eat and not a friend
to help me.

There were wild beasts here, but I had no gun to shoot them with, or to
keep me from their jaws. I had but a knife and a pipe. It now grew dark;
and where was I to go for the night? I thought the top of some high tree
would be a good place to keep me out of harm's way; and that there I
might sit and think of death, for, as yet, I had no hopes of life. Well,
I went to my tree, and made a kind of nest to sleep in. Then I cut a
stick to keep off the beasts of prey, in case they should come, and fell
to sleep just as if the branch I lay on had been a bed of down.

When I woke up it was broad day; the sky too was clear and the sea calm.
But I saw from the top of the tree that in the night the ship had left
the bank of sand, and lay but a mile from me; while the boat was on the
beach, two miles on my right. I went some way down by the shore, to get
to the boat; but an arm of the sea, half a mile broad, kept me from
it. At noon, the tide went a long way out, so that I could get near the
ship; and here I found that if we had but made up our minds to stay on
board, we should all have been safe.

I shed tears at the thought, for I could not help it; yet, as there was
no use in that, it struck me that the best thing for me to do was to
swim to the ship. I soon threw off my clothes, took to the sea, and swam
up to the wreck. But how was I to get on deck? I had swam twice round
the ship, when a piece of rope, caught my eye, which hung down from her
side so low, that at first the waves hid it. By the help of this rope I
got on board. I found that there was a bulge in the ship, and that she
had sprung a leak. You may be sure that my first thought was to look
round for some food, and I soon made my way to the bin, where the bread
was kept, and ate some of it as I went to and fro, for there was no time
to lose. There was, too, some rum, of which I took a good draught, and
this gave me heart. What I stood most in need of, was a boat to take the
goods to shore. But it was vain to wish for that which could not be
had; and as there were some spare yards in the ship, two or three large
planks of wood, and a spare mast or two, I fell to work with these, to
make a raft.

I put four spars side by side, and laid short bits of plank on them,
cross ways, to make my raft strong. Though these planks would bear my
own weight, they were too slight to bear much of my freight. So I took a
saw which was on board, and