Part 5 (2/2)

It is impossible to express the astonishhts on this occasion; I had hitherto acted upon no religious foundation at all; indeed I had very few notions of religion inthat had befallen htly say, what pleases God; without so s, or his order in governing events in the world: but after I saw barley grow there, in a climate which I kneas not proper for corn, and especially that I knew not how it caest, that God had roithout any help of seed sown, and that it was so directed purely for my sustenance on that wild miserable place

This touched an to bless y of nature should happen upon e toby the side of the rock, so stalks, which proved to be stalks of rice, and which I knew, because I had seen it grow in Africa, when I was ashore there

I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence forbut that there was more in the place, I went all over that part of the island, where I had been before, peeping in every corner and under every rock to see for more of it, but I could not find any; at last it occurred toof chicken's an to cease; and I ious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate too upon discovering that all this was nothing but as coe and unforeseen a providence as if it had been miraculous; for it was really the work of Providence as to rains of corn to remain unspoiled, when the rats had destroyed all the rest, as if it had been dropped from heaven: as also, that I should throw it out in that particular place, where, it being in the shade of a high rock, it sprang up immediately; whereas if I had thrown it any were else at that time, it had been burnt up and destroyed

I carefully saved the ears of corn, you may be sure, in their season, which was about the end of June, and laying up every corn, I resolved to sow the in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread; but it was not till the fourth year that I could allow rain of this corn to eat, and even then but sparingly, as I shall say afterwards in its order; for I lost all that I sowed the first season, by not observing the proper time; for I sowed it just before the dry season, so that it never came up at all, at least not as it would have done: of which in its place

Besides this barley there were, as above, twenty or thirty stalks of rice, which I preserved with the same care, and whose use was of the same kind or to the same purpose, viz to make me bread, or rather food; for I found ways to cook it up without baking, though I did that also after some time But to return to my journal

I worked excessive hard these three or four etto go into it, not by a door, but over the wall by a ladder, that there n in the outside of my habitation

April 16 I finished the ladder; so I went up with the ladder to the top, and then pulled it up after me, and let it down on the inside: this was a coh, and nothing could come at me from without, unless it could first mount my wall

The very next day after this as finished, I had almost had all my labour overthrown at once, and myself killed; the case was thus: As I was busy in the inside of it behind my tent, just in the entrance into hted with aindeed; for on a sudden I found the earth coe of the hill, over my head, and two of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightfulof as really the cause, only thinking that the top ofin, as some of it had done before; and for fear I should be buried in it, I ran forward to ot over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected ht roll down upon round, but I plainly saas a terrible earthquake, for the ground I stood on shook three tiht minutes distance, with three such shocks, as would have overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth; and a great piece of the top of a rock, which stood about half a mile from me next the sea, fell doith such a terrible noise as I never heard in all my life: I perceived also the very sea was put into violent er under the water than on the island

I was so a never felt the like, or discoursed with any one that had, that I was like one dead or stupified; and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick, like one that was tossed at sea; but the noise of the falling of the rock awakedme from the stupified condition I was in, filledthen but the hill falling uponall at once; and this sunk my very soul within me a second time

After the third shock was over, and I felt no e, and yet I had not heart enough to get overburied alive, but sat still upon the ground, greatly cast down and disconsolate, not knohat to do All this while I had not the least serious religious thought, nothing but the common ”Lord have mercy upon me!” and when it was over, that went away too

While I sat thus, I found the air overcast, and grow cloudy, as if it would rain; soon after that the wind rose by little and little, so that in less than half an hour it blew a most dreadful hurricane: the sea was all on a sudden covered over with foam and froth, the shore was covered with the breach of the water, the trees were torn up by the roots, and a terrible storan to abate, and in two hours an to rain very hard

All this while I sat upon the ground, very much terrified and dejected, when on a sudden it ca the consequence of the earthquake, the earthquake itself was spent and over, and I htto persuade me, I went in and sat down in my tent; but the rain was so violent, that my tent was ready to be beaten doith it; and I was forced to go into h very much afraid and uneasy, for fear it should fall on my head

This violent rain forced h o out, which would else have drowned my cave After I had been in my cave some time, and found still no an to be more composed; and now, to support my spirits, which indeed wanted it very much, I went to my little store, and took a small sup of ru I could have noall that night, and great part of the next day, so that I could not stir abroad; but an to think of what I had best do, concluding, that if the island was subject to these earthquakes, there would be no living forht surround with a wall as I had done here, and so make myself secure from wild beasts or men: but concluded, if I staid where I was, I should certainly, one tihts I resolved to remove my tent fro precipice of the hill, and which, if it should be shaken again, would certainly fall uponthe 19th and 20th of April, in contriving where and how to re sed up alive, made me that I never slept in quiet, and yet the apprehension of lying abroad without any fence was almost equal to it; but still, when I looked about and sa every thing was put in order, how pleasantly concealed I was, and how safe froer, it made me very loth to remove

In the meantime it occurred to me that it would require a vast deal of time for me to do this, and that I must be contented to run the venture where I was, till I had formed a camp for myself, and had secured it so as to remove to it So with this resolution I coo to ith all speed to build me a ith piles and cables, &c in a circle as before; and set my tent up in it when it was finished, but that I would venture to stay where I was till it was finished and fit to re I began to consider of reat loss about e axes and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but withknotty hard wood, they were all full of notches and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind ht as a statesrand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a , to turn it with ht have bothin England, or at least not to take notice hoas done, though since I have observed it is very coe and heavy Thisit to perfection

April 28, 29 These thole days I took up in grindingvery well

April 30 Having perceived reat while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biscuit-cake a day, whichtowards the sea-side, the tide being low, I saw soer than ordinary; and it looked like a cask; when I came to it, I found a small barrel, and two or three pieces of the wreck of the shi+p, which were driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the wreck itself, I thought it seeher out of the water than it used to do I examined the barrel which was driven on shore, and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder, but it had taken water, and the poas caked as hard as a stone; however, I rolled it farther on shore for the present, and went on upon the sands as near as I could to the wreck of the shi+p, to look for more

When I caely removed; the forecastle, which lay before buried in sand, was heaved up at least six foot; and the stern, which was broke to pieces, and parted from the rest by the force of the sea, soon after I had left ru her, was tossed, as it were, up, and cast on one side, and the sand was thrown so high on that side next her stern, that whereas there was a great place of water before, so that I could not co, I could noalk quite up to her when the tide was out I was surprised with this at first, but soon concluded it must be done by the earthquake: and as by this violence the shi+p was s came daily on shore, which the sea had loosened, and which the winds and water rolled by degrees to the land

This wholly divertedhtily, that day especially, in searching whether I couldwas to be expected of that kind, for that all the inside of the shi+p was choked up with sand: however, as I had learnt not to despair of any thing, I resolved to pull every thing to pieces that I could of the shi+p, concluding, that every thing I could get froan with ht held soether, and when I had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could fro in, I was obliged to give over for that tiht not one fish that I durst eat of, till I eary ofdolphin I hadline of soht fish enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the sun, and ate them dry