and thatched or covered it with boughs of trees, and such things as I
could get, to keep out the rain; which I found at some times of the year
very violent.

I have already observed how I brought all my goods into this pale, and
into the cave which I had made behind me. But I must observe, too, that
at first this was a confused heap of goods, which, as they lay in no
order, so they took up all my place; I had no room to turn myself: so I
set myself to enlarge my cave, and work farther into the earth; for it
was a loose sandy rock, which yielded easily to the labour I bestowed on
it: and so when I found I was pretty safe as to beasts of prey, I worked
sideways, to the right hand, into the rock; and then, turning to the
right again, worked quite out, and made me a door to come out on the
outside of my pale or fortification. This gave me not only egress and
regress, as it was a back way to my tent and to my storehouse, but gave
me room to store my goods.

And now I began to apply myself to make such necessary things as I found
I most wanted, particularly a chair and a table; for without these I was
not able to enjoy the few comforts I had in the world; I could not write
or eat, or do several things, with so much pleasure without a table: so I
went to work. And here I must needs observe, that as reason is the
substance and origin of the mathematics, so by stating and squaring
everything by reason, and by making the most rational judgment of things,
every man may be, in time, master of every mechanic art. I had never
handled a tool in my life; and yet, in time, by labour, application, and
contrivance, I found at last that I wanted nothing but I could have made
it, especially if I had had tools. However, I made abundance of things,
even without tools; and some with no more tools than an adze and a
hatchet, which perhaps were never made that way before, and that with
infinite labour. For example, if I wanted a board, I had no other way
but to cut down a tree, set it on an edge before me, and hew it flat on
either side with my axe, till I brought it to be thin as a plank, and
then dub it smooth with my adze. It is true, by this method I could make
but one board out of a whole tree; but this I had no remedy for but
patience, any more than I had for the prodigious deal of time and labour
which it took me up to make a plank or board: but my time or labour was
little worth, and so it was as well employed one way as another