Robinson Crusoe: Chapter 16 Summary & Analysis

For the next year, Robinson did not venture to where he saw the skulls and human bones to see if the savages came again. He hid his boat in a cove and mostly stayed within his "castle," leaving to tend to his goats. He was glad that he had not run into the savages back when he wandered the island much less cautiously and thanked "that Providence which had delivered me from so many unseen dangers."

Robinson realized that Providence often saves men when they are completely unaware of it, and that often in a dilemma people have an innate sense or hint of what should be done. He decided always to obey "those secret hints or pressings of mind," and now advises all men "not to slight such secret intimations of Providence."

Not wanting to be seen by anyone, Robinson decided only to burn fires at his dwelling in the forest, where he discovered a natural cave behind some trees he cut down. Inside the dark cave, he saw and heard some kind of creature, which terrified him, but it turned out to be only an old he-goat.

Inside the cave was a kind of tunnel with a low roof, through which Robinson crawled to find a larger cavernous chamber with some kind of diamond or precious metal shining in the rock. Pleased with this secret, protected place, Robinson brought his gunpowder to store here.

Robinson says that he was now in his twenty-third year upon the island and was now perfectly happy to live the rest of his life there, with his parrot, dogs, and cats for company, as well as his goats and some tamed birds. He was content to go on living here, but says that "it was otherwise directed," and urges the reader to take from his story the conclusion that the evil one fears is often "the very means or door of our deliverance."