greater
satisfaction to me than that I had not been suffered to do a thing which
I now saw so much reason to believe would have been no less a sin than
that of wilful murder, if I had committed it; and I gave most humble
thanks on my knees to God, that had thus delivered me from
blood-guiltiness; beseeching him to grant me the protection of his
providence, that I might not fall into the hands of the barbarians, or
that I might not lay my hands upon them, unless I had a more clear call
from Heaven to do it, in defence of my own life.

In this disposition I continued for near a year after this; and so far
was I from desiring an occasion for falling upon these wretches, that in
all that time I never once went up the hill to see whether there were
any of them in sight, or to know whether any of them had been on shore
there or not, that I might not be tempted to renew any of my
contrivances against them, or be provoked, by any advantage which might
present itself, to fall upon them: only this I did, I went and removed
my boat, which I had on the other side of the island, and carried it
down to the east end of the whole island, where I ran it into a little
cove, which I found under some high rocks, and where I knew, by reason
of the currents, the savages durst not, at least would not come, with
their boats, upon any account whatever. With my boat I carried away
every thing that I had left there belonging to her, though not necessary
for the bare going thither, viz. a mast and sail which I had made for
her, and a thing like an anchor, but which, indeed, could not be called
either anchor or grapnel; however, it was the best I could make of its
kind: all these I removed, that there might not be the least shadow of
any discovery, or any appearance of any boat, or of any human
habitation, upon the island. Besides this, I kept myself, as I said,
more retired than ever, and seldom went from my cell, other than upon my
constant employment, viz. to milk my she-goats, and manage my little
flock in the wood, which, as it was quite on the other part of the
island, was quite out of danger; for certain it is, that these savage
people, who sometimes haunted this island, never came with any thoughts
of finding any thing here, and consequently never wandered off from the
coast; and I doubt not but they might have been several times on shore
after my apprehensions of them had made me cautious, as well as before.
Indeed, I looked back with some