eckon, for I marked all upon the post still; I say, it was on the
sixteenth of May that it blew a very great storm of wind all day, with a
great deal of lightning and thunder, and a very foul night it was after
it. I knew not what was the particular occasion of it, but as I was
reading in the Bible, and taken up with very serious thoughts about my
present condition, I was surprised with the noise of a gun, as I
thought, fired at sea. This was, to be sure, a surprise quite of a
different nature from any I had met with before; for the notions this
put into my thoughts were quite of another kind. I started up in the
greatest haste imaginable, and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the
middle place of the rock, and pulled it after me; and mounting it the
second time, got to the top of the hill the very moment that a flash of
fire bid me listen for a second gun, which accordingly, in about half a
minute, I heard; and, by the sound, knew that it was from that part of
the sea where I was driven down the current in my boat. I immediately
considered that this must be some ship in distress, and that they had
some comrade, or some other ship in company, and fired these guns for
signals of distress, and to obtain help. I had the presence of mind, at
that minute, to think, that though I could not help them, it might be
they might help me: so I brought together all the dry wood I could get
at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I set it on fire upon the
hill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and though the wind blew very
hard, yet it burnt fairly out, so that I was certain, if there was any
such thing as a ship, they must needs see it, and no doubt they did; for
as soon as ever my fire blazed up I heard another gun, and after that
several others, all from the same quarter, I plied my fire all night
long, till daybreak; and when it was broad day, and the air cleared up,
I saw something at a great distance at sea, full east of the island,
whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish, no, not with my glass;
the distance was so great, and the weather still something hazy also; at
least it was so out at sea.

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did
not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and
being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in my hand,
and ran towards the south side of the island, to the rocks where I had
formerly been carried away with the curren