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

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ROBINSON CRUSOE.
going, I thought, I knew not whither, in a difmal
gulf unknown, and as yet unperceived, never tobe-
hold my friends, nor the light of this world any
more ! Could I even have thought of annihilation, or
a total diffolution of foul as well as body, the gloomy
thoughts of having no further being, no knowledge
of what we hoped for, but an eternal quietus, with¬
out life or fenfe ; even that, I fay, would have been
enough to ftrike me with horror and confuficn ! But
ftriving to the laft extremity, while I thought all my
companions were overpowered and entombed in the
■ deep, it was with great difficulty I kept my breath
till the wave fpent itfelf, and retiring back, left me
on the ffiore half dead with the water I had taken in.
Hqwever, I got on my feet as faft as I could, left
another wave fhould purfue, and carry me back
again; but for all the hade I made, I could not
avoid it; for the fea came after me like a high
mountain, or furious enemy, fo that mybufinefs v/as
to hold my breath, and by raffing myfelf on the
water, preferve it by fwimming ; the next dreadful
wave buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep,
but at the fame time carried me with a mighty force
and fwiftnefs towards the fhore; when raifing my¬
felf, I held out as well as poffible, till at length the
water having fpent itfelf, began to return, at which
I ftruck forward, and feeling ground with my feet, I
took to my heels again; thusbeing ferved twice more,
I was at laft dafhed againft a piece of rock, in fuch
a manner as left mefenfelefs ; but recovering a little
before the return of the waves, which, no doubt,
then would have overwhelmed me, 1 held faft by the
rock till thofe fucceeding weaves abated; and then,
fetching another run, was overtook by a fmall wave,
which was foon conquered; but before any more
: could overtake me, I reached the main land, where
[ clambering up the clifts of the fliore, tired and almoft
I fpent, I fat clown on the grafs, free from the dangers
1 of tire foaming ocean.
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