er. Then with the pieces of cable which I had cut on board, I
regularly laid them in a circle between the piles up to their tops,
which were more than five feet out of the earth, and after drove another
row of piles looking within side against them, between two or three feet
high, which made me conclude it a little impregnable castle against men
and beasts. And for my better security I would have no door, but entered
in and came out by the help of a ladder, which I also made.

[Illustration: Robinson Crusoe building his castle. _Dr. & Eng. by A.
Carse, Edin._]

Here was my fence and fortress, into which I carried all my riches,
ammunition, and stores. After which, working on the rock, what with dirt
and stones I dug out, I not only raised my ground two feet, but made a
little cellar to my mansion-house; and this cost me many days labour and
pains. One day in particular a shower of rain falling, thunder and
lighting ensued, which put me in terror lest my powder should take fire,
and not only hinder my necessary subsistence, by killing me food, but
even blow up me and my habitation. To prevent which, I fell to making
boxes and bags, in order to separate it, having by me near 150lb.
weight. And thus being established as king of the island, every day I
went out with my gun to see what I could kill that was fit to eat. I
soon perceived numbers of goats but very shy, yet having watched them
narrowly, and seeing I could better shoot off the rocks than when in the
low grounds, I happened to shoot a she-goat suckling a young kid; which
not thinking its dam slain, stood by her unconcerned; and when I took
the dead creature up, the young one followed me even to the inclosure. I
lifted the kid over the pales, and would willingly have kept it alive;
but finding it could not be brought to eat, I was forced to slay it also
for my subsistence.

Thus entered into as strange a scene of life as ever any man was in, I
had most melancholy apprehensions concerning my deplorable condition:
and many times the tears would plentifully run down my face, when I
considered how I was debarred from all communications with human kind.
Yet while these disponding cogitations would seem to make me accuse
Providence, other good thoughts would interpose and reprove me after
this manner: Well, supposing you are desolate, it is not better to be so
than totally perish? Why, were you singled out to be saved and the rest
destroyed? Why should you complain, wh