alked as well
as my tired limbs would carry me. For I could discover no trace of firm
land, and supposed I was on some sandbank which the sea would overflow
at high tide. But by-and-by I had to sit down out of sheer exhaustion,
though I only looked for death. All my sins came before me, and I prayed
earnestly, and at last recovered calm and courage.

In spite of all my efforts to keep awake, I fell fast asleep before dawn
came.

In the morning I was amazed to find myself among four or five very low
sandy islands, all separated half-a-mile or more, as I guessed, by the
sea. With that I became more cheerful, and walked about to see if I
could find anything eatable. To my grief I found nothing but a few eggs,
that I was obliged to eat raw, and this almost made me wish that the sea
had engulfed me rather than thrown me on this desert island, which
seemed to me inhabited only by rats and several kinds of birds.

A few bushes grew upon it, and under these I had to shelter at night,
but though I searched through the island, I could not find a drop of
fresh water. Nor could I have continued to live, having only the eggs I
found, if I had not succeeded in knocking down some birds with a stick,
which made me a grand banquet. This gave me heart to try to make a fire
after the fashion of the blacks by rubbing two sticks together, and I
managed to do this after a while, and cooked my birds on the fire I had
lit.

That night came a great storm, with the reddest lightning I had ever
seen, and rain that drenched me through. But in the morning I had the
joy of finding several pools of rain-water; and this put it into my mind
to make a kind of well, that I might keep a supply of water by me.

With my hands and a stick I dug a hollow place, large enough to hold a
hogshead of water, and when it was dug I paved it with stones, and,
getting in, stamped them down hard, and beat the sides close with my
stick so that the well would hold water a long time. But how to get it
there was a difficulty, till by soaking my shirt, which was pretty fine,
in water, I found that I could make it fairly water-tight, and with this
holland bucket carry two gallons at a time, which only leaked out about
a pint in two hundred yards. By this contrivance, in two days I had
filled my well.

[Illustration: Falconer knocks down a bird]

I next made myself a cupboard of earth by mixing water with it; but
unhappily it lasted only four days, the sun drying it so