excerpt from Robinson Crusoe
by Daniel Defoe
When I walked it was broad day, the weather clear, and the storm abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before. But that which surprised
me most was, that the ship was ifted off in the night from the sand where she lay by the swelling of the tide, and was driven up almost as far as the
rock which I at first mentioned, where I had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This being within about a mile from the shore where I
was, and the ship seeming to stand upright still, I wished myself on board, that at least I might save some necessary things for my use.
When I came down from my apartment in the tree, I looked about me again, and the first thing I found was the boat, which lay, as the wind and the
sea had tossed her up, upon the land, about two miles on my right hand. I walked as far as I could upon the shore to have got to her, but found a
neck or inlet of water between me and the boat which was about half a mile broad, so I came back for the present, being more intent upon getting at
the ship, where I hoped to find something for my present subsistence.