of my being here, kept a young kid, and bred her up tame, and
I was in hope of getting a he-goat, but I could not by any means bring
it to pass, 'till my kid grew an old goat; and I could never find in my
heart to kill her, till she dyed at last of mere age.

But being now in the eleventh year of my residence, and, as I have
said, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to study some art to trap
and snare the goats, to see whether I could not catch some of them
alive; and particularly I wanted a she-goat great with young.

To this purpose I made snares to hamper them; and believe they were more
than once taken in them; but my tackle was not good, for I had no wire,
and always found them broken, and my bait devoured.

At length I resolved to try a pitfall; so I dug several large pits in
the earth, in places where I had observed the goats used to feed, and
over these pits I placed hurdles of my own making too, with a great
weight upon them; and several times I put ears of barley, and dry rice,
without setting the trap; and I could easily perceive, that the goats
had gone in, and eaten up the corn, that I could see the mark of their
feet: at length, I set three traps in one night, and going the next
morning, I found them all standing, and yet the bait eaten and gone.
This was very discouraging; however, I altered my trap; and, not to
trouble you with particulars, going one morning to see my traps, I found
in one of them a large old he-goat; and, in one of the other, three
kids, a male and two females.

As to the old one, I knew not what to do with him; he was so fierce I
durst not go into the pit to him; that is to say, to go about to bring
him away alive, which was what I wanted; I could have killed him, but
that was not my business, nor would it answer my end; so I e'en let him
out, and he ran away as if he had been frightened out of his wits; but I
did not then know what I afterwards learnt, that hunger would tame a
lion: if I had let him stay there three or four days without food, and
then have carried him some water to drink, and then a little corn, he
would have been as tame as one of the kids; for they are mighty
sagacious tractable creatures, where they are well used.

However, for the present I let him go, knowing no better at that time;
then I went to the three kids; and, taking them one by one, I tied them
with strings together; and with some difficulty brought them all home.

It was a good while before the