I was now landed, and safe on shore; and began to look up and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there were, some minutes before, scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are when it is so saved, as I may say, out of the grave: and I did not wonder now at the custom, viz., that when a malefactor who has the halter about his neck is tied up, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him,--I say I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it; that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and overwhelm him. "For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first." I walked about the shore, lifting up my hands, and my whole being, as I may say, wrapped up in the contemplation of my deliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions which I cannot describe; reflecting upon my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of the hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows. [Illustration: _DEFOE._ Facsimile, somewhat reduced, of the frontispiece to the first edition of ROBINSON CRUSOE. 1719. The full title reads:--The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who lived eight-and-twenty years all alone, on an uninhabited Island on the Coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque: Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the others perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself.] I cast my eyes to the stranded vessel--when the breach and froth of the sea being so big I could hardly see it, it lay so far off--and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore? CRUSOE MAKES A NEW HOME I soon found the place I was in was not for my settlement, particularly because it was upon a low moorish ground, near the sea, and I believed it would not be wholesome; and more particularly because there was no fresh water near it; so I resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground. I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper for me: first, air and fresh water, I just now mentioned; secondly, shelter from the heat of the sun; thirdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts; fourthly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight, I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance, of which I was not willing to banish all my expectation yet.