the
manner of escaping, and upon what foundation I laid my foolish schemes.

Having retired to my castle, after my late voyage to the ship, my
frigate laid up and secured, as usual, and my condition the same as
before, except being richer, though I had as little occasion for riches
as the Indians of Peru had for gold, before the cruel Spaniards came
among them: One night in March, being the rainy season in the four and
twentieth year of my solitude, I lay down to sleep, very well in health,
without distemper pain, or uncommon uneasiness, either of body or mind;
yet notwithstanding, I could not compose myself to sleep all the night
long. All this tedious while, it is impossible to express what
innumerable thoughts came into my head. _I traced quite over the whole
history of my life in miniature, from my utmost remembrance of things
till I came to this island, and then proceeded to examine every action
and passage that had occurred since I had taken possession of my
kingdom._ In my reflections upon the latter, I was _comparing the happy
posture of my affairs from the beginning of my reign, to this life of
anxiety, fear, and concern, since I had discovered a print of a foot in
the sand; that while I continued without apprehension, I was incapable
of feeling the dread and terror I now suffered._ How thankful rather
ought I to have been for the knowledge of my danger, since the greatest
happiness one can be possessed of is to have sufficient time to provide
against it? How stupendous is the goodness of Providence, which sets
such narrow bounds to the sight and knowledge of human nature, that
while men walk in the midst of so many dangers they are kept serene and
calm, by having the events of things hid from their eyes and knowing
nothing of those many dangers that surround them, till perhaps they are
dissipated and vanish away.

When I came more particularly to considerer of _the real danger I had
for so many years escaped; how I had walked about in the greatest
security and tranquility, at a time, perhaps, when even nothing but the
brow of a hill, a great tree, or the common approach of night, had
interposed between me and the destructive hands of the cannibals, who
would devour me with as good an appetite, as I would a pigeon or
curlew;_ surely all this, I say, could not but make me sincerely
thankful to my great Preserver, whose singular protection I acknowledge
with the greatest humility, and without which I must inevi