bey the secret dictate; though I knew no other reason for it than
that such a pressure, or such a hint, hung upon my mind. I could give
many examples of the success of this conduct in the course of my life,
but more especially in the latter part of my inhabiting this unhappy
island; besides many occasions which it is very likely I might have
taken notice of, if I had seen with the same eyes then that I see with
now. But it is never too late to be wise; and I cannot but advise all
considering men, whose lives are attended with such extraordinary
incidents as mine, or even though not so extraordinary, not to slight
such secret intimations of Providence, let them come from what invisible
intelligence they will. That I shall not discuss, and perhaps cannot
account for; but certainly they are a proof of the converse of spirits,
and a secret communication between those embodied and those unembodied,
and such a proof as can never be withstood; of which I shall have
occasion to give some very remarkable instances in the remainder of my
solitary residence in this dismal place.

I believe the reader of this will not think it strange if I confess that
these anxieties, these constant dangers I lived in, and the concern that
was now upon me, put an end to all invention, and to all the
contrivances that I had laid for my future accommodations and
conveniences. I had the care of my safety more now upon my hands than
that of my food. I cared not to drive a nail, or chop a stick of wood
now, for fear the noise I might make should be heard: much less would I
fire a gun, for the same reason: and, above all, I was intolerably
uneasy at making any fire, lest the smoke, which is visible at a great
distance in the day, should betray me. For this reason I removed that
part of my business which required fire, such as burning of pots and
pipes, &c. into my new apartment in the woods; where, after I had been
some time, I found, to my unspeakable consolation, a mere natural cave
in the earth, which went in a vast way, and where, I dare say, no
savage, had he been at the mouth of it, would be so hardy as to venture
in; nor, indeed, would any man else, but one who, like me, wanted
nothing so much as a safe retreat.

The mouth of this hollow was at the bottom of a great rock, where by
mere accident (I would say, if I did not see abundant reason to ascribe
all such things now to Providence,) I was cutting down some thick
branches of trees to make cha