hat more than one cannot come at a
time; and I can with ease despatch twenty of them before they can
secure me, if they should be savages; but if they prove sensible human
creatures, it will be a great benefit to me to join myself to their
society. Thus had I formed my scheme, but I heard no more of them for a
great while; so that at length beginning to grow ashamed of my fears, I
became tranquil again.

The day now returning, and with it my labours, I applied to my usual
callings; but my mind ran strangely upon viewing the rock quite round,
that is, the whole circuit of my dominions; for, thinks I, there may
possibly be an outlet through the rock into some other country, from
whence the persons I heard may come. As soon therefore as the days grew
towards the longest, I prepared for my progress. Having lived so well at
home since my settlement, I did not care to trust only to what I could
pick up in the woods for my subsistence during this journey, which would
not only take up time in procuring, but perhaps not agree with me; so
I resolved to carry a supply with me, proportionate to the length of my
perambulation. Hereupon considering that though my walk round the lake
was finished in two days, yet as I now intended to go round by the rock,
the way would be much longer and perhaps more troublesome than that was;
remembering also my journey with Glanlepze in Africa, and how much
I complained of the fruits we carried for our subsistence; these
circumstances, I say, laying together, I resolved to load the cart with
a variety of food, bread and fruits especially, and draw that with me.

Thus provided, I sallied forth with great cheerfulness, and proceeded in
the main easily; though in some places I was forced to make way with
my hatchet, the ground was so over-run with underwood. I very narrowly
viewed the rock as I went, bottom and sides, all the way, but could see
nothing like a passage through it, or indeed any more than one opening,
or inlet, which I entered for about thirty yards, but it was not above
three feet wide, and terminated in the solid rock.

After some days' travel (making all the observations I could on the
several plants, shrubs, and trees which I met with, particularly where
any of these occurred to me entirely new), finding myself a little
faintish, I had a mind for a sup of ram's-horn juice; so I cut me one,
but upon opening it found therein only a pithy pulp, and noways fit to
taste. I supposed by th