LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE, OF YORK, MARINER
DANIEL DE FOE



THE

LIFE AND ADVENTURES

OF

ROBINSON CRUSOE,

OF YORK, MARINER.

WITH AN ACCOUNT OF

HIS TRAVELS ROUND THREE PARTS OF THE GLOBE.

_WRITTEN BY HIMSELF_.

IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL.I.

BY C. WHITTINGHAM;

FOR J. CARPENTER, OLD BOND STREET; J. BOOKER, NEW BOND
STREET; SHARPS AND HAILES, MUSEUM, PICCADILLY; AND
GALE, CURTIS, AND FENNER, PATERNOSTER ROW; LONDON.

1812.




THE LIFE OF

_DANIEL DE FOE_.



Daniel De Foe was descended from a respectable family in the county of
Northampton, and born in London, about the year 1663. His father, James
Foe, was a butcher, in the parish of St. Giles's, Cripplegate, and a
protestant dissenter. Why the subject of this memoir prefixed the _De_
to his family name cannot now be ascertained, nor did he at any period
of his life think it necessary to give his reasons to the public. The
political scribblers of the day, however, thought proper to remedy this
lack of information, and accused him of possessing so little of the
_amor patriae_, as to make the addition in order that he might not be
taken for an Englishman; though this idea could have had no other
foundation than the circumstance of his having, in consequence of his
zeal for King William, attacked the prejudices of his countrymen in his
"Trueborn Englishman."

After receiving a good education at an academy at Newington, young De
Foe, before he had attained his twenty-first year, commenced his career
as an author, by writing a pamphlet against a very prevailing sentiment
in favour of the Turks, who were at that time laying siege to Vienna.
This production, being very inferior to those of his maturer years, was
very little read, and the indignant author, despairing of success with
his pen, had recourse to the sword; or, as he termed it, when boasting
of the exploit in his latter years, "displayed his attachment to liberty
and protestanism," by joining the ill-advised insurrection under the
Duke of Monmouth, in the west. On the failure of that unfortunate
enterprise, he returned again to the metropolis; and it is not
improbable, but that the circumstance of his being a native of London,
and his person not much known in that part of the kingdom where the
rebellion took place, might facilitate his escape, and be the means of
preventing his being brought to trial for his share in the transaction.
With the professions of a writer and a soldier, Mr. De Foe, in the year
1685, joined that of a trader; he was first engaged as a hosier, in
Cornhill, and afterwards as a maker of bricks and pantiles, near Tilbury
Fort, in Essex; but in consequence of spending those hours in the
hilarity of the tavern which he ought to have employed in the
calculations of the counting-house, his commercial schemes proved
unsuccessful; and in 1694 he was obliged to abscond from his creditors,
not failing to attribute those misfortunes to the war and the severity
of the times, which were doubtless owing to his own misconduct. It is
much to his credit, however, that after having been freed from his debts
by composition, and being in prosperous circumstances from King
William's favour, he voluntarily paid most of his creditors both the
principal and interest of their claims. This is such an example of
honesty as it would be unjust to De Foe and to the world to conceal. The
amount of the sums thus paid must have been very considerable, as he
afterwards feelingly mentions to Lord Haversham, who had reproached him
with covetousness; "With a numerous family, and no helps but my own
industry, I have forced my way through a sea of misfortunes, and reduced
my debts, exclusive of composition, from seventeen thousand to less than
five thousand pounds."

At the beginning of the year 1700, Mr. De Foe published a satire in
verse, which excited very considerable attention, called the "Trueborn
Englishman." Its purpose was to furnish a reply to those who were
continually abusing King William and some of his friends as
_foreigners_, by showing that the present race of Englishmen was a mixed
and heterogeneous brood, scarcely any of which could lay claim to native
purity of blood. The satire was in many parts very severe; and though it
gave high offence, it claimed a considerable share of the public
attention. The reader will perhaps be gratified by a specimen of this
production, wherein he endeavours to account for--

"What makes this discontented land appear
Less happy now in times of peace, than war;
Why civil fends disturb the nation more,
Than all our bloody wars had done before:
Fools out of favour grudge at knaves in place,
And men are always honest in disgrace:
The court preferments make men knaves in course,
But they, who would be in them, would be worse.
'Tis not at foreigners that we repine,
Would foreigners their perquisites resign:
The grand contention's plainly to be seen,
To get some men put out, and some put in."

It will be immediately perceived that De Foe could have no pretensions
to the character of a _poet_; but he has, notwithstanding, some nervous
and well-versified lines, and in choice of subject and moral he is in
general excellent. The Trueborn Englishman concludes thus:

Could but our ancestors retrieve their fate,
And see their offspring thus degenerate;
How we contend for birth and names unknown,
And build on their past actions, not our own;
They'd cancel records, and their tombs deface,
And openly disown the vile degenerate race.
For fame of families is all a cheat;
'TIS PERSONAL VIRTUE ONLY MAKES US GREAT.

For this defence of foreigners De Foe was amply rewarded by King
William, who not only ordered him a pension, but, as his opponents
denominated it, appointed him _pamphlet-writer general to the court_; an
office for which he was peculiarly well calculated, possessing, with a
strong mind and a ready wit, that kind of yielding conscience which
allowed him to support the measures of his benefactors, though convinced
they were injurious to his country. De Foe now retired to Newington with
his family, and for a short time lived at ease; but the death of his
royal patron deprived him of a generous protector, and opened a scene of
sorrow which probably embittered his future life.

He had always discovered a great inclination to engage in religious
controversy, and the furious contest, civil and ecclesiastical, which
ensued on the accession of Queen Anne, gave him an opportunity of
gratifying his favourite passion. He therefore published a tract,
entitled "The shortest Way with the Dissenters, or Proposals for the
Establishment of the Church," which contained an ironical recommendation
of persecution, but written in so serious a strain, that many persons,
particularly Dissenters, at first mistook its real intention. The high
church party however saw, and felt the ridicule, and, by their
influence, a prosecution was commenced against him, and a proclamation
published in the Gazette, offering a reward for his apprehension[1].
When De Foe found with how much rigour himself and his pamphlet were
about to be treated, he at first secreted himself; but his printer and
bookseller being taken into custody, he surrendered, being resolved, as
he expresses it, "to throw himself upon the favour of government, rather
than that others should be ruined for his mistakes." In July, 1703, he
was brought to trial, found guilty, and sentenced to be imprisoned, to
stand in the pillory, and to pay a fine of two hundred marks. He
underwent the infamous part of the punishment with great fortitude, and
it seems to have been generally thought that he was treated with
unreasonable severity. So far was he from being ashamed of his fate
himself, that he wrote a hymn to the pillory, which thus ends, alluding
to his accusers:

Tell them, the men that plac'd him here
Are scandals to the times;
Are at a loss to find his guilt,
And can't commit his crimes.

Pope, who has thought fit to introduce him in his Dunciad, (probably
from no other reason than party difference) characterizes him in the
following line:

Earless on high stood unabash'd De Foe.

This is one of those instances of injustice and malignity which so
frequently occur in the Dunciad, and which reflect more dishonour on the
author than on the parties traduced. De Foe lay friendless and
distressed in Newgate, his family ruined, and himself without hopes of
deliverance, till Sir Robert Harley, who approved of his principles, and
foresaw that during a factious age such a genius could be converted to
many uses, represented his unmerited sufferings to the Queen, and at
length procured his release. The treasurer, Lord Godolphin, also sent a
considerable sum to his wife and family, and to him money to pay his
fine and the expense of his discharge. Gratitude and fidelity are
inseparable from an honest man; and it was this benevolent act that
prompted De Foe to support Harley, with his able and ingenious pen, when
Anne lay lifeless, and his benefactor in the vicissitude of party was
persecuted by faction, and overpowered, though not conquered,
by violence.

The talents and perseverance of De Foe began now to be properly
estimated, and as a firm supporter of the administration, he was sent by
Lord Godolphin to Scotland, on an errand which, as he says, was far from
being unfit for a sovereign to direct, or an honest man to perform. His
knowledge of commerce and revenue, his powers of insinuation, and, above
all, his readiness of pen, were deemed of no small utility in promoting
the union of the two kingdoms; of which he wrote an able history in
1709, with two dedications, one to the Queen, and another to the Duke of
Queensbury. Soon afterwards