too close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because of
the stream.

The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated over-night, the
sea was calm, and I ventured: but I am a warning piece again to all
rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when I
was not even my boat's length from the shore, but I found myself in a
great depth of water, and a current like the sluice of a mill; it
carried my boat along with it with such violence, that all I could do
could not keep her so much as on the edge of it; but I found it hurried
me farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on my left hand.
There was no wind stirring to help me, and all I could do with my
paddles signified nothing: and now I began to give myself over for lost;
for as the current was on both sides of the island, I knew in a few
leagues distance they must join again, and then I was irrecoverably
gone; nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it; so that I had no
prospect before me but of perishing, not by the sea, for that was calm
enough, but of starving for hunger. I had indeed found a tortoise on the
shore, as big almost as I could lift, and had tossed it into the boat;
and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen
pots; but what was all this to being driven into the vast ocean, where,
to be sure, there was no shore, no main land or island, for a thousand
leagues at least?

And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make even the
most miserable condition of mankind worse. Now I looked back upon my
desolate solitary island, as the most pleasant place in the world; and
all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be but there again. I
stretched out my hands to it, with eager wishes: "O happy desert!" said
I, "I shall never see thee more. O miserable creature! whither am I
going!" Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how I
had repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on
shore there again! Thus we never see the true state of our condition
till it is illustrated to us by its contraries, nor know how to value
what we enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarce possible to imagine
the consternation I was now in, being driven from my beloved island (for
so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues,
and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again. However, I worked
hard, till indeed my strength w