ould all forsake me, seeing on the other hand, if I had all the
world, and should lose the favour and blessing of God, there would be no
comparison in the loss?"

From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible for
me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it was
probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in the
world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for
bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something shocked
my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the words. "How canst
thou become such a hypocrite," said I, even audibly, "to pretend to be
thankful for a condition which, however thou mayest endeavour to be
contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to be delivered from?"
So I stopped there; but though I could not say I thanked God for being
there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes, by
whatever afflicting providences, to see the former condition of my life,
and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. I never opened the Bible, or
shut it, but my very soul within me blessed God for directing my friend
in England, without any order of mine, to pack it up among my goods, and
for assisting me afterwards to save it out of the wreck of the ship.

Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and though
I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an account of my
works this year as the first, yet in general it may be observed that I
was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my time according to
the several daily employments that were before me, such as: first, my
duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which I constantly set apart
some time for thrice every day; secondly, the going abroad with my gun
for food, which generally took me up three hours in every morning, when
it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering, cutting, preserving, and cooking
what I had killed or caught for my supply; these took up great part of
the day. Also, it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day,
when the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to
stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time I
could be supposed to work in, with this exception, that sometimes I
changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the morning,
and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.

To this short time allowed for labour I desire