t length I remembered I had some neckcloths of
calico or muslin of the sailors, which I had brought out of the ship,
and with these I made three small sieves proper enough for the work.

I come now to consider the baking part. The want of an oven I supplied
by making some earthen pans very broad but not deep. When I had a mind
to bake, I made a great fire upon the hearth, the tiles of which I had
made myself; and when the wood was burnt into live coals, I spread them
over it, till it became very hot; then sweeping them away, I set down my
loaves, and whelming down the earthen pots upon them, drew the ashes and
coals all around the outsides of the pots to continue the heat; and in
this manner I baked my barley loaves, as well as if I had been a
complete pastry-cook, and also made of the rice several cakes
and puddings.

It is no wonder that these things took me up the best part of a year,
since what intermediate time I had was bestowed in managing my new
harvest and husbandry; for in the proper season I reaped my corn,
carried it home, and laid it up in the ear in my large baskets, til I
had time to rub, instead of thrashing it. And now, indeed, my corn
increased so much, that it produced me twenty bushels of barley, and as
much rice, that I not only began to use it freely, but was thinking how
to enlarge my barns, and resolved to sow as much at a time as would be
sufficient for me for a whole year.

All this while, the prospect of land, which I had seen from the other
side of the island, ran in my mind. I still meditated a deliverance from
this place, though the fear of greater misfortunes might have deterred
me from it.--For, allowing that I had attained that place, I run the
hazard of being killed and eaten by the devouring cannibals: and if they
were not so, yet I might be slain, as other Europeans had been, who fell
into their hands. Notwithstanding all this, my thoughts ran continually
upon that shore. I now wished for my boy Xury, and the long boat, with
the shoulder of mutton sail: I went to the ship's boat that had been
cast a great way on the shore in the late storm. She was removed but a
little; but her bottom being turned up by the impetuosity and fury of
the waves and wind, I fell to work with all the strength I had, with
levers and rollers I had cut from the wood, to turn her, and repair the
damages she had sustained. This work took me up three or four weeks,
when finding my little strength all in vain, I