The Swiss Family Robinson: A Translation from the Original German — A Closer Reading

Storm-tossed--Wrecked--Deserted--Supper--We make swimming-belts for the children--An anxious night--The gale moderates--We examine our cargo--Jack introduces two new acquaintances--How shall we get on shore?--Jack's plan--We adopt it--The use of a lever--Our tub-boat completed--Another night on the wreck--We collect the cargo--And embark--Jack's friends will not be left behind--Steer for the shore--Once more on land--We erect a tent--Glue soup--Jack makes the acquaintance of a lobster--Ernest shirks the water--Oysters and salt--How shall we eat our soup?--Ernest solves the difficulty--Fritz returns--The sucking pig--How to open an oyster and how to eat it--The dogs devour the agouti--Fritz's anger--Our first night in the new country, 1

A morning consultation--Breakfast--Away on an expedition--Over the stream and through the grass--An unexpected reinforcement--Search in vain for our comrades--Rest by a stream--Fritz finds a "round bird's nest"--Natural history of a cocoanut--Calabash trees--The use of gourds--How to make a bottle--A lovely but lonely scene--Sugar-canes--Monkeys of use--Cocoanut milk turned to champagne--Turk kills an unfortunate mother monkey--Carry the orphan home--Display our treasures--A sumptuous supper--Ernest's penguin--Champagne turned to vinegar--A fight with jackals--A curious sentinel--A visit to the wreck--We rig our craft--Stow a cargo--Sleep on board--Floats for our herd--We embark--Encounter a shark--Land--Relate our adventures, 19

The mother relates her adventures--Proposes that we should build a nest--How Jack treated the jackal skin--How the boys were surprised by a bustard--How they found the mangrove tree--How the dogs caught the crabs--We discuss the possibility of making a house in the tree--To bed once more--We start for the wreck--The shark again--Return to land--Franz's crawfish--Bridge building--We pack up--A family removing in patriarchal style--A prickly enemy--Jack shoots it--We reach our new home--Fritz rids our poultry of an enemy--Little Franz finds the figs--Dinner--We prepare materials for our nest--Flamingoes--Roast and tame--The use of trigonometry--A cord carried over the bough--The rope ladder made--We mount our tree--Sleep under the roots--The building of the nest--Retire to roost for the first time, 44

A day of rest--A parable for the young people--Quiet recreation--Geographical nomenclature--The margay and porcupine skins made of use--An expedition to Tentholm--Potatoes, potatoes--Tropical vegetation--The use of the karatas--Jack's greediness and its punishment--Ernest discovers cochineal--Arrive at Tentholm--The poultry rebellious--Return to Falconhurst--Ernest roused out early--We collect wood for a sledge--Master Knips turns thief--Franz's plan for the saving of ammunition--Ernest and I take the sledge to Tentholm--Ernest's laziness exemplified--He catches a salmon--We start for home--Kill a kangaroo--And cook it, 73

Jack and Ernest disappear--Fritz and I start for the wreck--The boys' ambuscade--We form a raft--Ransack the vessel--Again embark--A turtle in sight--Fritz harpoons it--The turtle acts as "Steam Tug"--Safe ashore--Return home--Jack's clay field--A fresh discovery--The mother's cellar--A trip to the wreck--The pinnace--Jack's raid on the Lilliputians--A secret revealed--A new method of grinding flour--Wholesome or poisonous?--Bread-making in earnest, 92

Now for the pinnace--Repeated visits to the wreck--The pinnace built--How shall we cut her out--The difficulty solved--We fit her out--Fire a salute--The mother's surprise--We visit Falconhurst--Attend to our fruit trees--Athletics--The lasso--An excursion--A bustard captured--Ernest discovers a magician--Jack fights him--The Liane Rouge--We turn carvers--Ernest's alarm--The old sow again--We discover a sleeping beauty--Return with it to the camp--Knips pronounces our apples "good"--Return to Falconhurst, 108

Fritz and I return to the Calabash Wood--Fritz shoots a ruffed grouse--We come across waxberry bushes--Sociable grosbeaks--Fritz captures a parrot--A lecture on ants--Caoutchouc trees--The sago-palm and the edible worms--Return with sugar-canes to Falconhurst--Candle-making--How to make butter without a churn--Plant trees and adorn Tentholm--Last visit to the wreck--The first ducklings on the island--Falconhurst again--An excursion--We pitch our tent--Fritz and Jack ascend the cocoanut trees--Ernest brings us a delicacy--Loss of Grizzle--Jack and I go in pursuit--Giant bamboos--Encounter with buffaloes--The buffalo calf--Find a jackal's lair--Reach our camp--What happened in our absence--Fritz's pet--Sago manufacture--Meet with our sow and her family again--How Ernest tamed the eagle, 127

Prop our young trees--A lecture on grafting--A new idea broached--Why should we not build stairs within the trunk of our tree?--Jack finds one objection--I make a beehive, and we drive the bees from the tree--Stair-making--Additions to our family of domestic animals--The education of the "pets"--Shoemaking--We lead water from the stream to Falconhurst--A strange animal approaches--Our old ass and his companion--The onager captured--Provisioning our winter quarters--Capture of ruffed grouse--We discover flax--The rainy season, 151

Spring again--We begin to hew a cave--Jack makes a discovery--We drive the foul air from the cavern--The mother and her boys join us--We explore the cave--Fit it up as our winter quarters--The herring-bank--We catch seals--Fishing on a grand scale--Isinglass and caviare--We visit our plantations--An expedition to establish a colony--The building of "Woodlands"--Jack and Fritz return to Falconhurst for provisions--Ernest and I explore--A "beast with a bill"--We build a canoe--Franz undertakes the education of Grumble--We continue our work at the cave--Carpet making--Thanksgiving-day--A startling salute--Athletics and shooting--Prize giving--Manufacture of birdlime--Fritz and Jack ride off for caoutchouc--Shoot a crane and badger--Find "Woodlands" turned upside down by monkeys--Discover ginseng, 168

Birdlime--A midnight raid--The massacre at Woodlands--Capture of Molucca pigeons--A pigeon-house--Fritz and I prepare a conjuring trick--Great success of our experiment--Lichen and nutmegs discovered--Jack's adventure--The loom manufactured--Winter stores prepared--The rainy season sets in--Interior of our house arranged--We study languages--The return of spring--A stranded whale--An account of coral--We go to work on the whale's carcass--Remarks on the habits of the whale, 199

The blubber of the whale boiled and stored--A unique machine--Expedition to Prospect Hill--Whale's tongue is voted no delicacy--We land on Whale Island--Jack discovers a strange skeleton--Turtle turning--Towed ashore--The loom completed--Return of the herring shoals--Basket making--We manufacture a sedan chair--Ernest's wild ride therein--A boa constrictor appears--He retreats to the marsh--Suspense--Poor Grizzle's fate--An awful scene--Death of the monster--An account of snakes--Remedies for poisoned bites--Ernest writes Grizzle's epitaph--The serpent stuffed and placed in the museum, 222

We examine the marsh--A cave discovered--We find the floor covered with fuller's earth--Discharge our pistols--Jack's fright--Ernest captures an eel--An expedition toward the Gap--Visit Falconhurst and Woodlands and examine the country round--Franz shoots a capybara--Ernest and Knips fight the rats--A lecture on musk--Cinnamon apples--A peccary hunt--We prepare the peccary meat--Disasters at Prospect Hill--An exploring expedition through the Gap--We find our barrier broken down--Across the desert--Strange objects in the distance--An account of ostriches--An ostrich slain--We discover the nest--A mud tortoise--We encounter bears--A desperate fight--Back again to camp--We skin the bears and smoke their flesh--Pepper found--Three of the boys start on an expedition--I discover talc, 242

The boys return and give an account of their adventures--How they captured the antelopes--How Fritz caught the rabbits and Jack rode down the gazelles--How they followed the honey bird and Jack tried to rob the bees' byke--We sup on the bears' paws--Across the desert again--Sight three ostriches--The male bird captured--We secure him between Storm and Grumble--The mother's astonishment at our new pet--Return to Woodlands--Home again--We establish colonies on Shark and Whale Islands--Turn our attention to agriculture--The difficulties of ostrich training--My patent saddle and bridle--I exercise my ingenuity in various trades, 268

The rainy season again--The building of the cajack--The mother invents a swimming dress--A visit to our colonies--Mysterious seaweed--The mother's surprise--A visit to Whale Island--Mischievous pigs--The three boys return from a day's hunting--They display their treasures--A new skinning apparatus--We make a crushing machine--An early harvest--We prepare a threshing floor--Reaping in Italian fashion--Threshing also in Italian fashion--Return of the herring shoals, 284

Trial of the cajack--Fritz kills a walrus--We carry home its head--The storm--Where is Fritz?--Safe at last--The fishing season--An expedition proposed--Three of the boys start for Woodlands--Pigeon post--Encounter with a hyena--Wood Lake explored--A tapir--Prospect Hill pillaged--A tragedy--The boys in danger--We join them--We build a summer house--Discover the cacao plant--Fritz ascends the stream--He sees elephants and hippopotami--Jack's "moist secret"--We return to Rockburg--Grace and Beauty--Shark Island is fortified, 297

Ten years afterward--Our farms and farmyards--Fritz makes a voyage of discovery--Cape Minster and the swallows' nest--Pearl oysters--A magnificent bay--The strange message--An excursion to Pearl Bay--Fritz proposes to search for the stranger, and prepares his canoe for her reception--The pearl fishery--An encounter with a wild boar--Jack's accident--Truffles--A midnight alarm--The lion and his mate--Our enemies overcome--Juno's death--We set sail for Rockburg--Fritz leaves us, 317

Juno's epitaph--Fritz does not appear--We start in search of him--A cachalot whale--The unexpected appearance of a savage--Fritz in a dusky disguise--He leads us to Fair Isle, and shows us the wonders therein--The stranger--Fritz narrates his adventures--How he saw toucans--Encountered a tiger--Lost Pounce--Found the Smoking Rock, and Jenny Montrose--The history of the stranger--Wolves dispute our right to the whale--Coco joins his brethren--Jack and Jenny search for the truant--We leave Pearl Bay--A hearty reception--A visit to Falconhurst--Jack displays our stud--The rainy season again, 338

Spring and its accompanying work--The mysterious guns--Who fired them--A storm--Fritz and I reconnoiter--The English brig--We visit her in the yacht--Captain Littlestone--We are cordially welcomed--Mr. Wolston and his family--An earnest consultation--Our visitors at Rockburg--The supper--Who is for Europe and who for New Switzerland?--The decision--Farewell, 358

THE SWISS FAMILY ROBINSON

Storm-tossed--Wrecked--Deserted--Supper--We make swimming-belts for the children--An anxious night--The gale moderates--We examine our cargo--Jack introduces two new acquaintances--How shall we get on shore?--Jack's plan--We adopt it--The use of a lever--Our tug-boat completed--Another night on the wreck--We collect the cargo--And embark--Jack's friends will not be left behind--Steer for the shore--Once more on land--We erect a tent--Glue soup--Jack makes the acquaintance of a lobster--Ernest shirks the water--Oysters and salt--How shall we eat our soup?--Ernest solves the difficulty--Fritz returns--The sucking pig--How to open an oyster and how to eat it--The dogs devour the agouti--Fritz's anger--Our first night in the new country.

For many days we had been tempest-tossed. Six times had the darkness closed over a wild and terrific scene, and returning light as often brought but renewed distress, for the raging storm increased in fury until on the seventh day all hope was lost.

We were driven completely out of our course; no conjecture could be formed as to our whereabouts. The crew had lost heart, and were utterly exhausted by incessant labor.

The riven masts had gone by the board, leaks had been sprung in every direction, and the water, which rushed in, gained upon us rapidly.

Instead of reckless oaths, the seamen now uttered frantic cries to God for mercy, mingled with strange and often ludicrous vows, to be performed should deliverance be granted.

Every man on board alternately commended his soul to his Creator, and strove to bethink himself of some means of saving his life.

My heart sank as I looked round upon my family in the midst of these horrors. Our four young sons were overpowered by terror. "Dear children," said I, "if the Lord will, he can save us even from this fearful peril; if not, let us calmly yield our lives into his hand, and think of the joy and blessedness of finding ourselves forever and ever united in that happy home above."

At these words my weeping wife looked bravely up, and, as the boys clustered round her, she began to cheer and encourage them with calm and loving words. I rejoiced to see her fortitude, though my heart was ready to break as I gazed on my dear ones.

We knelt down together, one after another praying with deep earnestness and emotion. Fritz, in particular, besought help and deliverance for his dear parents and brothers, as though quite forgetting himself.

Our hearts were soothed by the never-failing comfort of child-like, confiding prayer, and the horror of our situation seemed less overwhelming. "Ah," thought I, "the Lord will hear our prayer! He will help us."

Amid the roar of the thundering waves I suddenly heard the cry of "Land, land!" while at the same instant the ship struck with a frightful shock, which threw every one to the deck, and seemed to threaten her immediate destruction.

Dreadful sounds betokened the breaking up of the ship, and the roaring waters poured in on all sides:

Then the voice of the captain was heard above the tumult shouting, "Lower away the boats! We are lost!"

"Lost!" I exclaimed, and the word went like a dagger to my heart; but seeing my children's terror renewed, I composed myself, calling out cheerfully, "Take courage, my boys! we are all above water yet. There is the land not far off; let us do our best to reach it. You know God helps those that help themselves!" With that, I left them and went on deck. What was my horror when through the foam and spray I beheld the only remaining boat leave the ship, the last of the seamen spring into her and push off, regardless of my cries and entreaties that we might be allowed to share their slender chance of preserving their lives. My voice was drowned in the howling of the blast; and even had the crew wished it, the return of the boat was impossible.

Casting my eyes despairingly around, I became gradually aware that our position was by no means hopeless, inasmuch as the stern of the ship containing our cabin was jammed between two high rocks, and was partly raised from among the breakers which dashed the forepart to pieces. As the clouds of mist and rain drove past, I could make out, through rents in the vaporous curtain, a line of rocky coast, and rugged as it was, my heart bounded toward it as a sign of help in the hour of need. Yet the sense of our lonely and forsaken condition weighed heavily upon me as I returned to my family, constraining myself to say with a smile, "Courage, dear ones! Although our good ship will never sail more, she is so placed that our cabin will remain above water, and to-morrow, if the wind and waves abate, I see no reason why we should not be able to get ashore."

These few words had an immediate effect on the spirits of my children, who at once regarded our problematical chance of escaping as a happy certainty, and began to enjoy the relief from the violent pitching and rolling of the vessel.

My wife, however, perceived my distress and anxiety, in spite of my forced composure, and I made her comprehend our real situation, greatly fearing the effect of the intelligence on her nerves. Not for a moment did her courage and trust in Providence forsake her, and on seeing this, my fortitude revived.

"We must find some food, and take a good supper," said she, "it will never do to grow faint by fasting too long. We shall require our utmost strength to-morrow."

Night drew on apace, the storm was as fierce as ever, and at intervals we were startled by crashes announcing further damage to our unfortunate ship.

"God will help us soon now, won't he, father?" said my youngest child.

"You silly little thing," said Fritz, my eldest son, sharply, "don't you know that we must not settle what God is to do for us? We must have patience and wait his time."

"Very well said, had it been said kindly, Fritz, my boy. You too often speak harshly to your brothers, although you may not mean to do so."

A good meal being now ready, my youngsters ate heartily, and retiring to rest were speedily fast asleep. Fritz, who was of an age to be aware of the real danger we were in, kept watch with us. After a long silence, "Father," said he, "don't you think we might contrive swimming belts for mother and the boys? with those we might all escape to land, for you and I can swim."

"Your idea is so good," answered I, "that I shall arrange something at once, in case of an accident during the night."

We immediately searched about for what would answer the purpose, and fortunately got hold of a number of empty flasks and tin canisters, which we connected two and two together so as to form floats sufficiently buoyant to support a person in the water, and my wife and young sons each willingly put one on. I then provided myself with matches, knives, cord, and other portable articles, trusting that, should the vessel go to pieces before daylight, we might gain the shore not wholly destitute.

Fritz, as well as his brothers, now slept soundly. Throughout the night my wife and I maintained our prayerful watch, dreading at every fresh sound some fatal change in the position of the wreck.

At length the faint dawn of day appeared, the long, weary night was over, and with thankful hearts we perceived that the gale had began to moderate; blue sky was seen above us, and the lovely hues of sunrise adorned the eastern horizon.

I aroused the boys, and we assembled on the remaining portion of the deck, when they, to their surprise, discovered that no one else was on board.

"Hallo, papa! what has become of everybody? Are the sailors gone? Have they taken away the boats? Oh, papa! why did they leave us behind? What can we do by ourselves?"

"My good children," I replied, "we must not despair, although we seem deserted. See how those on whose skill and good faith we depended have left us cruelly to our fate in the hour of danger. God will never do so. He has not forsaken us, and we will trust him still. Only let us bestir ourselves, and each cheerily do his best. Who has anything to propose?"

"The sea will soon be calm enough for swimming," said Fritz.

"And that would be all very fine for you," exclaimed Ernest, "but think of mother and the rest of us! Why not build a raft and all get on shore together?"

"We should find it difficult, I think, to make a raft that would carry us safe to shore. However, we must contrive something, and first let each try to procure what will be of most use to us."

Away we all went to see what was to be found, I myself proceeding to examine, as of great consequence, the supplies of provisions and fresh water within our reach.

My wife took her youngest son, Franz, to help her to feed the unfortunate animals on board, who were in a pitiful plight, having been neglected for several days.

Fritz hastened to the arm chest, Ernest to look for tools: and Jack went toward the captain's cabin, the door of which he no sooner opened than out sprang two splendid large dogs, who testified their extreme delight and gratitude by such tremendous bounds that they knocked their little deliverer completely head over heels, frightening him nearly out of his wits. Jack did not long yield either to fear or anger; he presently recovered himself; the dogs seemed to ask pardon by vehemently licking his face and hands, and so, seizing the larger by the ears, he jumped on his back, and, to my great amusement, coolly rode to meet me as I came up the hatchway.

When we reassembled in the cabin, we all displayed our treasures.

Fritz brought a couple of guns, shot belt, powder flasks, and plenty of bullets.

Ernest produced a cap full of nails, an ax, and a hammer, while pincers, chisels, and augers stuck out of all his pockets.

Little Franz carried a box, and eagerly began to show us the "nice sharp little hooks" it contained. "Well done, Franz!" cried I; "these fish hooks, which you, the youngest, have found, may contribute more than anything else in the ship to save our lives by procuring food for us. Fritz and Ernest, you have chosen well."

"Will you praise me too?" said my dear wife. "I have nothing to show, but I can give you good news. Some useful animals are still alive; a cow, a donkey, two goats, six sheep, a ram, and a fine sow. I was but just in time to save their lives by taking food to them."

"All these things are excellent indeed," said I; "but my friend Jack here has presented me with a couple of huge, hungry, useless dogs, who will eat more than any of us."

"Oh, papa! they will be of use! Why, they will help us to hunt when we get on shore!"

"No doubt they will, if ever we do get on shore, Jack; but I must say I don't know how it is to be done."

"Can't we each get into a big tub, and float there?" returned he. "I have often sailed splendidly like that, round the pond at home."

"My child, you have hit on a capital idea," cried I. "Now, Ernest, let me have your tools, hammers, nails, saws, augers, and ax; and then make haste to collect any tubs you can find!"

We very soon found four large casks, made of sound wood, and strongly bound with iron hoops; they were floating with many other things in the water in the hold, but we managed to fish them out, and drag them to a suitable place for launching them. They were exactly what I wanted, and I succeeded in sawing them across the middle. Hard work it was, and we were glad enough to stop and refresh ourselves with wine and biscuits.