they thought fit. The like for pumps, shoes,
stockings, and hats, &c.

I cannot express what pleasure, what satisfaction, sat upon the
countenances of all these poor men when they saw the care I had taken of
them, and how well I had furnished them; they told me I was a father to
them; and that having such a correspondent as I was, in so remote a part
of the world, it would make them forget that they were left in a
desolate place; and they all voluntarily engaged to me not to leave the
place without my consent.

Then I presented to them the people I had brought with me, particularly
the tailor, the smith, and the two carpenters, all of them most
necessary people; but above all, my general artificer, than whom they
could not name any thing that was more needful to them; and the tailor,
to shew his concern for them, went to work immediately, and, with my
leave, made them every one a shirt the first thing he did; and, which
was still more, he taught the women not only how to sew and stitch, and
use the needle, but made them assist to make the shirts for their
husbands and for all the rest.

As for the carpenters, I scarce need mention how useful they were, for
they took in pieces all my clumsy unhandy things, and made them clever
convenient tables, stools, bedsteads, cupboards, lockers, shelves, and
every thing they wanted of that kind.

But to let them see how nature made artificers at first, I carried the
carpenters to see William Atkins's basket house, as I called it, and
they both owned they never saw an instance of such natural ingenuity
before, nor any thing so regular and so handily built, at least of its
kind; and one of them, when he saw it, after musing a good while,
turning about to me, "I am sure," says he, "that man has no need of us;
you need do nothing but give him tools."

Then I brought them out all my store of tools, and gave every man a
digging spade, a shovel, and a rake, for we had no harrows or ploughs;
and to every separate place a pickaxe, a crow, a broadaxe, and a saw;
always appointing, that as often as any were broken, or worn out, they
should be supplied, without grudging, out of the general stores that I
left behind.

Nails, staples, hinges, hammers, chisels, knives, scissors, and all
sorts of tools and iron-work, they had without tale as they required;
for no man would care to take more than he wanted, and he must be a fool
that would waste or spoil them on any account whatever. And for