d under this I had made me a squab or
couch, with the skins of the creatures I had killed, and with other
soft things, and a blanket laid on them, such as belonged to our
sea-bedding, which I had saved, and a great watch-coat to cover me;
and here, whenever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I
took up my country habitation.

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say,
my goats. And as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence
and enclose this ground, so I was so uneasy to see it kept entire,
lest the goats should break through, that I never left off till, with
infinite labor, I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small
stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a
hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand through between them;
which afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next
rainy season, made the enclosure strong like a wall,--indeed, stronger
than any wall.

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no
pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable
support; for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures
thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and
cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty
years; and that keeping them in my reach depended entirely upon my
perfecting my enclosures to such a degree that I might be sure of
keeping them together; which, by this method, indeed, I so effectually
secured that when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted
them so very thick I was forced to pull some of them up again.

In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally
depended on for my winter store of raisins, and which I never failed
to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agreeable dainty of
my whole diet. And indeed they were not agreeable only, but physical,
wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to the last degree.

As this was also about halfway between my other habitation and the
place where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and lay here in
my way thither; for I used frequently to visit my boat, and I kept all
things about or belonging to her in very good order. Sometimes I went
out in her to divert myself, but no more hazardous voyages would I go,
nor scarce ever above a stone's cast or two from the shore, I was so
apprehensive of being hurried out of my knowledge