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

ROBINSON CRUSOE. • 13
The place I was in was, no doubt, that wild fort
of country, inhabited only by a few, that lies be¬
tween the Emperor of Alorocco's dominions and the
Negroes : It was filled with wild beafts, and the Moors
ufed it for hunting chiefly. From this place I thought
I faw the top of the mountain Tenertff'e, in the Ca/13-
ries; which made me try twice to attain it, but as
5 often was I drove back, and lb forced to purfue my
fortune along the fhore.
Early one morning we came to an anchor under a
little point of land, but pretty high, and the tide be¬
ginning to flow, we lay ready to go farther in : But
■- Xury whofe youthful and penetrating eyes were
- fharper than mine, in a loft tone, defired me to keep
; far from land, left we fhould be devoured: /'or, look
t yonder Meytery faid he, and fee de dreadful monjler
, fajl of cep on thefide of the hill. Accordingly, looking
. where he pointed, I efpied a fearful monfter indeed ;
! it was a terrible great lion that lay on fhore, covered,
b as it were, by the ihade of a piece of the hill. Xuryy
faid I, you Jhall go on fhore and kill him. But the boy
looked amazed : Me kill him, fays he, he eat me at
one mouth ; meaning one mouthful. Upon which [
bid him lie ftill, and charging my biggeft gun with
two flugs, and a good charge of powder, I took the
I? beft aim I could to fhoot him through the head •, but
1 his leg lying over his nofe, the flug broke his knee-
J bone. The lion, awaking with the pain, got up, but
J foon fell down, giving the moft hideous groan I ever
j heard : But taking my fecond piece, I ihot him thro’
the head, and then he lay ftruggling for life. Upon
this Xury took heart, and defired my leave to go on
fhore. Go then, faid I. Upon which, taking a little
gun in one hand, he fwam to fhore with the other,
and coming clofe to the lion, put a period to his life,
by fhooting him again through the head.
But this was fpending our ammunition in vain, the
flefh not being good to eat. Xury was like a cham-
2 B pion.