I had my country-seat, and I had now a tolerable plantation
there also; for first, I had my little bower, as I called it, which I
kept in repair; that is to say, I kept the hedge which circled it in
constantly fitted up to its usual height, the ladder standing always in
the inside; I kept the trees, which at first were no more than my
stakes, but were now grown very firm and tall; I kept them always so
cut, that they might spread and grow thick and wild, and make the more
agreeable shade, which they did effectually to my mind. In the middle of
this I had my tent always standing, being a piece of a sail spread over
poles set up for that purpose, and which never wanted any repair or
renewing; and under this I had made me a squab or couch, with the skins
of the creatures I had killed, and with other soft things, and a blanket
laid on them, such as belonged to our sea-bedding, which I had saved,
and a great watch-coat to cover me; and here, whenever I had occasion to
be absent from my chief seat, I took up my country habitation.

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to say, my
goats: and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains to fence and
enclose this ground, I was so uneasy to see it kept entire, lest the
goats should break through, that I never left off, till with infinite
labour I had stuck the outside of the hedge so full of small stakes, and
so near to one another, that it was rather a pale than a hedge, and
there was scarce room to put a hand through between them, which
afterwards, when those stakes grew, as they all did in the next rainy
season, made the enclosure strong, like a wall, indeed stronger than
any wall.

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared no pains
to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my comfortable support;
for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame creatures thus at my
hand, would be a living magazine of flesh, milk, butter, and cheese, for
me as long as I lived in the place, if it were to be forty years; and
that keeping them in my reach, depended entirely upon my perfecting my
enclosures to such a degree, that I might be sure of keeping them
together; which by this method indeed I so effectually secured, that
when these little stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very
thick, I was forced to pull some of them up again.

In this place also I had my grapes growing, which I principally depended
on for my winter store of r