my foot could reach the bottom,
and grounded itself, from the shallowness of the water, as I suppose,
so that its mouth could not get round towards me. The blow I felt some
hours after making the shore. By repeated practice, I at length became
a pretty dexterous swimmer, and amused myself by passing from one
island to another, among the keys.

I suffered very much from being barefoot; so many deep wounds were
made in my feet from traversing the woods, where the ground was
covered with sticks and stones, and on the hot beach, over sharp
broken shells, that I was scarce able to walk at all. Often, when
treading with all possible caution, a stone or shell on the beach, or
a pointed stick in the woods, would penetrate the old wound, and the
extreme anguish would strike me down as suddenly as if I had been
shot. Then I would remain, for hours together, with tears gushing from
my eyes, from the acuteness of the pain. I could travel no more than
absolute necessity compelled me, in quest of subsistence; and I have
sat, my back leaning against a tree, looking out for a vessel during a
complete day.

Once, while faint from such injuries, as well as smarting under the
pain of them, a wild boar rushed towards me. I knew not what to do,
for I had not strength to resist his attack; therefore, as he drew
nearer, I caught the bough of a tree, and suspended myself by means of
it. The boar tore away part of my ragged trowsers with his tusks, and
then left me. This, I think, was the only time that I was attacked by
any wild beast, and I considered myself to have had a very great
deliverance.

As my weakness continued to increase, I often fell to the ground
insensible, and then, as also when I laid myself to sleep, I thought I
should never awake again, or rise in life. Under this affliction I
first lost count of the days of the week; I could not distinguish
Sunday, and, as my illness became more aggravated, I became ignorant
of the month also.

All this time I had no healing balsam for my feet, nor any cordial to
revive my drooping spirits. My utmost efforts could only now and then
procure some figs and grapes. Neither had I fire; for, though I had
heard of a way to procure it by rubbing two sticks together, my
attempts in this respect, continued until I was tired, proved
abortive. The rains having come on, attended with chill winds, I
suffered exceedingly.

While passing nine months in this lonely, melancholy, and irksome
conditio