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 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 30TH SEPTEMBER 1659
After that, I decided to make a cut for each day.
1. Learning to live alone
I steel 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 form the cave, and after many day’s 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 learnt 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 learnt how to use the fat of dead animals to
make a light.
