day till the
middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out
of my cave for several days.

In this season I was much surprised with the increase of my family; I had
been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or,
as I thought, had been dead, and I heard no more tidings of her till, to
my astonishment, she came home about the end of August with three
kittens. This was the more strange to me because, though I had killed a
wild cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was quite a
different kind from our European cats; but the young cats were the same
kind of house-breed as the old one; and both my cats being females, I
thought it very strange. But from these three cats I afterwards came to
be so pestered with cats that I was forced to kill them like vermin or
wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible.

From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I could not
stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement,
I began to be straitened for food: but venturing out twice, I one day
killed a goat; and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large
tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: I ate
a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the goat's flesh, or of
the turtle, for my dinner, broiled--for, to my great misfortune, I had no
vessel to boil or stew anything; and two or three of the turtle's eggs
for my supper.

During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily 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 I was not perfectly easy at lying so open; for, as I had managed
myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure; whereas now I thought I lay
exposed, and open for anything to come in upon me; and yet I could not
perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature
that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat.

_Sept._ 30.--I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. I
cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore three
hundred and sixty-five days. I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting
it apart for religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with
the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, ack