oking what
I had killed or catched for my supply: these took up great part of the
day; also it is to be considered, that in the middle of the day, when
the sun was in the zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to
stir out; so that about four hours in the evening was all the time I
could be supposed to work in; with this exception, that sometimes I
changed my hours of hunting and working, and went to work in the
morning, and abroad with my gun in the afternoon.

To this short time allowed for labour, I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of
tools, want of help, and want of skill, every thing I did took up out of
my time: for example, I was full two and forty days making me a board
for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two sawyers, with
their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them out of the same
tree in half a day.

My case was this; it was a large tree which was to be cut down, because
my board was to be a broad one. This tree I was three days cutting down,
and two more in cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to a log, or
piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing, I reduced both
the sides of it into chips, till it was light enough to move; then I
turned it, and made one side of it smooth and flat as a board, from end
to end; then turning that side downward, cut the other side, till I
brought the plank to be about three inches thick, and smooth on both
sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in such a piece of work;
but labour and patience carried me through that, and many other things:
I only observe this in particular, to show the reason why so much of my
time went away with so little work, viz. that what might be a little to
be done with help and tools, was a vast labour, and required a
prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. Notwithstanding this, with
patience and labour I went through many things; and, indeed, every thing
that my circumstances made necessary for me to do, as will appear by
what follows.

I was now in the months of November and December, expecting my crop of
barley and rice. The ground I had manured or dug up for them was not
great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the quantity of
half a peck, having lost one whole crop by sowing in the dry season: but
now my crop promised very well; when, on a sudden, I found I was in
danger of losing it all again by enemies of severa