vessels, but the thing we principally wanted,. was, to get one so near the water, that we might launch it after it was finished, and not commit so great a mistake as I had done once before.

Well, after a great search for what was best and most convenient, Friday, at last, whose judgment in such affairs was much superior to mine, pitches upon a kind of wood the most fitting for it. But though my man exceeded me in the knowledge of the most proper tree, yet I showed him a much better and cleaner way to make a canoe than ever he knew before: for he was for burning the hollow or cavity of the tree, in order to make this boat; but then told him how we might do it with tools, teaching him at the same time how to use them, which indeed he did very dexterously; so that in a month's time we finished it, making it very handsome, by cutting the outside in the true shape of a boat. After this, it took us a full fortnight before we could get her into the water, which we did, as it were, inch by inch, upon great rollers: but when she was in, she would have carried twenty men, with all the ease imaginable.

As I was very well pleased, you may be sure, at the launching of this man of war of mine, I was no less amazed to behold with what dexterity my man could manage her, turn her, and paddle her along. Well, Friday, said I, what do you think of it now? Do you think this will carry us over? Yes, master,

said he, we venture over well, though great blow wind. But my design was yet farther, which he was insensible of; and that to make a mast and a sail, and provide her with an anchor and cable. As to a mast, that was no difficult thing at all to procure: so fixing upon a straight young cedar tree, which I found near the place, great plenty of it abounding in the island; and setting Friday to cut it down, I gave him particular directions how to shape and order it; but as to the sail, that I managed myself. I very well knew I had some old ones, or pieces of sails enough, which had lain six and twenty years by me; but not being careful to preserve them, as thinking I should have no occasion to use them any more, when I came to look over them, I found them almost all rotten, except two; and with these I went to work, and after a great deal of pains and awkward tedious stitching for want of needles, at length I finished a three-cornered ugly thing, like that we call in England, a shoulder of mutton sail, to go with a boom at bottom, and a small sprit at the top, like these which our long-boats use, and which I very well knew how to manage; especially since it was like that which I had in my patron's fishing boat, when with my boy Xury, I made my escape

from the barbarian shore.

It was nearly two months, I think, before I completed this work, that is, the rigging, and fitting my mast and sails; and indeed they were nicely done, having made a small stay,

and a sail, or foresail to it, to assist, if we should turn to the windward; and, which was still more, I fixed a rudder to the stern of her, to steer with; and though I was but a very indifferent shipwright, yet, as I was sensible of the great usefulness and absolute necessity of a thing like this, I applied myself to it with such a constant application, that at last I accomplished my design; but what with the many dull contrivances I had about it, and the failure of many things, it cost me as much pains in ordering, as in making the boat. Besides, when all this was done, I had my man to teach what belonged to its navigation; for though he very well anderstood how to paddle a canoe alone, he was an utter stranger to a sail and a rudder, and was amazed when he saw me work the boat to and again in the sea, by them, and how the sail jibbed and filled this way or that way, as the course we sailed changed. After some time, and a little use, 1 made all these things very familiar to him, SO that he became an expert sailor, except in relation to the compass, and that I could make him understand but little of. But as it hap. pened, there was seldom occasion for it, there being but little cloudy weather, and scarcely any fog in those parts; the stars were always visible in the night, and the shore by day, except in the rainy season, which confined every one to his habitation. Thus entered into the seven-and-twentieth year of my reign or

ROBINSON CRUSOE teaching his man FRIDAY to work the Boat.

captivity, which you please, (the last three of which, blessed with the company of my man Friday, ought not to be reckoned;) I kept the anniversary of my landing here with the same thankfulness to God for his tender mercies, as I had done before; and certainly, as I had great cause for thankful acknowledgment for my deliverance at first, I had much greater now for such singular and additional testimonies of the care of Providence over me, in all my dis.. tresses of both body and mind, and the great hopes I had of being effectually and speedily delivered; for I had a strong hope, that I should not be another year in this island. But, however, I stili continued on with my hus bandry, digging, planting, and fencing, as usual gathering and curing my grapes, and doing all other things that were necessary.

And now the rainy season beginning to come on, obliged me to keep the longer within doors: but before this, I brought my new vessel into the creek, where I had landed my rafts from the ship, so we waited for the months of November and December, in which I designed to venture over the ocean.

No sooner did the seasonable weather begin to draw near, but so much was I elevated with this new designed adventure, that I daily prepared for the voyage. The first thing I thought on was to lay by a certain quantity of provisions, as a sufficient store for such an expedition, intending in a week or a fortnight's