or that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had
a more clear call from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so far
was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that in
all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there were any
of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shore there
or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my contrivances
against them, or be provoked by any advantage that might present itself
to fall upon them; only this I did: I went and removed my boat, which I
had on the other side of the island, and carried it down to the east end
of the whole island, where I ran it into a little cove, which I found
under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason of the currents, the
savages durst not, at least would not, come with their boats upon any
account whatever. With my boat I carried away everything that I had left
there belonging to her, though not necessary for the bare going
thither--viz. a mast and sail which I had made for her, and a thing like
an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be called either anchor or
grapnel; however, it was the best I could make of its kind: all these I
removed, that there might not be the least shadow for discovery, or
appearance of any boat, or of any human habitation upon the island.
Besides this, I kept myself, as I said, more retired than ever, and
seldom went from my cell except upon my constant employment, to milk my
she-goats, and manage my little flock in the wood, which, as it was quite
on the other part of the island, was out of danger; for certain, it is
that these savage people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came
with any thoughts of finding anything here, and consequently never
wandered off from the coast, and I doubt not but they might have been
several times on shore after my apprehensions of them had made me
cautious, as well as before. Indeed, I looked back with some horror upon
the thoughts of what my condition would have been if I had chopped upon
them and been discovered before that; when, naked and unarmed, except
with one gun, and that loaded often only with small shot, I walked
everywhere, peeping and peering about the island, to see what I could
get; what a surprise should I have been in if, when I discovered the
print of a man's foot, I had, instead of that, seen fifteen or twenty
savages, and