th cats, that I was forced to kill
them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as
much as possible.

From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I could not
stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement I
began to be straitened for food; but venturing out twice, I one day
killed a goat: and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large
tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated thus: I ate
a bunch of raisins for my breakfast, a piece of the goat's flesh, or of
the turtle, for my dinner, broiled (for, to my great misfortune, I had
no vessel to boil or stew any thing;) and two or three of the turtle's
eggs for supper. During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I
worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave; and, by degrees,
worked it on towards one side, till I came to the outside of the hill,
and made a door or way out, which came beyond my fence or wall; and so I
came in and out this way: but I was not perfectly easy at lying so open;
for as I had managed myself before, I was in a perfect enclosure,
whereas now I thought I lay exposed; and yet I could not perceive that
there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had seen
upon the island being a goat.

September the 30th. I was now come to the unhappy anniversary of my
landing: I cast up the notches on my post, and found I had been on shore
three hundred and sixty-five days. I kept this day as a solemn fast,
setting it apart to a religious exercise, prostrating myself to the
ground with the most serious humiliation, confessing myself to God,
acknowledging his righteous judgment upon me, and praying to him to have
mercy on me, through Jesus Christ; and having not tasted the least
refreshment for twelve hours, even till the going down of the sun, I
then ate a biscuit-cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed,
finishing the day as I began it.

I had all this time observed no sabbath-day; for as at first I had no
sense of religion upon my mind, I had after some time omitted to
distinguish the weeks, by making a longer notch than ordinary for the
sabbath-day, and so did not really know what any of the days were; but
now, having cast up the days as before, I found I had been there a year;
so I divided it into weeks, and set apart every seventh day for a
sabbath; though I found at the end of my account I had lost a day or two
of my reckoning.

A litt