proved an excellent
nurse to my Pedro (for that was the name I gave him), so that he soon
grew a charming child, able to go in his twelvemonth, and spoke in his
twentieth. This and two other lovely boys I had by her in three years,
every one of which she brought up with the breast, and they thrived
delicately.

I don't mention the little intervening occurrences which happened
during this period; they consisted chiefly of the old rota of fishing,
watering, providing in the summer for the winter, and in managing my
salt-work; which altogether kept me at full employment, comfortably to
maintain an increasing family.

In this time I had found out several new sorts of eatables. I had
observed, as I said before, abundance of birds about the wood and lake
in the summer months. These, by firing at them two or three times on my
first coming, I had almost caused to desert my dominions. But as I had
for the last two or three years given no disturbance at all to them,
they were now in as great plenty as ever; and I made great profit of
them by the peace they enjoyed; and yet my table never wanted a supply,
fresh in the summer, or salted and pickled in winter.

I took notice it was about October these birds used to come; and most of
the month of November they were busy in laying their eggs, which I used
at that time to find in great plenty along the banks of the lake in the
reeds, and made great collections of them; I used also to find a great
many in the woods amongst the shrubs and underwood. These furnished our
table various ways; for with my cream-cheese flour, and a little mixture
of ram's-horn juice, I had taught my wife to make excellent puddings of
them; abundance of them also we ate boiled or fried alone, and often as
sauce to our fish. As for the birds themselves, having long omitted to
fire at them, I had an effectual means of taking them otherwise by nets,
which I set between the trees, and also very large pitfall nets, with
which I used to catch all sorts, even from the size of a thrush to that
of a turkey. But as I shall say more of these when I come to speak of my
ward by and by, and of my poultry, I shall omit any further mention of
them here.

You may perhaps wonder how I could keep an account of my time so
precisely, as to talk of the particular months. I will tell you. At my
coming from America, I was then exact; for we set sail the fourteenth of
November, and struck the first or second day of February. So fa