pens, ink, and paper; several parcels in the captain's,
mate's, gunner's, and carpenter's keeping; three or four compasses, some
mathematical instruments, dials, perspectives, charts, and books of
navigation; all which I huddled together, whether I might want them or
no: also I found three very good bibles, which came to me in my cargo
from England, and which I had packed up among my things; some Portuguese
books also, and, among them, two or three popish prayer books, and
several other books, all which I carefully secured. And I must not
forget, that we had in the ship a dog, and two cats, of whose eminent
history I may have occasion to say something, in its place: for I
carried both the cats with me; and as for the dog, he jumped out of the
ship himself, and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with
my first cargo, and was a trusty servant to me for many years: I wanted
nothing that he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to
me, I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that would not do. As I
observed before, I found pens, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to
the utmost; and I shall show that while my ink lasted, I kept things
very exact, but after that was gone I could not; for I could not make
any ink, by any means that I could devise.

And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwithstanding all
that I had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one; as also
a spade, pick-axe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles,
pins, and thread: as for linen, I soon learned to want that without much
difficulty.

This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily; and it was near
a whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale, or
surrounded my habitation. The piles or stakes, which were as heavy as I
could well lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods,
and more, by far, in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two days
in cutting and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day in
driving it into the ground; for which purpose, I got a heavy piece of
wood at first, but at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows;
which, however, though I found it, yet it made driving these posts or
piles very laborious and tedious work. But what need I have been
concerned at the tediousness of any thing I had to do, seeing I had time
enough to do it in? nor had I any other employment, if that had been
over, at least that I could forese