Part 9 (1/2)

Though I e pots, yet I s with better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, and any thing ely hard

But all this would not answer et an earthen pot to hold as liquid, and bear the fire, which none of these could do

It happened after so my meat, when I went to put it out, after I had done with it, I found a broken piece of one of my earthenware vessels in the fire, burnt as hard as a stone, and red as a tile I was agreeably surprised to see it, and said to ht be made to burn whole, if they would burn broken

This set me to study how to order my fire, so as to make it burn me some pots I had no notion of a kiln such as the potters burn in, or of glazing theh I had soe pipkins, and two or three pots, in a pile one upon another, and placed reat heap of embers under them: I piled the fire with fresh fuel round the outside, and upon the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot quite through, and observed that they did not crack at all: when I saw them clear red, I let them stand in that heat about five or six hours, till I found one of theh it did not crack, did melt or run; for the sand which was mixed with the clay lass, if I had gone on; so I slacked an to abate of the red colour; and watching theht not let the fire abate too fast, in the ood, I will not say handsome pipkins, and two other earthen pots, as hard burnt as could be desired; and one of the of the sand

After this experiment I need not say that I wanted no sort of earthenware for my use; but I must needs say, as to the shapes of them, they were very indifferent, as any onethem, but as the children make dirt-pies, or as a woman would make pies that never learnt to raise paste

No joy at a thing of so mean a nature was ever equal to mine, when I found I had made an earthen pot that would bear the fire; and I had hardly patience to stay till they were cold, before I set one upon the fire again with some water in it, to boil me some meat, which I did adood broth, though I wanted oatood as I would have had it

My next concern was to get me a stone mortar to stamp or beat soht of arriving to that perfection of art with one pair of hands To supply this want, I was at a great loss; for of all trades in the world I was as perfectly unqualified for a stone-cutter, as for any whatever; neither had I any tools to go about it with I spent h to cut hollow, and make fit for a mortar, and could find none at all except as in the solid rock, and which I had no way to dig or cut out; nor indeed were the rocks in the island of hardness sufficient, but were all of a sandy cruht of an heavy pestle, nor would break the corn without filling it with sand; so, after a great deal of tiave it over, and resolved to look out a great block of hard wood, which I found indeed th to stir, I rounded it, and formed it on the outside with my axe and hatchet; and then with the help of fire and infinite labour, made an hollow place in it, as the Indians in Brasil reat heavy pestle or beater of the wood called the iron-wood, and this I prepared and laid by against I had rind, or rather pound, my corn or meal to make my bread

My next difficulty was to make a sieve or searce, to dress my meal, and part it from the bran and the husk, without which I did not see it possible I could have any bread This was a , solike the necessary things to make it with; I h And here I was at a full stop for many months; nor did I really knohat to do: linen I had none left but as oat's hair, but neither knew I hoeave or spin it; and had I kno, here were no tools to work it with All the remedy that I found for this, was, that at last I did re the seamen's clothes which were saved out of the shi+p, some neckcloths of calico or muslin; and with soh for the work; and thus I made shi+ft for some years; how I did afterwards, I shall shew in its place

The baking part was the next thing to be considered, and how I should make bread when I came to have corn; for, first, I had no yeast: as to that part, there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern reat pain At length I found out an experiment for that also, which was this; I made some earthen vessels very broad, but not deep; that is to say, about two feet diameter, and not above nine inches deep; these I burnt in the fire, as I had done the other, and laid thereat fire upon the hearth, which I had paved with so also; but I should not call them square

When the fire-as burnt pretty much into embers, or live coals, I drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over; and there I let the away all the e down the earthen pot upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in, and add to the heat; and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my barley-loaves, and becaain; for I s; indeed Ito put into theoats

It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most part of the third year of my abode here; for it is to be observed, that in the intervals of these things I had e: for I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it hoe baskets, till I had time to rub it out; for I had no floor to thresh it on, or instrument to thresh it with

And now indeed , I really wanted to build er: I wanted a place to lay it up in; for the increase of the corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about twenty bushels, and of the rice as in to use it freely, for reat while; also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole year, and to sow but once a year

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were much more than I could consume in a year: so I resolved to sow just the same quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a quantity would fully provide , you hts ran many times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the other side of the island; and I was not without secret wishes, that I was on shore there, fancying that seeing the ht find some way or other to convey myself farther, and perhaps at last find some means of escape

But all this while I ers of such a condition, and how I es, and perhaps such as I ers of Africa: that if I once came into their power, I should run an hazardkilled, and perhaps of being eaten; for I had heard that the people of the Caribean coasts were cannibals, or men-eaters; and I knew by the latitude that I could not be far off from that shore: that, suppose they were not cannibals, yet they ht kill me, as many Europeans who had fallen into their hands had been served, even when they had been ten or twenty together; much more I that was but one, and could s, I say, which I ought to have considered well of, and I did cast up in hts afterwards, yet took none of htily upon the thoughts of getting over to that shore

Noished for -boat, with the shoulder of mutton sail, hich I sailed above a thousand miles on the coast of Africa; but this was in vain Then I thought I would go and look on our shi+p's boat, which, as I have said, was blown up upon the shore a great way in the storm, ere first cast away She lay almost where she did at first, but not quite; and was turned by the force of the waves and the winds alh sand, but no water about her as before

If I had had hands to have refitted her, and have launched her into the water, the boat would have done well enough, and I h; but I ht have easily foreseen, that I could no ht upon her bottom, than I could remove the island However, I went to the wood, and cut levers and rollers, and brought the to ht easily repair the daood boat, and I o to sea in her very easily

I spared no pains indeed in this piece of fruitless toil, and spent, I think, three or four weeks about it; at last finding it ith, I fell to digging away the sand to under pieces of wood to thrust and guide it right in the fall

But when I had done this, I was unable to stir it up again, or to get under it, much less to ive it over: and yet, though I gave over the hopes of the boat, my desire to venture over for the main increased, rather than decreased, as the th setwhether it was not possible to ua, such as the natives of those cliht say, without hands, viz of the trunk of a great tree This I not only thought possible, but easy: and pleasedit, and with roes or Indians; but not at all considering the particular inconveniences which I lay under more than the Indians did, viz want of hands to move it into the water, when it was made; a difficulty much harder for me to surmount than all the consequences of want of tools could be to them: for as it to ht with great trouble cut it down, if after I ht be able with my tools to hew and dub the outside into a proper shape of a boat, and burn or cut out the inside to make it hollow, so to make a boat of it, if, after all this, I must leave it just there where I found it, and was not able to launch it into the water?

One would have thought I could not have had the least reflection uponthis boat, but I should have iet it into the sea; but e over the sea in it, that I never once considered how I should get it off the land; and it was really in its own nature uide it over forty-five miles of sea, than about forty-five fathoms of land, where it lay, to set it afloat in the water

I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did, who had any of his senses awake I pleasedwhether I was ever able to undertake it; not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a stop to ave myself; Let me first et it along, when it is done