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all speed; for I knew that at the turn of the tide, I should find it

hard work to get to land at all. But in spite of the high wind, I came

to my home all safe. At dawn of day I put my head out, and cast my eyes

on the sea. When lo! no ship was there!

This change in the face of things, and the loss of such a friend, quite

struck me down. Yet I was glad to think that I had brought to shore all

that could be of use to me. I had now to look out for some spot where I

could make my home. Half way up a hill there was a small plain, four or

five score feet long, and twice as broad; and as it had a full view of

the sea, I thought that it would be a good place for my house.

I first dug a trench round a space which took in twelve yards; and in

this I drove two rows of stakes, till they stood firm like piles, five

and a half feet from the ground. I made the stakes close and tight with

bits of rope; and put small sticks on the top of them in the shape of

spikes. This made so strong a fence that no man or beast could get in.

The door of my house was on the top, and I had to climb up to it by

steps, which I took in with me, so that no one else might come up by the

same way. Close to the back of the house stood a high rock, in which I

made a cave, and laid all the earth that I had dug out of it round my

house, to the height of a foot and a half. I had to go out once a day in

search of food. The first time, I saw some goats, but they were too shy

and swift of foot, to let me get near them.

At last I lay in wait for them close to their own haunts. If they saw

me in the vale, though they might be on high ground, they would run off,

wild with fear; but if they were in the vale, and I on high ground, they

took no heed of me. The first goat I shot had a kid by her side, and

when the old one fell, the kid stood near her, till I took her off on

my back, and then the young one ran by my side. I put down the goat, and

brought the kid home to tame it; but as it was too young to feed, I had

to kill it.

At first I thought that, for the lack of pen and ink, I should lose all

note of time; so I made a large post, in the shape of a cross, on which

I cut these words, "I came on these shores on the 8th day of June, in

the year 1659" On the side of this post I made a notch each day as it

came, and this I kept up till the last.

I have not yet said a word of my four pets, which were two cats, a dog,

and a bird. You may guess how fond I was of them, for they were all the

friends left to me. I brought the dog and two cats from the ship. The

dog would fetch things for me at all times, and by his bark, his whine,

his growl, and his tricks, he would all but talk to me; yet he could not

give me thought for thought.

If I could but have had some one near me to find fault with, or to find

fault with me, what a treat it would have been! Now that I had brought

ink from the ship, I wrote down a sketch of each day as it came; not so

much to leave to those who might read it, when I was dead and gone, as

to get rid of my own thoughts, and draw me from the fears which all day

long dwelt on my mind, till my head would ache with the weight of them.

I was a long way out of the course of ships: and oh, how dull it was to

be cast on this lone spot with no one to love, no one to make me laugh,

no one to make me weep, no one to make me think. It was dull to roam,

day by day, from the wood to the shore; and from the shore back to the

wood, and feed on my own thoughts all the while.

So much for the sad view of my case; but like most things it had a

bright side as well as a dark one. For here was I safe on land, while

all the rest of the ship's crew were lost. Well, thought I, God who

shapes our ways, and led me by the hand then, can save me from this

state now, or send some one to be with me; true, I am cast on a rough

and rude part of the globe, but there are no beasts of prey on it to

kill or hurt me. God has sent the ship so near to me, that I have got

from it all things to meet my wants for the rest of my days. Let life be

what it may, there is sure to be much to thank God for; and I soon gave

up all dull thoughts, and did not so much as look out for a sail.

My goods from the wreck had been in the cave for more than ten months;

and it was time now to put them right, as they took up all the space,

and left me no room to turn in: so I made my small cave a large one, and

dug it out a long way back in the sand rock. Then I brought the mouth of

it up to the fence, and so made a back way to my house. This done, I put

shelves on each side, to hold my goods, which made my cave look like a

shop full of stores. To make these shelves I cut down a tree, and with

the help of a saw, an axe, a plane, and some more tools, I made boards.

A chair, and a desk to write on, came next. I rose in good time, and set

to work till noon, then I ate my meal, then I went out with my gun, and

to work once more till the sun had set; and then to bed. It took me more

than a week to change the shape and size of my cave, but I had made it

far too large; for in course of time the earth fell in from the roof;

and had I been in it, when this took place, I should have lost my life.

I had now to set up posts in my cave, with planks on the top of them, so

as to make a roof of wood.

One day, when out with my gun, I shot a wild cat, the skin of which made

me a cap; and I found some birds of the dove tribe, which built their

nests in the holes of rocks.

I had to go to bed at dusk, till I made a lamp of goat's fat, which I

put in a clay dish; and this, with a piece of hemp for a wick, made a

good light. As I had found a use for the bag which had held the fowl's

food on board ship, I shook out from it the husks of corn. This was just

at the time when the great rains fell, and in the course of a month,

blades of rice, corn, and rye, sprang up. As time went by, and the grain