e, must be the occasion of this
current, and that according as the wind blew more forcible from the
west, or from the north, this current came near, or went farther from
the shore; for, waiting thereabouts till evening, I went up to the rock
again, and then the tide of the ebb being made, I plainly saw the
current again as before, only that it ran farther off, being near half a
league from the shore; whereas, in my case, it set close upon the shore,
and hurried me in my canoe along with it, which at another time it would
not have done.

This observation convinced me, that I had nothing to do but to observe
the ebbing and the flowing of the tide, and I might very easily bring my
boat about the island again: but when I began to think of putting it in
practice, I had such a terror upon my spirits at the remembrance of the
danger I had been in, that I could not think of it again with any
patience; but on the contrary, I took up another resolution, which was
more safe, though more laborious; and this was, that I would build, or
rather make me another periagua, or canoe; and so have one for one side
of the island, and one for the other.

You are to understand, that now I had, as I may call it, two plantations
in the island; one my little fortification or tent, with the wall about
it under the rock, with the cave behind me, which by this time I had
enlarged into several apartments or caves, one within another. One of
these, which was the driest and largest, and had a door out beyond my
wall or fortification, that is to say, beyond where my wall joined to
the rock, was all filled up with large earthen pots, of which I have
given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which
would hold five or six bushels each, where I laid up my stores of
provision, especially my corn, some in the ear cut off short from the
straw, and the other rubbed out with my hands.

As for my wall, made as before, with long stakes or piles, those piles
grew all like trees, and were by this time grown so big, and spread so
very much, that there was not the least appearance, to any one's view,
of any habitation behind them.

Near this dwelling of mine, but a little farther within the land, and
upon lower ground, lay my two pieces of corn-ground; which I kept duly
cultivated and sowed, and which duly yielded me their harvest in its
season: and whenever I had occasion for more corn, I had more land
adjoining as fit as that.

Besides this