Summary: Chapter IV — I Become a Brazilian
Planter
After a voyage of twenty-two days, Crusoe lands in Brazil,
accepting many farewell gifts from the Portuguese captain. After
meeting his Anglo-Brazilian neighbor, he conceives a plan to become
a tobacco planter. For two years Crusoe earns only enough on which
to subsist, but in the third year he begins to do well and, in retrospect, misses
the labor potential of the slave boy Xury whom he sold. Having told
the Portuguese captain of his 200 pounds
left in England, the captain arranges to have one hundred pounds
sent to Crusoe in Brazil, along with many gifts besides. After receiving
what the captain sent, Crusoe feels quite well off. Eager for slave
labor to extend his business further, he agrees to an acquaintance’s
plan to sail to Guinea for black slaves, in exchange for his own
share of the slaves.
Summary: Chapter V —
I Go on Board in an Evil Hour
After writing a will leaving half his possessions to the
Portuguese captain, Crusoe sets sail for Guinea on September 1, 1659 with
a cargo of trinkets with which to buy slaves. Sailing up the South American
coast, the ship encounters a storm, and two men are lost. Crusoe
fears for his life. Reaching the Caribbean, the ship is shaken by
yet another storm that drives the ship onto the sand, breaking the rudder.
The ship is clearly doomed, and the crew climbs into boats to make
for shore. Crusoe loses sight of his mates when all are swept away
by an immense wave. Finally Crusoe makes it to shore, where he immediately
prays to God in gratitude. He never sees a sign of another living
crewmember. After drinking some fresh water and finding a tree in
which to sleep, Crusoe spends his first night on the island.
Summary: Chapter VI — I Furnish Myself with
Many Things
“O drug!” said I aloud, “what art thou
good for?”
Awakening the next morning refreshed, Crusoe goes down
to the shore to explore the remains of the ship. Swimming around
it, he finds it impossible to climb aboard until he finds a chain
hanging, by which he pulls himself up. Crusoe conceives the idea
of building a raft out of broken lumber, on which he loads provisions
of bread, rice, goat meat, cheese, and other foods. He also finds
clothes, arms, and fresh water. He sails his cargo-laden raft into
a small cove, where he unloads it. He notices that the land has
wildfowl but no other humans. Crusoe returns to the ship twelve
times over the following thirteen days. On one of the later trips
he finds thirty-six pounds, and he sadly meditates on how worthless
the money is to him. After a strong wind that night, he awakens
to find the ship’s remains gone the next morning.
Summary: Chapter VII - I Build My Fortress
Wary of savages, Crusoe decides he must build a dwelling
or “fortress,” as he calls it. He chooses a spot with a view of
the sea, protected from animals and the heat of the sun and near
fresh water. He drives wooden stakes into the ground, using them
as a frame for walls. Crusoe sleeps securely in the shelter that
night. The next day he hauls all of his provisions and supplies
inside, and hangs a hammock on which to sleep. He also builds a
cellar. During a thunderstorm he suddenly worries about his gunpowder
supply, which he separates from the other supplies and stores in
the cellar. Crusoe discovers wild goats on the island. He kills
one and then sees that it had a kid, which he then kills too. On
about his twelfth day on the island, he erects a large cross that
he inscribes with the date of his arrival, September 30, 1659.
He resolves to cut a notch on the cross to mark every passing day.
He also begins a journal in which he records the good and evil aspects
of his experience, until he runs out of ink. He keeps watch for
passing ships, always disappointed.
Analysis: Chapters IV–VII
The question of whether Crusoe’s humanity will survive
on the island, or whether he will revert to savagery, is subtly
raised in these chapters. His changing relationship to Xury is one
example of a test of morality. During his early acquaintance with
the boy, Crusoe appears genuinely fond of him, moved by the boy’s
expression of loyalty and by their solidarity as slaves of the same
master. But then, Crusoe, recently a slave himself, coldly sells
Xury to the Portuguese captain with no compunction at all. When
Crusoe thinks about Xury later, he does not recollect memories of
a long-lost acquaintance, but instead laments missing out on the
potential for slave labor: he and his planter neighbor “both wanted
help, and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting
with my boy Xury.” We might feel what is “wrong” is not his business
decision, but the sale of his supposed friend as a slave for profit.
The question of whether morality is socially adaptable or naturally
inborn was disputed in seventeenth-century England: the philosopher
Thomas Hobbes maintained that men are naturally savages. Crusoe
is a case study in the nature of human morals.
Crusoe’s sense of religion seems, on the one hand, to
develop strongly, but on the other hand, some of his words do raise
some doubt about his beliefs. Certainly he appears very devout when
his first reaction on reaching dry land after his shipwreck is “to
look up and thank God that my life was saved in a case wherein here
was some minutes before scarce any room to hope.” But, as many have noticed,
his comments right after this remark are theologically unsound:
“I believe it is impossible to express to the life what the ecstasies
and transports of the soul are when it is so saved, as I may say,
out of the very grave. . . .” As any devout Christian of Defoe’s day
would know, the soul is eternal, and what Crusoe
should instead say is that his bodily life is saved. The remark
is thus a bit ignorant even at the moment when he appears to be
deeply God-fearing. Later, when he builds a cross on the island
and devotes it to himself and his time on the island,
rather than to Christ, our doubt over his true faith in God grows
further.
