s and bedding, with a gun, some
powder, bullets, and a hatchet, a knife, a kettle, and his Bible,
besides some mathematical instruments and books. For the first eight
months he had great difficulty in bearing up against the melancholy
feelings which oppressed him at being left alone in so desert a place.
He occupied himself, however, in building two huts with pimento-trees,
which he covered with long grass, and lined with the skins of goats he
had killed with his gun. He had, however, but a pound of powder, and
when that was nearly expended he produced fire by rubbing two sticks of
pimento-tree on his knee. The lesser hut served him as kitchen, and in
the larger he slept and employed himself in reading, singing psalms, and
praying; so that, as he remarked, he was a better Christian while in
this solitude than he had ever been before.

At first he never ate until hungry, partly because his grief took away
his appetite, and partly because he had neither bread nor salt. He also
never went to bed until he could watch no longer. From the pimento wood
he manufactured torches, which served him as a light at night, while he
enjoyed its fragrant smell. He might have caught fish, but he could not
eat them for want of salt, as they disagreed with him, except crayfish,
which were as large as English lobsters, and very good. These he
sometimes boiled, at others broiled, as he did his goat's flesh, with
which he made very good broth.

He kept an account of five hundred goats which he had killed, and of as
many more which he caught, and, having marked them on the ear, let go.
When his powder failed, he caught the animals, nimble as they were, by
chasing them, and from constant practice he ran with wonderful swiftness
through the woods and up the rocks and hills. On one occasion, while
thus engaged, he nearly lost his life by falling over a precipice. When
he came to his senses, he found the goat dead under him. He there lay
for twenty-four hours, and was then scarcely able to crawl to his hut,
which was about a mile off. On reaching it he did not move again for
ten days. He at last got accustomed to eat his meat without bread or
salt. During the season he had plenty of good turnips, which had been
sown by Captain Dampier's crew, and now covered several acres of ground.
Cabbage-trees also afforded him good cabbage. He seasoned his food
with the fruit of the pimento-trees, which is similar to Jamaica pepper.
He also found