d in 1731; his father a butcher in London;
served in the army in 1688; traveled on the Continent; wrote
pamphlets in favor of William III; arrested and placed in
the pillory for an attack on Dissenters in 1703; engaged in
political intrigues and wrote many articles and pamphlets;
"Robinson Crusoe" published in 1719, "Moll Flanders" in
1722, "The Journal of the Plague" in 1722.

I

THE SHIPWRECK OF CRUSOE[107]

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sunk
into the water; for tho I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves so as to draw my breath; till that wave having
driven me or rather carried me a vast way on toward the shore, and
having spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry,
but half dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind
as well as breath left, that seeing myself nearer the mainland than I
expected, I got upon my feet, and endeavored to make on toward the
land as I could, before another wave should return and take me up
again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the
sea coming after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an
enemy which I had no means or strength to contend with: my business
was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water, if I could;
and so by swimming to preserve my breathing, and pilot myself toward
the shore if possible; my greatest concern now being that the wave, as
it would carry me a great way toward the shore when it came on, might
not carry me back again with it when it gave back toward the sea.

The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty
feet deep in its own body; and I could feel myself carried with a
mighty force and swiftness toward the shore, a very great way; but I
held my breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my
might. I was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt
myself rising up, so to my immediate relief I found my head and hands
shoot out above the surface of the water; and tho it was not two
seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me
greatly, gave me breath and new courage. I was covered again with
water a good while, but not so long but I held it out; and finding the
water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck forward against
the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood
still a few moments to re