rish ground near the sea,
and I believed 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, health 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 to banish all my expectation
yet.

In search of a place proper for this, I found a little plain on the
side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was steep
as a house-side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top.
On the side of this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way
in, like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really any
cave, or way into the rock at all.

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved to
pitch my tent. This plain was not above an hundred yards broad, and
about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door, and at the
end of it descended irregularly every way down into the low grounds by
the seaside. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill, so that I was
sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a W. and by S. sun,
or thereabouts, which in those countries is near the setting.

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle before the hollow place,
which took in about ten yards in its semi-diameter from the rock, and
twenty yards in its diameter from its beginning and ending. In this
half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the
ground till they stood very firm like piles, the biggest end being out
of the ground about five feet and a half, and sharpened on the top.
The two rows did not stand above six inches from one another.

Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, and laid
them in rows one upon another, within the circle, between these two
rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside
leaning against them, about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a
post; and this fence was so strong that neither man nor beast could
get into it, or over it. This cost me a great deal of time and labor,
especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and
drive them