e most of which I
carried to my cave; and happy for me I did so; by which I saved the best
part of my winter food.

_Aug_. 14. This day it began to rain; and though I had made me a tent
like the other, yet having no shelter of a hill to keep me from storms,
nor a cave behind me to retreat to, I was obliged to return to my old
castle. The rain continued more or less every day, till the middle of
_October;_ and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of my
cave for several days. This season I found my family to increase; for
one of my cats that ran away from me, and which I thought had been dead,
returned about _August_, with three kittens at her heels, like herself,
which I thought strange, because both my cats were females, and the wild
cats of the island seemed to be of a different kind from our European
cats; but from these cats proceeded such numbers, that I was forced to
kill and destroy them as I would do wild beasts and vermin.

To the 26th of this month, I could not stir out, it raining incessantly;
when beginning to want food, I was compelled to venture twice, the first
of which I shot a goat, and afterwards found a very large tortoise. The
manner of my regulating my food was thus: a bunch of raisins served me
for my breakfast; a piece of goat's flesh or turtle boiled for my
dinner, and two or three turtle's eggs for my supper. While the rain
lasted, I daily worked two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and by
degrees worked it on towards one side, till I came to the outside of the
hill, and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall,
and so I came in and out this way. But after I had done this, I was
troubled to see myself thus exposed; though I could not perceive any
thing to fear, a goat being the biggest creature I had seen upon
this island.

_Sept_. 30. Casting up my notches on my post, which amounted to 365, I
concluded this to be the anniversary of my landing; and, therefore,
humbly prostrating myself on the ground, confessing my sins,
acknowledging God's righteous judgments upon me, and praying to Jesus
Christ to have mercy upon me, I fasted for twelve hours till the going
down of the sun; and then eating a biscuit and a bunch of grapes, laid
me on the bed, and with great comfort took my night's repose. Till this
time I never had distinguished the Sabbath-day; but now made a longer
notch than ordinary for the days of rest, and divided the weeks as well
as I could, though I