elf 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
himself. I did not so much as go to look after my boat all this time,
but began rather to think of making me another; for I could not think of
ever making any more attempts to bring the other boat round the island
to me, lest I should meet with some of these creatures at sea; in which
if I had happened to have fallen into their hands, I knew what would
have been my lot.

Time, however, and the satisfaction I had that I was in no danger of
being discovered by these people, began to wear off my uneasiness about
them; and I began to live just in the same composed manner as before;
only with this difference, that I used more caution, and kept my eyes
more about me, than I did before, lest I should happen to be seen by any
of them; and particularly, I was more cautious of firing my gun, lest
any of them being on the island should happen to hear it. It was
therefore a very good providence to me that I had furnished myself with
a tame breed of goats, and that I had no need to hunt any more about the
woods, or shoot at them; and if I did catch any of them after this, it
was by traps and snares, as I had done before: so that for two years
after this, I believe I never fired my gun once off, though I never went
out without it; and, which was more, as I had saved three pistols out
of the ship, I always carried them out with me, or at least two of them,
sticking them in my goat-skin belt. I also furbished up one of the great
cutlasses that I had out of the ship, and made me a belt to hang it on
also; so that I was now a most formidable fellow to look at when I went
abroad, if you add to the former description of myself, the particular
of two pistols, and a great broad-sword hanging at my sid