y, as full with stakes or sticks of the osier-like wood,
which I found so apt to grow, as they could well stand; insomuch that I
believe I might set in near twenty thousand of them, leaving a pretty
large space between them and my wall, that I might have room to see an
enemy, and they might have no shelter from the young trees, if they
attempted to approach my outer wall.

Thus in two years' time I had a thick grove; and in five or six years'
time I had a wood before my dwelling, growing so monstrously thick and
strong that it was indeed perfectly impassable: and no men, of what kind
soever, could ever imagine that there was anything beyond it, much less a
habitation. As for the way which I proposed to myself to go in and out
(for I left no avenue), it was by setting two ladders, one to a part of
the rock which was low, and then broke in, and left room to place another
ladder upon that; so when the two ladders were taken down no man living
could come down to me without doing himself mischief; and if they had
come down, they were still on the outside of my outer wall.

Thus I took all the measures human prudence could suggest for my own
preservation; and it will be seen at length that they were not altogether
without just reason; though I foresaw nothing at that time more than my
mere fear suggested to me.

CHAPTER XII--A CAVE RETREAT

While this was doing, I was not altogether careless of my other affairs;
for I had a great concern upon me for my little herd of goats: they were
not only a ready supply to me on every occasion, and began to be
sufficient for me, without the expense of powder and shot, but also
without the fatigue of hunting after the wild ones; and I was loath to
lose the advantage of them, and to have them all to nurse up over again.

For this purpose, after long consideration, I could think of but two ways
to preserve them: one was, to find another convenient place to dig a cave
underground, and to drive them into it every night; and the other was to
enclose two or three little bits of land, remote from one another, and as
much concealed as I could, where I might keep about half-a-dozen young
goats in each place; so that if any disaster happened to the flock in
general, I might be able to raise them again with little trouble and
time: and this though it would require a good deal of time and labour, I
thought was the most rational design.

Accordingly, I spent some time to find out the most