ther man nor beast could
get into it or over it. The entrance I made to be by a short ladder to
go over the top, and when I was in I lifted the ladder after me.

Inside the fence, with infinite labour, I carried all my riches,
provisions, ammunition, and stores. And I made me a large tent, also, to
preserve me from the rains. When I had done this I began to work my way
into the rock. All the earth and stones I dug out I laid up within my
fence, and thus I made me a cave just behind my tent which served me
like a cellar.

In the middle of my labours it happened that, rummaging in my things, I
found a little bag with but husks of corn and dust in it. Wishing to
make use of the bag, I shook it out on one side of my fortification. It
was a little before the great rains that I threw this stuff away, not
remembering that I had thrown anything there; about a month after, I saw
some green stalks shooting up. I was perfectly astonished when, after a
little longer time, I saw ten or twelve ears of barley. I knew not how
it came there. At last it occurred to me that I had shaken out the bag
there. Besides the barley there were also a few stalks of rice. I
carefully saved the ears of this corn, you may be sure, and resolved to
sow them all again. When my corn was ripe, I used a cutlass as a scythe,
and cut off the ears, and rubbed them out with my hands. At the end of
my harvesting I had nearly two bushels of rice, and two bushels and a
half of barley. I kept all this for seed, and bore the want of bread
with patience.

I soon found that I needed many things to make me comfortable. First I
wanted a chair and a table, for without them I must live like a savage.
So I set to work. I had never handled a tool in my life, but I had a
saw, an axe, and several hatchets, and I soon learned to use them all.
If I wanted a board, I had to chop down a tree. From the trunk of the
tree I cut a log of the length my board was to be. Then I split the log,
and, with infinite labour, hewed it flat till it was as thin as a board.
I made myself a table and a chair out of short pieces of board, and from
the large boards I made some wide shelves. On these I laid my tools and
other things.

From time to time I made many useful things. From a piece of ironwood,
cut in the forest with great labour, I made a spade to dig with. Then I
wanted a pick-axe, but for long I could not think how I was to get one.
At length I made use of crowbars from the wreck. Th