loath to run any more hazards; and therefore sometimes I sat
contriving ways to get her about the island, and at other times I sat
myself down contented enough without her. But I had a strange
uneasiness in my mind to go down to the point of the island where, as
I have said, in my last ramble, I went up the hill to see how the
shore lay, and how the current set, that I might see what I had to do.
This inclination increased upon me every day, and at length I resolved
to travel thither by land, following the edge of the shore. I did so;
but had anyone in England been to meet such a man as I was, it must
either have frighted him, or raised a great deal of laughter; and as I
frequently stood still to look at myself, I could not but smile at the
notion of my traveling through Yorkshire, with such an equipage, and
in such a dress. Be pleased to take a sketch of my figure, as
follows:--
I had a great high shapeless cap, made of a goat-skin, with a flap
hanging down behind, as well to keep the sun from me, as to shoot the
rain off from running into my neck; nothing being so hurtful in these
climates as the rain upon the flesh, under the clothes.
I had a short jacket of goat-skin, the skirts coming down to about the
middle of my thighs; and a pair of open-kneed breeches of the same.
The breeches were made of the skin of an old he-goat, whose hair hung
down such a length on either side, that, like pantaloons, it reached
to the middle of my legs. Stockings and shoes I had none, but had made
me a pair of somethings, I scarce know what to call them, like
buskins, to flap over my legs, and lace on either side like
spatterdashes; but of a most barbarous shape, as indeed were all the
rest of my clothes.
I had on a broad belt of goat-skin dried, which I drew together with
two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of frog on
either side of this, instead of a sword and a dagger, hung a little
saw and a hatchet, one on one side, one on the other. I had another
belt, not so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over
my shoulder; and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two
pouches, both made of goat-skin too; in one of which hung my powder,
in the other my shot. At my back I carried my basket, on my shoulder
my gun, and over my head a great clumsy, ugly goat-skin umbrella, but
which, after all, was the most necessary thing I had about me, next to
my gun. As for my face, the color of it was really not
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