there.

Friday, who had, as we say, the heels of the bear, came up with him quickly, and takes up a great stone and throws at him, and hit him just on the head, but did him no more harm than if he had thrown it against a wall; but it answered Friday’s end, for the rogue was so void of fear that he did it purely to make the bear follow him and show us some laugh, as he called it.

As soon as the bear felt the stone, and saw him, he turns about, and comes after him, taking devilish long strides, and shuffling along at a strange rate, so as would have put a horse to a middling gallop; away runs Friday, and takes his course, as if he run towards us for help; so we all resolved to fire at once upon the bear, and deliver my man; though I was angry at him heartily for bringing the bear back upon us, when he was going about his own business another way; and especially I was angry that he had turned the bear upon us, and then run away; and I called out, ‘‘You dog,’’ said I, ‘‘is this your making us laugh? Come away, and take your horse, that we may shoot the creature.’’ He hears me, and cries out, ‘‘No shoot, no shoot; stand still, you get much laugh.’’ And as the nimble creature ran two foot for the beast’s one, he turned on a sudden, on one side of us, and seeing a great oak tree fit for his purpose, he beckoned to us to follow; and doubling his pace, he gets nimbly up the tree, laying his gun down upon the ground, at about five or six yards from the bottom of the tree.

The bear soon came to the tree, and we followed at a distance; the first thing he did, he stopped at the gun, smelled at it, but let it lie, and up he scrambles into the tree, climbing like a cat, though so monstrously heavy. I was amazed at the folly, as I thought it, of my man, and could not for my life see anything to laugh at yet, till seeing the bear get up the tree, we all rode nearer to him.

When we came to the tree, there was Friday got out to the small end of a large limb of the tree, and the bear got about halfway to him; as soon as the bear got out to that part where the limb of the tree was weaker, ‘‘Ha!’’ says he to us, ‘‘now you see me teachee the bear dance’’; so he falls a-jumping and shaking the bough, at which the bear began to totter, but stood still and begun to look behind him, to see how he should get back; then, indeed, we did laugh heartily. But Friday had not done with him by a great deal; when he sees him stand still, he calls out to him again, as if he had supposed the bear could speak English, ‘‘What, you no come farther? pray you come farther’’; so he left jumping and shaking the bough; and the bear, just as if he had understood what he said, did come a little farther; then he fell a-jumping again, and the bear stopped again.

We thought now was a good time to knock him on the head, and I called to Friday to stand still, and we would shoot the bear; but he cried out earnestly, "O pray! O pray! No shoot, me shoot by and then’’; he would have said ‘‘by and by.’’ However, to shorten the story, Friday danced so much, and the bear stood so ticklish, that we had laughing enough indeed, but still could not imagine what the fellow would do; for first we thought he depended upon shaking the bear off; and we found the bear was too cunning for that too; for he would not go out far enough to be thrown down, but clings fast with his great broad claws and feet, so that we could not imagine what would be the end of it and where the jest would be at last.

But Friday put us out of doubt quickly; for seeing the bear cling fast to the bough, and that he would not be persuaded to come any farther, ‘‘Well, well,’’ says Friday, ‘‘you no come farther, me go, me go; you no come to me, me come to you’’; and upon this, he goes out to the smallest end of the bough, where it would bend with his weight, and gently lets himself down by it, sliding down the bough, till he came near enough to jump down on his feet, and away he ran to his gun, takes it up, and stands still.

‘‘Well,’’ said I to him, ‘‘Friday, what will you do now? Why don’t you shoot him?’’ ‘‘No shoot,’’ says Friday, ‘‘no yet; me shoot now, me no kill; me stay, give you one more laugh’’; and indeed so he did, as you will see presently; for when the bear saw his enemy gone, he came back from the bough where he stood, but did it mighty leisurely, looking behind him every step and coming backward till he got into the body of the tree; then with the same hinder end foremost, he came down the tree, grasping it with his claws, and moving one foot at a time, very leisurely; at this juncture, and just before he could set his hind feet upon the ground, Friday stepped up close to him, clapped the muzzle of his piece into his ear, and shot him dead as a stone.

Then the rogue turned about to see if we did not laugh; and when he saw we were pleased by our looks, he falls a-laughing himself very loud. ‘‘So we kill bear in my country,’’ says Friday. ‘‘So you kill them?’’ says I; ‘‘why, you have no guns.’’ ‘‘No,’’ says he, ‘‘no gun, but shoot, great much long arrow.’’

This was, indeed, a good diversion to us; but we were still in a wild place, and our guide very much hurt, and what to do we hardly knew; the howling of wolves ran much in my head; and, indeed, except the noise I once heard on the shore of Africa, of which I have said something already, I never heard anything that filled me with so much horror.

These things, and the approach of night, called us off, or else, as Friday would have had us, we should certainly have taken the skin of this monstrous creature off, which was worth saving; but we had three leagues to go, and our guide hastened us; so we left him and went forward on our journey.

The ground was still covered with snow, though not so deep and dangerous as on the mountains; and the ravenous creatures, as we heard afterwards, were come down into the forest and plain country, pressed by hunger to seek for food; and had done a great deal of mischief in the villages, where they surprised the country people, killed a great many of their sheep and horses, and some people too.

We had one dangerous place to pass, which our guide told us, if there were any more wolves in the country, we should find them there; and this was a small plain, surrounded with woods on every side, and a long narrow defile or lane, which we were to pass to get through the wood, and then we should come to the village where we were to lodge.

It was within half an hour of sunset when we entered the first wood; and a little after sunset when we came into the plain. We met with nothing in the first wood, except that in a little plain within the wood, which was not above two furlongs over, we saw five great wolves cross the road, full speed one after another, as if they had been in chase of some prey, and had it in view; they took no notice of us, and were gone and out of our sight in a few moments.

Upon this our guide, who, by the way, was a wretched faint-hearted fellow, bade us keep in a ready posture; for he believed there were more wolves a-coming.

We kept our arms ready, and our eyes about us, but we saw no more wolves, till we came through the wood, which was near half a league, and entered the plain; as soon as we came into the plain, we had occasion enough to look about us. The first object we met with was a dead horse; that is to say, a poor horse which the wolves had killed, and at least a dozen of them at work; we could not say eating of him, but picking of his bones rather; for they had eaten up all the flesh before.

We did not think fit to disturb them at their feast, neither did they take much notice of us. Friday would have let fly at them, but I would not suffer him by any means; for I found we were like to have more business upon our hands than we were aware of. We were not gone half over the plain but we began to hear the wolves howl in the wood on our left in a frightful manner, and presently after, we saw about a hundred coming on directly towards us, all in a body, and most of them in a line, as regularly as an army drawn up by experienced officers. I scarce knew in what manner to receive them; but found to draw ourselves in a close line was the only way. So we formed in a moment. But that we might not have too much interval, I ordered that only every other man should fire, and that the others who had not fired should stand ready to give them a second volley immediately, if they continued to advance upon us, and that then those who had fired at first should not pretend to load their fusils again, but stand ready with every one a pistol; for we were all armed with a fusil and a pair of pistols each man; so we were by this method able to fire six volleys, half of us at a time; however, at present we had no necessity; for upon firing the first volley, the enemy made a full stop, being terrified as well with the noise as with the fire; four of them being shot into the head, dropped, several others were wounded, and went bleeding off, as we could see by the snow. I found they stopped, but did not immediately retreat; whereupon, remembering that I had been told that the fiercest creatures were terrified at the voice of a man, I caused all our company to hollo as loud as we could; and I found the notion not altogether mistaken, for upon our shout they began to retire and turn about; then I ordered a second volley to be fired in their rear, which put them to the gallop, and away they went to the woods.