nother kind. I started up in the greatest haste
imaginable; and, in a trice, clapped my ladder to the middle place of the
rock, and pulled it after me; and mounting it the second time, got to the
top of the hill the very moment that a flash of fire bid me listen for a
second gun, which, accordingly, in about half a minute I heard; and by
the sound, knew that it was from that part of the sea where I was driven
down the current in my boat. I immediately considered that this must be
some ship in distress, and that they had some comrade, or some other ship
in company, and fired these for signals of distress, and to obtain help.
I had the presence of mind at that minute to think, that though I could
not help them, it might be that they might help me; so I brought together
all the dry wood I could get at hand, and making a good handsome pile, I
set it on fire upon the hill. The wood was dry, and blazed freely; and,
though the wind blew very hard, yet it burned fairly out; so that I was
certain, if there was any such thing as a ship, they must needs see it.
And no doubt they did; for as soon as ever my fire blazed up, I heard
another gun, and after that several others, all from the same quarter. I
plied my fire all night long, till daybreak: and when it was broad day,
and the air cleared up, I saw something at a great distance at sea, full
east of the island, whether a sail or a hull I could not distinguish--no,
not with my glass: the distance was so great, and the weather still
something hazy also; at least, it was so out at sea.

I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did
not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and
being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in my hand,
and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had
formerly been carried away by the current; and getting up there, the
weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my
great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon those
concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks,
as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of
counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most
desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life.
Thus, what is one man's safety is another man's destruction; for it seems
these men, whoever they were, being out of their knowledge, and