I was soon convinced that my hands were insufficient to make a cavity
deep enough to retain what should fall into it. Thus I was forced to
rest satisfied with fruit, which was to be esteemed very good
provision for any one in my condition.

In process of time, while poking among the sand with a stick, in quest
of tortoise eggs, which I had heard were laid in the sand, part of
one came up adhering to it; and, on removing the sand, I found nearly
an hundred and fifty, which had not lain long enough to spoil.
Therefore, taking some, I ate them, and strung others on a strip of
palmeto, which being hung up in the sun, became thick and somewhat
hard; so that they were more palatable. After all, they were not very
savoury food, though one, who had nothing but what fell from the
trees, behoved to be content. Tortoises lay their eggs in the sand, in
holes about a foot or a foot and a half deep, and smooth the surface
over them, so that there is no discovering where they lie. According
to the best of my observation, the young are hatched in eighteen or
twenty days, and then immediately take to the water.

Many serpents are on this and the adjacent islands; one, about twelve
or fourteen feet long, is as large as a man's waist, but not
poisonous. When lying at length, they look like old trunks of trees,
covered with short moss, though they usually assume a circular
position. The first time I saw one of these serpents, I had approached
very near before discovering it to be a living creature; it opened its
mouth wide enough to have received a hat, and breathed on me. A small
black fly creates such annoyance, that even if a person possessed ever
so many comforts, his life would be oppressive to him, unless for the
possibility of retiring to some small quay, destitute of wood and
bushes, where multitudes are dispersed by the wind.

To this place then was I confined during nine months, without seeing a
human being. One day after another was lingered out, I know not how,
void of occupation or amusement, except collecting food, rambling from
hill to hill, and from island to island, and gazing on sky and water.
Although my mind was occupied by many regrets, I had the reflection
that I was lawfully employed when taken, so that I had no hand in
bringing misery on myself: I was also comforted to think that I had
the approbation and consent of my parents in going to sea, and trusted
that it would please God, in his own time and manner, to pr