ed within shot of them,
that I might have secured the three men, for I saw no firearms they had
among them; but it fell out to my mind another way. After I had observed
the outrageous usage of the three men by the insolent seamen, I observed
the fellows run scattering about the island, as if they wanted to see the
country. I observed that the three other men had liberty to go also
where they pleased; but they sat down all three upon the ground, very
pensive, and looked like men in despair. This put me in mind of the
first time when I came on shore, and began to look about me; how I gave
myself over for lost; how wildly I looked round me; what dreadful
apprehensions I had; and how I lodged in the tree all night for fear of
being devoured by wild beasts. As I knew nothing that night of the
supply I was to receive by the providential driving of the ship nearer
the land by the storms and tide, by which I have since been so long
nourished and supported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing
how certain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to them,
and how effectually and really they were in a condition of safety, at the
same time that they thought themselves lost and their case desperate. So
little do we see before us in the world, and so much reason have we to
depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world, that He does not
leave His creatures so absolutely destitute, but that in the worst
circumstances they have always something to be thankful for, and
sometimes are nearer deliverance than they imagine; nay, are even brought
to their deliverance by the means by which they seem to be brought to
their destruction.

It was just at high-water when these people came on shore; and while they
rambled about to see what kind of a place they were in, they had
carelessly stayed till the tide was spent, and the water was ebbed
considerably away, leaving their boat aground. They had left two men in
the boat, who, as I found afterwards, having drunk a little too much
brandy, fell asleep; however, one of them waking a little sooner than the
other and finding the boat too fast aground for him to stir it, hallooed
out for the rest, who were straggling about: upon which they all soon
came to the boat: but it was past all their strength to launch her, the
boat being very heavy, and the shore on that side being a soft oozy sand,
almost like a quicksand. In this condition, like true seamen, who are,
perhaps,