cut a mast in three lengths, and these gave
great strength to the raft. I found some bread and rice, a Dutch cheese,
and some dry goat's flesh. There had been some wheat, but the rats had
got at it, and it was all gone.

My next task was to screen my goods from the spray of the sea; and it
did not take me long to do this, for there were three large chests on
board which held all, and these I put on the raft. When the high tide
came up it took off my coat and shirt, which I had left on the shore;
but there were some fresh clothes in the ship.

"See here is a prize!" said I, out loud, (though there were none to hear
me), "now I shall not starve." For I found four large guns. But how was
my raft to be got to land? I had no sail, no oars; and a gust of wind
would make all my store slide off. Yet there were three things which I
was glad of; a calm sea, a tide which set in to the shore, and a slight
breeze to blow me there.

I had the good luck to find some oars in a part of the ship, in which
I had made no search till now. With these I put to sea, and for half a
mile my raft went well; but soon I found it drove to one side. At length
I saw a creek, to which, with some toil, I took my raft; and now the
beach was so near, that I felt my oar touch the ground.

Here I had well nigh lost my freight, for the shore lay on a slope, so
that there was no place to land on, save where one end of the raft would
lie so high, and one end so low, that all my goods would fall off. To
wait till the tide came up was all that could be done. So when the sea
was a foot deep, I thrust the raft on a flat piece of ground, to moor
her there, and stuck my two oars in the sand, one on each side of the
raft. Thus I let her lie till the ebb of the tide, and when it went
down, she was left safe on land with all her freight.

I saw that there were birds on the isle, and I shot one of them. Mine
must have been the first gun that had been heard there since the world
was made; for at the sound of it, whole flocks of birds flew up, with
loud cries, from all parts of the wood. The shape of the beak of the one
I shot was like that of a hawk, but the claws were not so large.

I now went back to my raft to land my stores, and this took up the rest
of the day. What to do at night I knew not, nor where to find a safe
place to land my stores on. I did not like to lie down on the ground,
for fear of beasts of prey, as well as snakes, but there was no cause
for