thing was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safe
from danger, it made me very loth to remove.

In the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of
time for me to do this, and that I must be contented to run the venture
where I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it so
as to remove to it. So with this resolution I composed myself for a
time, and resolved that I would go to work with all speed to build me a
wall with piles and cables, &c. in a circle as before; and set my tent
up in it when it was finished, but that I would venture to stay where I
was till it was finished and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.

April 22. The next morning I began to consider of means to put this
resolve in execution, but I was at a great loss about my tools. I had
three large axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets
for traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and cutting
knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches and dull; and though I
had a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too: this cost
me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point
of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man. At length I
contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might
have both my hands at liberty. _Note_, I had never seen any such thing
in England, or at least not to take notice how it was done, though since
I have observed it is very common there; besides that, my grindstone was
very large and heavy. This machine cost me a full week's work to bring
it to perfection.

April 28, 29. These two whole days I took up in grinding my tools, my
machine for turning my grindstone performing very well.

April 30. Having perceived my bread had been low a great while, now I
took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, which
made my heart very heavy.

May 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide being low,
I saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary; and it looked
like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two or three
pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were driven on shore by the late
hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seemed to
lie higher out of the water than it used to do. I examined the barrel
which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder,
but it had taken water, and the powder wa