are never to be without them; and as my wicker-ware decayed, I made
more, especially strong, deep baskets to place my corn in, instead of
sacks, when I should come to have any quantity of it.

Having mastered this difficulty, and employed a world of time about it, I
bestirred myself to see, if possible, how to supply two wants. I had no
vessels to hold anything that was liquid, except two runlets, which were
almost full of rum, and some glass bottles--some of the common size, and
others which were case bottles, square, for the holding of water,
spirits, &c. I had not so much as a pot to boil anything, except a great
kettle, which I saved out of the ship, and which was too big for such as
I desired it--viz. to make broth, and stew a bit of meat by itself. The
second thing I fain would have had was a tobacco-pipe, but it was
impossible to me to make one; however, I found a contrivance for that,
too, at last. I employed myself in planting my second rows of stakes or
piles, and in this wicker-working all the summer or dry season, when
another business took me up more time than it could be imagined I could
spare.

CHAPTER VIII--SURVEYS HIS POSITION

I mentioned before that I had a great mind to see the whole island, and
that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I built my bower,
and where I had an opening quite to the sea, on the other side of the
island. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on that
side; so, taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of
powder and shot than usual, with two biscuit-cakes and a great bunch of
raisins in my pouch for my store, I began my journey. When I had passed
the vale where my bower stood, as above, I came within view of the sea to
the west, and it being a very clear day, I fairly descried land--whether
an island or a continent I could not tell; but it lay very high,
extending from the W. to the W.S.W. at a very great distance; by my guess
it could not be less than fifteen or twenty leagues off.

I could not tell what part of the world this might be, otherwise than
that I knew it must be part of America, and, as I concluded by all my
observations, must be near the Spanish dominions, and perhaps was all
inhabited by savages, where, if I had landed, I had been in a worse
condition than I was now; and therefore I acquiesced in the dispositions
of Providence, which I began now to own and to believe ordered everything
for the best