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. 235
of good things to come; all which verified this noted
proverb,
In trouble to be troubled,
Is to have your trouble doubled.
Nor did his remarks end here ; for making ob-
fervations upon my improvements, and on my con¬
dition at firft, infinitely worfe than theirs, he told
me, that Englifhmen had, in their diftrefs, greater
prefence of mind than thofe of any other country
that he had met with; and that they and thePortu-
guefe were the word: men in the world to ftruggle
under misfortunes. When they landed among the
favages, they found but little provifion, except they
would turn cannibals, there being but a few roots and
herbs, with little fubftance in them, and of which
the natives gave them but very fparingly. Many
were the ways they took to civilize and teach the fa¬
vages, but in vain : For they would not own them
to be their indructors, whofe lives were owing to
their bounty. Their extremities were very great,
many days being entirely without food, the favages
there being more indolent and lefs devouring than
thofe who had better fupplies. When they went out
to battle, they were obliged to afiifi: thefe people, in
one of which my faithful Spaniard being taken, had
like to have been devoured. They had loft their am¬
munition, which rendered their fire arms ufelefs;
nor could they ufe the bows and arrows that were
given them, fo that while the armies were at a dil-
tance, they had no chance, but when clofe, then
they could be of fervice with halberts and fharpened
fticks, put into the muzzles of their muikets. They
made themfelves' targets of wood, covered with the
fkins of wild hearts; and when one happened to be
knocked down, the reft of the company fought over
him till he recovered ; and then ftanding clofe in a
line, they would make their way through a thoufand
favages.