of corn had been in the bag, was all
devoured with the rats, and I saw nothing in the bag but husks and dust;
and being willing to have the bag for some other use, I think it was to
put powder in, when I divided it for fear of the lightning, or some such
use, I shook the husks of corn out of it on one side of my fortification
under the rock.

It was a little before the great rains, just now mentioned, that I threw
this stuff away, taking no notice of any thing, and not so much as
remembering that I had thrown any thing there; when about a month after,
or thereabout, I saw some few stalks of something green shooting out of
the ground, which I fancied might be some plant I had not seen; but I
was surprised and perfectly astonished, when after a little longer time
I saw about ten or twelve ears come out, which were perfect green barley
of the same kind as our European, nay, as our English barley.

It is impossible to express the astonishment and confusion of my
thoughts on this occasion; I had hitherto acted upon no religious
foundation at all; indeed I had very few notions of religion in my head,
or had entertained any sense of any thing that had befallen me,
otherwise than as a chance, or, as we lightly say, what pleases God;
without so much as inquiring into the end of Providence in these things,
or his order in governing events in the world: but after I saw barley
grow there, in a climate which I knew was not proper for corn, and
especially that I knew not how it came there, it startled me strangely,
and I began to suggest, that God had miraculously caused this grain to
grow without any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely
for my sustenance on that wild miserable place.

This touched my heart a little, and brought tears out of my eyes, and I
began to bless myself, that such a prodigy of nature should happen upon
my account; and this was the more strange to me, because I saw near it
still, all along by the side of the rock, some other straggling stalks,
which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen
it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there.

I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my
support, but not doubting but that there was more in the place, I went
all over that part of the island, where I had been before, peeping in
every corner and under every rock to see for more of it, but I could not
find any; at last it occurred to my thought, that I had s