Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

IF ever the ftory of any private man’s adven¬
tures in the world were worth making pu-
' blic, and were acceptable when publiflied, the
[ Editor of this account thinks this will be fo.
The wonders of this man’s life exceed all
I that (he thinks) is to be found extant; the
( life of one man being fcarce capable of a great-
i er variety.
I The ftory is told with modefty, with fe-
rioufnefs, and with a religious application of
events to the ufes to which wife men always
^ apply them, viz. to the inftruflion of others
[ by this example, and to juftify and honour the
■ wifdom of Providence in all the variety of our
circumftances, let them happen how’ they will.
The Editor believes the thing to be a juft
hiftory of fact j neither is there any appear¬
ance of fiftion in it: And though he is well
aware there are many, who on account of the
| very ftngular prefervations the author met
with, will give it the name of a romance ;
I yet, in which ever of thefe lights it (hall be
viewed, he imagines, that the improvement
of it, as well to the diverfton, as to the in-
ftruction of the reader, will be the fame ; and,
. as fuch, he thinks, without farther compli-
does them a great fer¬
ment to the world, he
vice in the publication