I was, I yet knew not; whether on the continent or
on an island; whether inhabited or not inhabited; whether in danger of
wild beasts or not. There was a hill, not above a mile from me, which
rose up very steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other
hills, which lay as in a ridge from it, northward. I took out one of
the fowling-pieces and one of the pistols, and a horn of powder; and
thus armed, I traveled for discovery up to the top of that hill,
where, after I had with great labor and difficulty got to the top, I
saw my fate to my great affliction, viz., that I was in an island
environed every way with the sea, no land to be seen, except some
rocks which lay a great way off, and two small islands less than this,
which lay about three leagues to the west.

I found, also, that the island I was in was barren, and, as I saw good
reason to believe, uninhabited, except by wild beasts, of whom,
however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their
kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I tell what was fit for
food, and what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I
saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great wood. I believe it was
the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the
world. I had no sooner fired, but from all the parts of the wood there
arose an innumerable number of fowls of many sorts, making a confused
screaming, and crying every one according to his usual note; but not
one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the creature I killed, I
took it to be a kind of a hawk, its color and beak resembling it, but
it had no talons or claws more than common; its flesh was carrion, and
fit for nothing.

Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and fell to
work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the rest of that
day; and what to do with myself at night I knew not, nor indeed where
to rest; for I was afraid to lie down on the ground, not knowing but
some wild beast might devour me, though, as I afterwards found, there
was really no need for those fears. However, as well as I could, I
barricaded myself round with the chests and boards that I had brought
on shore, and made a kind of a hut for that night's lodging; as for
food, I yet saw not which way to supply myself, except that I had seen
two or three creatures like hares run out of the wood where I shot the
fowl.

I now began to consider, that I might yet get a great many things ou