Robinson Crusoe: Chapter 18 Summary & Analysis

While Robinson wished that someone had survived the wreckage and made it to shore, he says that this was not in his fate. He saw a drowned boy from the ship wash ashore and found in his pockets some money and a tobacco pipe. He says that the pipe was much more useful to him than the money.

Robinson couldn't resist his urge to go out to the stranded ship, both to see if anyone was alive on it and if it had any supplies, so he loaded his boat with some provisions and prepared to go to the boat. But when he was a little ways off-shore, he noticed a powerful current and was worried that he would be driven off to sea, out of sight of his island.

Robinson went back to land and climbed a hill to get a better view of the ocean currents. He noticed another current moving back toward the island, so that he would be able to use this one to return to the island after paddling out to the ship. The next day, he went to the ship, but there were no survivors—only a dog, which he fed and took aboard his boat, and two drowned sailors.

The ship was a Spanish vessel, with many supplies on board. Robinson took some chests, some casks of liquor, some gunpowder, and some kitchen implements onto his boat and brought it all back to his island. In the chests, he found some clothes, some bottles, and a good deal of money, which Robinson says was as useless to him as dirt.

Robinson returned to his prior lifestyle on the island, but his mind was full of plans and ideas for how he might escape the island. He says that his life is a prime example of "the general plague of mankind," which is not being pleased with one's station in life. He says that if he had stayed in Brazil, he could have been one of the foremost planters there.

But Robinson concedes that this kind of ambition and desire is typical of youth, and it is only with "the dear-bought experience of time," that one realizes the folly of it. Unable to be satisfied with his station on the island, Robinson schemed how he might escape.

Unable to sleep one night in March, Robinson thought over his life and how ignorant he was at first of the possibility of running into savages on the island. He though of "how infinitely good that Providence is," for protecting him from dangers he didn't even know about.

He then pondered the savages themselves, wondering why God let them live their lives so horribly as cannibals. Robinson thought of how they were able to get to his island by boat, which led him to think that he could probably travel to their land by boat from his island.

Robinson knew that sailing to the "main land" would be dangerous, as he might fall into the hands of savages, but he thought he might be able to find "some Christian ship" that would rescue him. Robinson says he felt powerless against the desire to leave the island and seek the "main land."

Robinson finally fell asleep and dreamed that some savages came to his island preparing to eat one of their captives. The captive escaped and ran to Robinson's "castle," where Robinson took him in and made him his servant. He was excited to have this servant to help guide him to land, but then he woke up and was disappointed to find that it had been a dream.

Nonetheless, Robinson's mind was now set on rescuing one of the savages' captives and making the captive his servant so that he could escape the island as he had planned in his dream. He constantly kept watch for any canoes coming to the island.

Robinson debated in his mind whether it was justifiable for him to kill some savages in order to free their prisoner and help his quest of getting off the island. While reluctant to kill anyone, Robinson eventually decided that he had to do this, and eagerly looked for any savages coming to the island. He saw none, though, for a year and a half.