out
my own danger; though had the powder taken fire, I had never known who
had hurt me.

Such impression did this make upon me that after the storm was over I
laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, and applied
myself to make bags and boxes to separate the powder, and keep it a
little and a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever might come it
might not all take fire at once, and to keep it so apart that it
should not be possible to make one part fire another. I finished this
work in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which in all was
about 240 pounds' weight, was divided in not less than a hundred
parcels. As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any
danger from that, so I placed it in my new cave, which in my fancy I
called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and down in holes among the
rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully where I
laid it.

In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once, at
least, every day with my gun, as well to divert myself as to see if I
could kill anything fit for food, and as near as I could to acquaint
myself with what the island produced. The first time I went out, I
presently discovered that there were goats in the island, which was a
great satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this
misfortune to me, viz., that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift
of foot that it was the difficultest thing in the world to come at
them. But I was not discouraged at this, not doubting but I might now
and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after I had found their
haunts a little, I laid wait in this manner for them. I observed if
they saw me in the valleys, though they were upon the rocks, they
would run away as in a terrible fright; but if they were feeding in
the valleys, and I was upon the rocks, they took no notice of me, from
whence I concluded that, by the position of their optics, their sight
was so directed downward that they did not readily see objects that
were above them. So afterward I took this method: I always climbed the
rocks first to get above them, and then had frequently a fair mark.
The first shot I made among these creatures I killed a she-goat, which
had a little kid by her, which she gave suck to, which grieved me
heartily; but when the old one fell, the kid stood stock still by her
till I came and took her up; and not only so, but when I carried the
old one with me upon my shoulders, the