vomited with an
uncommon violence, I was a little relieved, but could not bear to stay
in the place a moment; so I got me up the hill again with all the speed
I could, and walked on towards my own habitation.

When I came a little out of that part of the island, I stood still a
while as amazed; and then recovering myself, I looked up with the utmost
affection of my soul, and, with a flood of tears in my eyes, gave God
thanks, that had cast my first lot in a part of the world where I was
distinguished from such dreadful creatures as these; and that though I
had esteemed my present condition very miserable, had yet given me so
many comforts in it, that I had still more to give thanks for than to
complain of; and this above all, that I had, even in this miserable
condition, been comforted with the knowledge of himself, and the hope of
his blessing, which was a felicity more than sufficiently equivalent to
all the misery which I had suffered, or could suffer.

In this frame of thankfulness I went home to my castle, and began to be
much easier now, as to the safety of my circumstances, than ever I was
before; for I observed, that these wretches never came to this island in
search of what they could get; perhaps not seeking, not wanting, or not
expecting, any thing here, and having often, no doubt, been up in the
covered woody part of it, without finding any thing to their purpose. I
knew I had been here now almost eighteen years, and never saw the least
footsteps of a human creature there before; and might be here eighteen
more as entirely concealed as I was now, if I did not discover myself to
them, which I had no manner of occasion to do, it being my only business
to keep myself entirely concealed where I was, unless I found a better
sort of creatures than cannibals to make myself known to.

Yet I entertained such an abhorrence of the savage wretches that I have
been speaking of, and of the wretched inhuman custom of their devouring
and eating one another up, that I continued pensive and sad, and kept
close within my own circle for almost two years after this: when I say
my own circle, I mean by it my three plantations, viz. my castle, my
country-seat, which I called my bower, and my enclosure in the woods;
nor did I look after this for any other use than as an enclosure for my
goats; for the aversion which nature gave me to these hellish wretches
was such, that I was as fearful of seeing them as of seeing, the devil
hi