chor, to get upon the rocks;
and having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land, a nearer
way, to the same height that I was upon before; when looking forward to
the point of the rocks which lay out, and which I was obliged to double
with my boat, as is said above, I was surprised to see the sea all
smooth and quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there
than in any other places. I was at a strange loss to understand this,
and resolved to spend some time in the observing it, to see if nothing
from the sets of the tide had occasioned it; but I was presently
convinced how it was, viz. that the tide of ebb setting from the west,
and joining with the current of waters, from some great river on the
shore, must be the occasion of this current; and that according as the
wind blew more forcibly from the west, or from the north, this current
came nearer, or went farther from the shore; for waiting thereabouts
till evening, I went up to the rock again, and then the tide of 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 and 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 the large earthen pots, of which I have
given an account, and with fourteen or fifteen great baskets, which
would hold fiv