upon breaking it open by the water-side, I found a mattress, some
shirts, shoes, stockings, and several other useful things; a small case
of bottles with cordials in them, some instruments of surgery, plasters
and salves; all which, together with a large quantity of fish that I had
salted, I carried to the grotto.

My habitation being thus already overcharged, and as I could not,
however, bear the thoughts of quitting it, or of having any of my
goods exposed to the weather on the outside, I was naturally bent on
contriving how I should increase my accommodations. As I had no prospect
of enlarging the grotto itself, I could conceive no other way of
effecting my desire but by the addition of an outer room. This thought
pleased me very much, so that the next day I set myself to plan out the
building, and trace the foundation of it.

I told you before there was about the space of a cart-way between the
wood and the rock clear; but this breadth, as I was building for
life (so I imagined), not appearing to me spacious enough for my new
apartment, I considered how I should extend its bounds into the wood.
Hereupon I set myself to observe what trees stood at a proper distance
from my grotto, that might serve as they stood, with a little management
of hewing and the like, to compose a noble doorway, posts, and
supporters; and I found, that upon cutting down three of the nearest
trees, I should answer my purpose in this respect; and there were
several others, about twenty feet from the grotto, and running parallel
with the rock, the situation of which was so happily adapted to my
intention, that I could make them become, as I fancied, an out-fence or
wall; so I took my axe and cut down my nearest trees, but as I was
going to strike, a somewhat different scheme presented itself to my
imagination that altered my resolution.

In conformity with this new plan, I fixed the height of my intended
ceiling, and sawed off my nearest trees to that, sloping from the sides
to the middle, to support cross-beams for the roof to rest on, and left
the trunks standing, by way of pillars, both for the use and ornament of
the structure. In short, I worked hard every day upon my building for a
month, in which time I had cut all my timber into their proper lengths
for my outworks and covering, but was at a great stand how to fix my
side-posts, having no spade or mattock, and the ground almost as hard
as flint, for to be sure it had never been stir