ing left alone in
such a desolate place. He built two huts with pimento trees, covered
them with long grass, & lined them with the skins of goats, which be
killed with his gun as he wanted, so long as his powder lasted, which
was but a pound; and that being almost spent, he got fire by rubbing two
sticks of pimento-wood together upon his knee. In the lesser hut, at
some distance from the other, he dressed his victuals; and in the larger
he slept; and employed himself in reading, singing psalms, and praying;
so that he said. He was a better Christian, while in this solitude, than
ever he was before, or than, he was afraid, he would ever be again.

At first he never ate anything till hunger constrained him, partly for
grief, and partly for want of bread and salt: Nor did he go to bed, till
he could watch no longer; the pimento-wood, which burnt very clear,
served him both for fire and candle, and refreshed him with its fragrant
smell. He might have had fish enough, but would not eat them for want of
salt, because they occasioned a looseness, except crayfish which are as
large as our lobsters, and very good: These he sometimes boiled, and at
other times broiled, as he did his goat's flesh, of, which he made very
good broth, for they are not so rank as ours: he kept an account of 500
that he killed while there, and caught as many more, which he marked on
the ear, and let go. When, his powder failed, he took them by speed of
feet; for his way of living, continual exercise of walking and running
cleared him of all gross humours; so that he ran with wonderful
swiftness through the woods, and up the rocks and hills, as we perceived
when we employed him to catch goats for us; We had a bull dog, which we
lent with several of our nimblest runners, to help him in catching
goats; but he distanced and tired both the dog and the men, caught the
goats, and brought them to us on his back.

He told us, that his agility in pursuing a goat had once like to have
cost him his life; he pursued it with so much eagerness, that he catched
hold of it on the brink of a precipiece, of which he was not aware, the
bushes hiding it from him; so, that he fell with the goat down the
precipiece; a great height, and was to stunned and bruised with the
fall, that he narrowly escaped with his life; and, when he came to his
senses, found the goat dead under him: He lay there about twenty-four
hours, and was scarce able to crawl to his hut, which was about a