island. I had been a long time contriving how to make earthen vessels, which I wanted extremely; and when I considered the heat of the climate, I did not doubt but, if I could find any such clay, I might botch up a pot, strong enough, when dried in the sun, to bear handling, and to hold any thing that was dry, such as corn, meal, and other things.

To be short, the clay, I found; but it would occasion the most serious person to smile, to see what awkward ways I took, and what ugly misshapen things I made; how many either fell out or cracked, by the violent heat of the sun, and fell in pieces when they were removed. so that I think it was two months before I could perfect any thing; and even then, but two clumsy things in imitation of earthen jars These, however, I very gently placed in wicker baskets, made on purpose for them, and between the pot and the baskets, stuffed it full of rice and barley straw; and these I presumed would hold my dried corn, and perhaps the meal, when the corn was bruised. As for the smaller things, I made them with better success; such as little round pots, flat dishes, pitchers, and pipkins, the sun baking them very hard.

Yet still I wanted one thing absolutely necessary, and that was an earthen pot, not only to hold my liquid, but also to bear the fire, which none of these could do. It once happened, that as I was putting out my fire, I found therein a broken piece of one of my

vessels burnt hard as a rook, and red as a trie, this made me think of burning some pots; and having no notion of a kiln, or of glazing them with lead, I fixed three large pipkins, and two or three pots in a pile one upon another. The tire I piled round the outside, and dry wood on the top, till I saw the pots in the inside red-hot, and found that they did not crack at all, and when I perceived them perfectly red, I let them stand in the fire five or six hours, till the clay melted by the extremity of the heat, and would have run to glass had I suffered it: upon which, I slacked my fire by degrees, till the redness abated; and watching them till the morning, I found I had three very good pipkins, aud two earthen pots, as well burnt and fit for my turn as I could desire.

The first use to which I turned my pipkins, was to make some salt, which I had long wanted. For this purpose, I filled them with sea-water, and kept it slowly boiling over the fire, till the whole of the water had boiled away in steam, leaving at the bottom of the vessel, a thin crust of salt which, I found very good for giving a relish to my food.

The next concern I had, was to get me a stone-mortar to beat some corn in instead of a mill to grind it. Here, indeed, I was at a great loss, as not being fit for a stone-cutter; and many days I spent to find out a great stone big enough to cut hollow and make it fit for a mortar, and strong enough to bear the weight of a pestle, that would break the cor

without filling it with sand. But all the stones of the island being of a mouldering nature, rendered my search fruitless; and then I resolved to look out for a great block of hard wood; which having found, I formed it with my axe and hammer, and then, with infinite labour, made a hollow in it, just as the Indians of Brazil make their canoes. When I had finished this, I made a great pestle of iron-wood, and then laid them up against my succeeding harvest.

My next business was to make me a sieve, to sift my meal and part it from the bran and husk. Having no fine thin canvass to search the meal through, I could not tell what to do. What linen I had was reduced to rags: I had goat's hair enough, but neither tools to work it, nor did I know how to spin it. At length, 1 remembered I had some neck-cloths of calico or muslin, of the sailors, which I had brought out of the ship, and with these, I made three small sieves proper enough for the work.

I come now to consider the baking part.The want of an oven I supplied, by making some earthen pans, very broad, but not deep When I had a mind to bake, I made a great fire upon my hearth, the tiles of which, I had made myself, and when the wood was burnt into live coals. I spread them over it, till it became very hot: then sweeping them away, I set down my loaves, and whelming down the earthen pots upon them, drew the ashes and coals all round the outside of the pots to

E

continue the heat; and in this manner, I baked my barley loaves, as well as if I had been a complete pastry-cook, and also made of the rice, several cakes and puddings.

It is no wonder that all these things took me up the best part of the year, since what intermediate time I had, was bestowed in managing my new harvest and husbandry; for in the proper season, I reaped my corn, carried it home and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to rub, instead of threshing it. And now indeed, my corn encreased so much, that it produced me twenty bushels of barley, and as much of rice, so that I not only began to use it freely, but was thinking how to enlarge my barns, and resolved to sow as much at a time as would be sufficient for a whole year.

All this while, the prospect of land, which I had seen from the other side of the island, ran in my mind. I still meditated a deliverance from this place, though the fear of greater misfortunes might have deterred me from it. For, allowing that I had attained that place, I ran the hazard of being killed and eaten by the devouring cannibals; and if they were not so, yet I might be slain, as other Europeans had been, who fell into their hands. Notwithstanding all this, my thoughts ran continually upon that shore. I now wished for the long

boat with the shoulder of mutton sail. I went to the ship's boat, that had been cast a great way on the shore in the late storm. She was

removed but a little; but her bottom being turned up by the impetuosity and surge of the waves and wind, I fell to work with all the strength I had, and with levers and rollers which I had cut from the wood, to turn her, and repair the damages she had sustained. This work took me up three or four weeks, when finding my little strength all in vain, I fell to undermining it, by digging away the sand, and so to make it fall down, setting pieces of wood to thrust and guide it in the fall. But after this was done, I was still unable to stir it up, or to get under it, much less to move it for. wards towards the water, and so I was forced to give it over.

This disappointment, however, did not frighten me. I began to think, whether it was not possible for me to make a canoe or Perigua, such as the Indians make of the trunk of a tree. But here I lay under particular inconveniences; want of tools to make it, and want of hands to move it into the water when it was made. However to work I went upon it, stopping all the inquiries I could make, with this Tery simple answer I made to myself, let's first make it, I'll warrant I'll find some way or other to get it along when it is done.

I first cut down a cedar-tree, which was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened for a space, and then parted into branches. Twenty days was I hacking and