rest of the way to her. But it was not easy to get on
board, because the ship was resting on the sand, and lay so high out
of the water that Robinson could not reach anything by which he could
pull himself up.

At last, after swimming twice round the vessel, he saw a rope hanging
over, near the bow, and by its help he climbed on board.

Everything in the stern of the ship was dry, and in pretty good order,
and the water had not hurt the provisions much. So he took some
biscuits, and ate them as he looked about, and drank some rum, and
then he felt better, and stronger, and more fit to begin work.

First of all, he took a few large spars of wood, and a spare topmast
or two, that were on the deck. These he pushed overboard, tying each
with a rope to keep it from drifting away. Then he went over the side
of the ship, and tied all the spars together so as to make a raft, and
on top he put pieces of plank across. But it was long before he could
make the raft fit to carry the things he wanted to take on shore.

At last, after much hard work, he got on to it three of the seamen's
chests, which he had broken open, and emptied, and he filled these
with bread, and rice, and cheese, and whatever he could find to eat,
and with all sorts of things that he thought he might need. He found,
too, the carpenter's tool-chest, and put it on the raft; and nothing
on the whole ship was of more use to him than that.

Then he set about looking for clothes, for while he had been on the
ship, the tide had risen and had washed away his coat and waistcoat
and shirt, which he had left lying on the sand.

Guns and pistols also, and powder and shot, he took, and two rusty old
cutlasses.

Now the trouble was to reach land, for the raft had no mast nor sail
nor rudder, and was too heavy and clumsy to be pulled by Robinson with
the broken oars that he had found. But the tide was rising, and slowly
she drifted nearer and nearer, and at last was carried up the mouth of
a little river which Robinson had not seen when he was on shore.

There was a strong tide running up, which once carried the raft
against a point of land, where she stuck for a time, and very nearly
upset all the things into deep water. But as the tide rose higher,
Robinson was able to push her into a little bay where the water was
shallow and the ground beneath flat, and when the tide went out there
she was left high and dry, and he got everything safely ashore.

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