disturb us, I lookt out a convenient [65]place to
dwell in, that we might build us a Hut to shelter us from the weather,
and from any other danger of annoyance, from wild beasts (if any should
finde us out: So close by a large spring which rose out of a high hill
over-looking the Sea, on the side of a wood, having a prospect towards
the Sea) by the help of an Ax and some other implements (for we had all
necessaries, the working of the Sea, having cast up most of our goods)
I cut down all the straightest poles I could find, and which were enough
{{11 }} for my purpose, by the help of my company (necessity being
our Master) I digged holes in the earth setting my poles at an equl
distance, and nailing the broken boards of the Caskes, Cherts, and
Cabins, and such like to them, making my door to the Seaward, and having
covered the top, with sail-clothes strain'd and nail'd, I in the space
of a week had made a large Cabbin big enough to hold all our goods and
our selves in it, I also placed our Hamocks for lodging, purposing (if
it pleased God to send any Ship that way) we might be transported home,
but it never came to pass, the place, wherein we were (as I conceived)
being much out of the way.

We having now lived in this manner full four months, and not so much as
seeing or hearing of any wild people, or of any of our own company, more
then our selves (they being found now by experience to be all drowned)
and the place, as we after found, being a large Island, and disjoyned,
and out of fight of any other Land, was wholly uninhabited by any
people, neither was there any hurtful beast to annoy us: But on the
contrary the countrey so very pleasant, being always clothed with green,
and full of pleasant fruits, and variety of birds, ever warm, and never
[66]colder then in England in September: So that this place (had it the
culture, that skilful people might bestow on it) would prove a Paradise.

The Woods afforded us a sort of Nuts, as big as a large Apple, whose
kernel being pleasant and dry, we made use of instead of bread, that
fowl before mentioned, and a sort of water-fowl like Ducks, and their
eggs, and a beast about the size of a Goat, and almost such a like
creature, which brought two young ones at a time, and that twice a year,
of which the Low Lands and Woods were very full, being a very harmless
creature and tame, so that we could easily {{12 }} take and kill them:
Fish, also, especially Shell-fish (which we could