d that
keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my perfecting my
enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of keeping them
together; which by this method, indeed, I so effectually secured, that
when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thick
that I was forced to pull some of them up again.

In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally depended
on for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed to preserve
very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of my whole diet;
and indeed they were not only agreeable, but medicinal, wholesome,
nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.

As this was also about half-way between my other habitation and the place
where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in my way
thither, for I used frequently to visit my boat; and I kept all things
about or belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went out in
her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go, scarcely
ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was so apprehensive of
being hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents or winds, or any
other accident. But now I come to a new scene of my life. It happened
one day, about noon, going towards my boat, I was exceedingly surprised
with the print of a man's naked foot on the shore, which was very plain
to be seen on the sand. I stood like one thunderstruck, or as if I had
seen an apparition. I listened, I looked round me, but I could hear
nothing, nor see anything; I went up to a rising ground to look farther;
I went up the shore and down the shore, but it was all one; I could see
no other impression but that one. I went to it again to see if there
were any more, and to observe if it might not be my fancy; but there was
no room for that, for there was exactly the print of a foot--toes, heel,
and every part of a foot. How it came thither I knew not, nor could I in
the least imagine; but after innumerable fluttering thoughts, like a man
perfectly confused and out of myself, I came home to my fortification,
not feeling, as we say, the ground I went on, but terrified to the last
degree, looking behind me at every two or three steps, mistaking every
bush and tree, and fancying every stump at a distance to be a man. Nor
is it possible to describe how many various shapes my affrighted
imagination represented things to me in, how many wild ideas were found
ever