diversions from the reflections of his lonely condition. When those appetites were satisfied, the desire of society came upon him. The support of his body was easily attained, but the eager longings for seeing again the face of man were hardly supportable. He grew dejected, languid, and melancholy; he was scarcely ablé to refrain from doing himself violence. At last, by the force of reason, frequent reading of the Scriptures, and constant occupation, he grew thoroughly reconciled to his condition.

Then the vigor of his health returned; while a cheerful serene sky, and a temperate air, made his life one continual feast, and his existence much more joyful than it had before been irksome.

The precaution which he took against want, in case of sickness, was to lame kids when they were young, so as that they might recover their health, yet never be capable of speed. These he had in great numbers about his hut; and, as he was swift of foot, he could catch the fastest goat running up a hill at full speed.

His habitation was extremely infested with rats, which gnawed his clothes and feet when sleeping. To defend himself against them, he fed and tamed numbers of cats, which lay about his bed.

When his clothes were quite worn out, he dried, and tacked together the skins of goats, with which he clothed himself. These enabled him to pass through woods, bushes, and brambles with as much carelessness as any animal.

This manner of life grew so exquisitely pleasant that he never had a moment heavy upon his hand; his nights were untroubled, and his days joyous, from the practice of temperance and from regular exercise.

Steele

ROBINSON CRUSOE.

I ASCERTAIN THE FRUITFULNESS OF THE ISLAND.

HAVING been in this unhappy island above ten months, all possibility of deliverance seemed to be entirely taken from me; and I firmly believed that no human shape had ever set foot upon that place. Having built a kind of hut or rather secret fort, surrounded by a thick enclosure of brushwood, by the sea-shore, I had a great desire to make a survey of the island, and to see if I could find productions which I yet knew nothing of.

It was on the 15th of July (1660), that I set out on a tour* which I had decided on making. I first went up the creek, where I had come on shore, with my goods, from the vessel. I found, after I had gone about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any higher; and that it was no more than a little brook of running water, very fresh and good; but this being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it; at least not enough to run in a stream. On the banks of this brook I found many pleasant meadows, covered with grass. I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, in all that climate, make their bread of, but I could find none. I saw large plants of aloes, but did not then know their worth. I saw several wild sugar-canes.

The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again; and after going somewhat further than I had gone the day before, the country became more woody. In this part I found different fruits, and among them, plenty of melons upon the ground, in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees; the vines had spread indeed over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were just then in perfection very ripe and rich. I found an excellent use for these grapes; and that was to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes

*Tour (toor), a journey either on pleasure or business.

or raisins are kept. These I thought would be, as indeed they proved, wholesome and agreeable to eat when no grapes could be had.

All the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, that it looked like a planted garden. I found now I had business enough, to gather and carry the grapes home. I resolved to lay up a store of grapes, limes, and lemons, to provide for the wet season, which I knew was approaching.

The next day, with this view, I went back, having made two small bags to bring home my harvest; but I was surprised on coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when gathered, to find them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. From this I concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts, which had done this; but what they were I knew not. However, as I found it was no use laying up the fruit in heaps, and no use carrying them away in a sack for in one way they would be spoiled, and in the other they would be crushed with their own weight-I took a different course. I gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the outer branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I took as many back as I could well carry.

I was so charmed with this place, that I spent much of my time here for the whole of the remaining part of the month of July. Here I built a little kind of bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, or double hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked, and filled between with brushwood. I lay here very secure, sometimes two or three nights at a time; and, as I had arranged to do with my other residence, or rather fort, I always went over into it with a ladder. Now I had my country house and my sea-coast house.

THE RAINY AND THE DRY SEASON, WHICH I TURN TO GOOD ACCOUNT.

About the beginning of August I finished my bower, and began to enjoy myself in it. On the 3rd of August I found the grapes I had hung up perfectly dried, and indeed they were excessively good raisins; so I began to take them down from the trees. Lucky it was that I did so, for the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I would thus have lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them down, and carried them to a cave, which I then used as a storehouse, than it began to rain; and henceforth -that is, from the 14th of August—it rained, more or less, every day, till the middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of my den for several days.

During this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked daily two or three hours at enlarging my house, and by degrees worked it on towards one side, till I came to the outside of the hill. There I made a door or way out, which reached beyond my fence or wall; and I came in and out this way. But I was not perfectly easy at lying so open; for, in my sea-side residence, I was in a perfect enclosure; whereas now, I thought I lay exposed to anything that might come in upon me. Nevertheless I could not perceive that there was any living thing to fear, the biggest creature that I had yet seen upon the island being a goat.

The rainy season and the dry season began now to appear regular to me, and I learned to divide them so as to provide for them accordingly; but I had to buy all my experience, and that dearly; and what I am going to relate was one of the most discouraging experiments I made.

I had saved a few ears of barley and rice; and now I thought it a proper time to sow it, after the rains, the sun

being in its southern position, going from me. Accordingly, I dug up a piece of ground as well, as I could, with my wooden spade, and dividing it into two parts, I sowed my grain. But as I was sowing, it casually occurred to me that I should not sow it all at first, because I did not know what was the proper time for it: so I sowed about twothirds of the seeds, leaving about a handful of each. It was a great present comfort to me that I did so, for not one grain of what I sowed came at that time to anything: the dry months following, the seed had no moisture to assist its growth, and it did not sprout till the wet season had come again. Then, however, it grew as if it had been but newly sown.

Meanwhile, finding my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined was on account of the drought, I sought for a moister place to make another trial in; and I dug up a piece of ground near my new bower, and sowed the rest of my seed in the following February. This, having the rainy months of March and April to water it, sprung up very pleasantly, and yielded a fair good crop; but having only part of the seed left, and not daring to sow all that I had, I had but a small quantity after all: my whole crop did not amount to above half a peck of each kind. By this experiment, however, I was made master of my business, and knew exactly when it was the proper season to sow, and that I might expect two seed-times and two harvests every year.

I MAKE AN EXCURSION OVER MY DOMINIONS.

I mentioned above that I had a great mind to see the whole island, and that I had travelled up the brook, and so on to where I built my bower. I now resolved to travel quite across to the sea-shore on that side; so, taking my gun, a hatchet, and my dog, and a larger quantity of powder and shot than usual, not forgetting two biscuit