fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall show afterwards in its order; for I lost all that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper time; as I sowed just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it would have done: of which in its place. Besides this barley, there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care; and whose use was of the same kind, or to the same purpose, viz., to make me bread, or rather food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking, though I did that also after some time. --But to return to my Journal. I worked excessively hard these three or four months, to get my wall done; and the 14th of April I closed it up; contriving to get into it, not by a door, but over the wall, by a ladder, that there might be no sign on the outside of my habitation. APRIL 16. I finished the ladder; so I went up with the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down in the inside: this was a complete enclosure to me; for within I had room enough, and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first mount my wall. The very next day after this wall was finished, I had almost all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was thus:-As I was busy in the inside of it, behind my tent, just at the entrance into my cave, I was terribly frightened by a shock of an earthquake! I was so much amazed with the thing itself (having never felt the like, nor discoursed with any one that had) that I was like one dead or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at sea: but the noise of the falling of the rock awaked me, as it were; and rousing me from the stupified condition I was in, filled me with horror, and I thought of nothing but the hill falling upon my tent and my household goods, and burying all at once; this sunk my very soul within me a second time. After the third shock was over, and I felt no more for some time, I began to take courage; yet I had not heart enough to go over my wall again, for fear of being buried alive; but sat still upon the ground greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knowing what to do. All this while I had not the least serious religious thought; nothing but the common “Lord, have mercy on me!" and when it was over that went away too. This set me thinking about what I had best do; concluding, that if the island was subject to earthquakes, there would be no living for me in a cave, but I must consider of building me some little hut in an open place, which I might surround with a wall, as I had done here, and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men; for if I staid where I was, I should certainly, one time or other, be buried alive. With these thoughts, I resolved to remove my tent from the place where it now stood, being just under the anging precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall upon my tent. I spent the next two days, being the 19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and how to remove my habitation. I resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before, and set my tent in it when it was finished; but that I would venture to stay where I was till it was ready, and fit to remove to. This was the 21st. APRIL 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put this measure into execution; and I was at a great loss about the tools. I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull: and though I had a grindstone, I could nor turn it and grind my tools too. This caused me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might have both my hands at liberty. APRIL 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very well. APRIL 30. Having perceived that my bread had been low a great while, I now took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuitcake a day, which made my heart very heavy. ROBINSON OBTAINS MORE ARTICLES FROM THE WRECKILLNESS AND AFFLICTION. MAY 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide being low, I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary, and it looked like a cask; when I came to it I found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the barrel that was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it had taken water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone; however, I rolled it farther on the shore for the present, and went on upon the sands, as near as I could to the wreck of the ship, to look for more. When I came down to the ship, I found it strangely removed. The forecastle, which lay buried in the sand, was heaved up at least six feet; and the stern (which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest, by the force of the sea, soon after I had left rummaging her) was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side: and the sand was thrown so high on that side next her stern, that I could now walk quite up to her when the tide was out. This wholly diverted my thoughts from the design of removing my habitation; and I busied myself mightily, that day especially, in searching whether I could make any way into the ship; ship; but I found nothing was to be expected of that kind, for all the inside side of the ship was choked up with sand. However, as I had learned not to despair of anything, I resolved to pull everything to pieces that I could of the ship, concluding that everything I could get from her would be of some use or other to me. MAY 3. I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together; and when I had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to give over for that time. MAY 4. I went a fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when just going to leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat; all of which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry. MAY 5 to 24. Every day, to this day, I worked on the wreck; and with hard labour I loosened some things so much, with the crow, that the first blowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen's chests; but the wind blowing from shore, nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brazil pork in it. I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, except the time necessary to get food; which I always appointed, during this part of my employment to be when the tide was up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed out; and by this time I had gotten timber, and plank, and iron work, enough to have built a good boat, if I had known how; and I also got, at several times, and in several pieces, near one hundred weight of the sheetlead. JUNE 16. Going down to the seaside, I found a large tortoise, or turtle. This was the first I had seen; which, it seems, was only to my misfortune, not any defect of the place or scarcity; for had I happened to be on the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but perhaps had paid dear enough for them. JUNE 17. I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her threescore eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury and pleasant that I ever tasted in my life; having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place. JUNE 18. Rained all day, and I stayed within. I thought at this time, the rain felt cold, and I was somewhat chilly; which I knew was not usual in that latitude. JUNE 19. Very ill, and shivering, as if the weather had been cold. JUNE 20. No rest all night; violent pains in my head, and feverish. JUNE 21. Very ill; frightened almost to death with the apprehensions of my sad condition, to be sick, and no help; prayed to God, for the first time since the storm off Hull; but scarce knew what I said, or why, my thoughts being all confused. JUNE 22. A little better; but under dreadful apprehensions of sickness. JUNE 23. Very bad again; cold and shivering, and then a violent headache. JUNE 24. Much better. JUNE 25. An ague very violent; the fit held me seven hours; cold fit, and hot, with faint sweats after it. JUNE 26. Better; and having no vituals to eat, took my gun, but found myself very weak; however, I killed a she-goat, and with much difficulty got it home, and broiled some of it, and ate. I would fain have stewed it, and made some broth, but had no pot. JUNE 27. The ague again so violently that I lay a-bed all day, and neither ate nor drank. I was ready to perish for thirst; but so weak, I had not the strength to stand up, or get myself any water to drink. Prayed to God again, but was light-headed; and when I was not, I was so ignorant that I knew not what to say; only lay and cried, "Lord, look upon me! Lord, pity me! Lord, have mercy upon me!" I suppose I did nothing else for two or three hours; till the fit wearing off, I fell asleep, and did not wake till far in the night. When I awoke, I found myself much refreshed, but weak, and exceeding thirsty; however, as I had no water in my whole habitation, I was forced to lie till morning. I had, alas! no divine knowledge: what I had received by the good instruction of my father was then worn out, by an uninterrupted series, for eight years, of seafaring wickedness, and a constant conversation with none but such as were, like myself, wicked and profane to the last degree. I do not remember that I had, in all that time, one thought that so much as tended either to looking upward towards God, or inward towards a reflection upon my own ways; but a certain stupidity of soul, without desire of good, or consciousness of evil, had entirely overwhelmed me; and I was all that the most hardened, unthinking, wicked creature among our common sailors, can be supposed to be; not having the least sense, either of the fear of God, in danger, or of thankfulness to him, in deliverances. It is true, when I first got on shore here, and found all my ship's crew drowned, and myself spared, I was surprised with a kind of ecstacy, and some transports of soul, which, had the grace of God assisted, might have come up to true thankfulness; but it ended where it began, in a mere common flight of joy, or, as I may say, being glad I was alive, without the least reflection upon the distinguished goodness of the hand which had preserved me, and had singled me out to be preserved when all the rest were destroyed, or an inquiry why providence had been thus merciful to me; just the same common sort of joy which seamen have, after they are got safe ashore from a shipwreck; which they drown all in the next bowl of punch, and forget almost as soon as it is over; and all the rest of my life was like it, Even when I was, afterwards, on due consideration, made sensible of my condition, how I was cast off on this dreadful place, out of the reach of human kind, out of all hope of relief, or prospect of redemption, -as soon as I saw but a prospect of living, |