Part 4 (1/2)

I confess I had not entertained any notion ofdestroyed at one blast, I ; and this htned and thundered, as I observed just now

And now, being about to enter into a melancholy relation of a scene of silent life, such perhaps as was never heard of in the world before, I shall take it fro, and continue it in its order It was, by my account, the 30th of September, when, in the manner as above said, I first set foot upon this horrid island, when the sun being, to us, in its autumnal equinox, was almost just over my head, for I reckoned rees 22 minutes north of the line

After I had been there about ten or twelve days, it ca of tiet the sabbath days fro days; but to prevent this, I cut it withit into a great cross, I set it up on the shore where I first landed, viz ”I came on shore here on the 30th of September 1659” Upon the sides of this square post, I cut every day a notch with ain as the rest, and every first day of theone; and thus I keptof ti the ht out of the shi+p in the several voyages, which, as above s of less value, but not all less useful todown before; as in particular, pens, ink, and paper, several parcels in the captain's, , three or four compasses, some mathematical instruation; all which I huddled together, whether I ood Bibles, which caland, and which I had packed up a them two or three popish prayer-books, and several other books; all which I carefully secured And Iand two cats, of whose e in it's place; for I carried both the cats with , he jumped out of the shi+p of himself, and swam on shore to o, and was a trusty servant tothat he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me; I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that he could not do As I observed before, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the uts very exact; but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any means that I could devise

And this putall that I had aether; and of these, this of ink was one, as also spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins, and thread As for linen, I soon learnt to want that without much difficulty

This want of tools o on heavily, and it was near a whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale or surrounded habitation: the piles or stakes, which were as heavy as I could well lift, were a long ti in the woods, andho ho it into the ground; for which purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but at last bethought h I found it, yet itthose posts or piles very laborious and tedious work

But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of any thing I had to do, seeing I had tih to do it in? Nor had I any other employment if that had been over, at least that I could foresee, except the ranging the island to seek for food, which I did an to consider seriously my condition, and the circumstance I was reduced to, and I drew up the state of , not so much to leave them to any that were to come after me, for I was like to have but few heirs, as to deliveran now to an to coainst the evil, that I uish my case from worse; and I stated it very impartially, like debtor and creditor, the coainst the miseries I suffered, thus:

_Evil_ _Good_

I am cast upon a horrible But I am alive, and desolate island, void not drowned, as all my of all hope of recovery shi+p's coled out separated, as it were, too from all the shi+p's from all the world to be crew to be spared from miserable death; and He that miraculously saved me from death, can deliver me from this condition

I am divided from But I a on a barren banished fro no sustenance

I have not clothes to But I am in a hot climate, cover me where if I had clothes I could hardly wear them

I am without any defence But I am cast on an or means to resist island, where I see no any violence of man or wild beasts to hurt me, beast as I saw on the coast of Africa: and what if I had been shi+pwrecked there?

I have no soul to speak But God wonderfully to, or relieve h to the shore, that I have gotten out so s as will either supplyas I live

Upon the whole, here was an undoubted testimony, that there was scarce any condition in the world so_positive_ to be thankful for in it; and let this stand as a direction from the experience of the most miserable of all conditions in this world, that weto coood and evil, on the credit side of the account

Having now brought iven over looking out to sea, to see if I could spy a shi+p; I say, giving over these things, I began to apply s as easy to me as I could

I have already described my habitation, which was a tent under the side of a rock, surrounded with a strong pale of posts and cables; but I ht now rather call it a wall, for I raised a kind of wall up against it of turfs, about two foot thick on the outside; and after some time, I think it was a year and half, I raised rafters fro to the rock, and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as I could get to keep out the rain, which I found at some times of the year very violent

I have already observed how I brought all oods into this pale, and into the cave which I had made behind me: but I oods, which as they lay in no order, so they took up all my place: I had no rooe my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on it: and so when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked sideways to the right hand into the rock; and then, turning to the right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out, on the outside of ress and regress, as it were a back-way to oods

And now I began to apply s as I found I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I was not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could not write or eat, or do several things with so much pleasure without a table

So I went to work; and here I inal of theby reason, and by s, every man may be in time master of every mechanic art I had never handled a tool in my life, and yet in time, by labour, application, and contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made it, especially if I had had tools; however, I s, even without tools, and some with no more tools than an adze and a hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that with infinite labour: for example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on either side with ht it to be as thin as a plank, and then dub it smooth with my adze It is true, by this method I could make but one board out of a whole tree; but this I had no reious deal of time and labour which it took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another

However, I made me a table and a chair, as I observed above, in the first place; and this I did out of the short pieces of boards that I brought on ht out soe shelves of the breadth of a foot and a half one over another, all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails, and iron-work, and in a word, to separate every thing at large in their places, that I ht come easily at theuns and all things that would hang up