Latest / Classic Adventure Books - Daily / 07 - Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Chapter seven, Agricultural Experience. I had now been in this
- 0:07Speaker 1: unhappy island above ten months. All possibility of deliverance from
- 0:13Speaker 1: this condition seemed to be entirely taken from me, and
- 0:17Speaker 1: I firmly believed that no human shape had ever set
- 0:21Speaker 1: foot upon that place. Having now secured my habitation, as
- 0:26Speaker 1: I thought fully to my mind, I had a great
- 0:29Speaker 1: desire to make a more perfect discovery of the island,
- 0:33Speaker 1: and to see what other productions I might find, which
- 0:36Speaker 1: I yet knew nothing of. It was on the fifteenth
- 0:41Speaker 1: of July that I began to take a more particular
- 0:44Speaker 1: survey of the island itself. I went up the creek first,
- 0:49Speaker 1: where as I hinted, I brought my rafts on shore.
- 0:54Speaker 1: I found, after I came about two miles up, that
- 0:57Speaker 1: the tide did not flow any high, and that it
- 1:01Speaker 1: was no more than a little brook of running water,
- 1:04Speaker 1: very fresh and good. But this being the dry season,
- 1:09Speaker 1: there was hardly any water in some parts of it,
- 1:13Speaker 1: at least not enough to run in any stream, so
- 1:17Speaker 1: as it could be perceived. On the banks of this brook,
- 1:23Speaker 1: I found many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plains smooth and
- 1:28Speaker 1: covered with grass, and on the rising parts of them.
- 1:32Speaker 1: Next to the higher grounds, where the water, as might
- 1:36Speaker 1: be supposed, never overflowed, I found a great deal of tobacco,
- 1:42Speaker 1: green and growing to a great and very strong stalk.
- 1:47Speaker 1: There were divers other plants which I had no notion
- 1:52Speaker 1: of or understanding about, that might perhaps have virtues of
- 1:56Speaker 1: their own, which I could not find out. I searched
- 2:00Speaker 1: for the cassavar root, which the Indians in all that
- 2:04Speaker 1: climate make their bread of, but I could find none.
- 2:09Speaker 1: I saw large plants of aloes, but did not understand them.
- 2:15Speaker 1: I saw several sugar canes, but wild and for want
- 2:19Speaker 1: of cultivation imperfect. I contented myself with these discoveries for
- 2:25Speaker 1: this time, and came back musing with myself what course
- 2:28Speaker 1: I might take to know the virtue and goodness of
- 2:32Speaker 1: any of the fruits or plants which I should discover,
- 2:35Speaker 1: but could bring it to no conclusion, For in short,
- 2:39Speaker 1: I had made so little observation while I was in
- 2:42Speaker 1: the Brazils that I knew little of the plants in
- 2:46Speaker 1: the field, at least very little that might serve to
- 2:49Speaker 1: any purpose. Now in my distress, the next day, the sixteenth,
- 2:56Speaker 1: I went up the same way again, and after going
- 2:59Speaker 1: somewhat for a seas than I had gone the day before.
- 3:02Speaker 1: I found the brook and the savannahs cease, and the
- 3:06Speaker 1: country become more woody than before. In this part I
- 3:10Speaker 1: found different fruits, and particularly I found melons upon the
- 3:16Speaker 1: ground in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees. The
- 3:20Speaker 1: vines had spread indeed over the trees, and the clusters
- 3:24Speaker 1: of grapes were just now in their prime, very ripe
- 3:28Speaker 1: and rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was
- 3:33Speaker 1: exceeding glad of them. But I was warned by my
- 3:37Speaker 1: experience to eat sparingly of them, remembering that when I
- 3:41Speaker 1: was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several
- 3:46Speaker 1: of our Englishmen who were slaves there by throwing them
- 3:50Speaker 1: into fluxes and fevers. But I found an excellent use
- 3:56Speaker 1: for these grapes, and that was to cure or dry
- 4:00Speaker 1: them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes
- 4:04Speaker 1: or raisins are kept, which I thought would be as
- 4:08Speaker 1: indeed they were wholesome and agreeable to eat when no
- 4:11Speaker 1: grapes could be had. I spent all that evening there
- 4:17Speaker 1: and went back to my habitation, which by the way,
- 4:21Speaker 1: was the first night, as I might say, I had
- 4:23Speaker 1: lain from home. In the night I took my first
- 4:27Speaker 1: contrivance and got up in a tree, where I slept well,
- 4:33Speaker 1: and the next morning proceeded upon my discovery, traveling nearly
- 4:38Speaker 1: four miles, as I might judge by the length of
- 4:40Speaker 1: the valley, keeping still due north, with a ridge of
- 4:45Speaker 1: hills on the south and north side of me. At
- 4:49Speaker 1: the end of this march I came to an opening
- 4:52Speaker 1: where the country seemed to descend to the west, and
- 4:56Speaker 1: a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of
- 5:00Speaker 1: the side of the hill by me, ran the other way,
- 5:03Speaker 1: that is due east, and the country appeared so fresh,
- 5:08Speaker 1: so green, so flourishing, everything being in a constant verdure
- 5:15Speaker 1: or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden.
- 5:20Speaker 1: I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale,
- 5:24Speaker 1: surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure, though mixed
- 5:29Speaker 1: with my other afflicting thoughts, to think that this was
- 5:33Speaker 1: all my own, that I was king and lord of
- 5:38Speaker 1: all this country indefensibly, and had a right of possession,
- 5:43Speaker 1: and if I could convey it, I might have it
- 5:46Speaker 1: in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor
- 5:52Speaker 1: in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, orange
- 5:57Speaker 1: and lemon and citron trees, but all wild, and very
- 6:03Speaker 1: few bearing any fruit at least not then. However, the
- 6:08Speaker 1: green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat,
- 6:11Speaker 1: but very wholesome, and I mixed their juice afterwards with
- 6:16Speaker 1: water and made it very wholesome and very cool and refreshing.
- 6:23Speaker 1: I found now I had business enough to gather and
- 6:27Speaker 1: carry home, and I resolved to lay up a store
- 6:30Speaker 1: as well of grapes as limes and lemons, to furnish
- 6:34Speaker 1: myself for the wet season, which I knew was approaching.
- 6:40Speaker 1: In order to do this, I gathered a great heap
- 6:43Speaker 1: of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place,
- 6:47Speaker 1: and a great parcel of limes and lemons in another place,
- 6:52Speaker 1: and taking a few of each with me, I traveled homewards,
- 6:56Speaker 1: resolving to come again and bring a bag or sack,
- 7:01Speaker 1: or what I can make to carry the rest home. Accordingly,
- 7:06Speaker 1: having spent three days in this journey, I came home.
- 7:10Speaker 1: So I must now call my tent in my cave
- 7:14Speaker 1: my home. But before I got thither, the grapes were spoiled,
- 7:19Speaker 1: the richness of the fruit and the weight of the juice.
- 7:22Speaker 1: Having broken them and bruised them, they were good for
- 7:26Speaker 1: little or nothing. As to the limes, they were good,
- 7:31Speaker 1: but I could bring but a few. The next day,
- 7:36Speaker 1: being the nineteenth, I went back, having made me two
- 7:39Speaker 1: small bags to bring home my harvest. But I was
- 7:43Speaker 1: surprised when coming to my heap of grapes, which were
- 7:47Speaker 1: so rich and fine, when I gathered them, to find
- 7:50Speaker 1: them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about,
- 7:56Speaker 1: some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this,
- 8:02Speaker 1: I concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts which had
- 8:07Speaker 1: done this, but what they were I knew not. However,
- 8:13Speaker 1: as I found there was no laying them up on heaps,
- 8:17Speaker 1: and no carrying them away in a sack, but that
- 8:21Speaker 1: one way they would be destroyed, and the other way
- 8:25Speaker 1: they would be crushed with their own weight. I took
- 8:29Speaker 1: another course, for I gathered a large quantity of the
- 8:33Speaker 1: grapes and hung them trees that they might cure and
- 8:38Speaker 1: dry in the sun. And as for the limes and lemons,
- 8:41Speaker 1: I carried as many back as I could well stand under.
- 8:47Speaker 1: When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with
- 8:51Speaker 1: great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness
- 8:55Speaker 1: of the situation, the security from storms on that side
- 9:00Speaker 1: of the water and the wood, and concluded that I
- 9:04Speaker 1: had pitched upon a place to fix my abode, which
- 9:07Speaker 1: was by far the worst part of the country. Upon
- 9:11Speaker 1: the whole I began to consider of removing my habitation
- 9:16Speaker 1: and looking out for a place equally safe as where
- 9:19Speaker 1: now I was situated, if possible, in that pleasant, fruitful
- 9:24Speaker 1: part of the island. This thought ran long in my head,
- 9:29Speaker 1: and I was exceedingly fond of it for some time,
- 9:32Speaker 1: the pleasantness of the place tempting me. But when I
- 9:36Speaker 1: came to a nearer view of it, I considered that
- 9:41Speaker 1: I was now by the seaside where it was at
- 9:44Speaker 1: least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and
- 9:49Speaker 1: by the same ill fate that brought me hither might
- 9:53Speaker 1: bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place. And
- 9:58Speaker 1: though it was scarce probable that any such thing should
- 10:02Speaker 1: ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and
- 10:07Speaker 1: woods and the center of the island was to anticipate
- 10:11Speaker 1: my bondage, and to render such an affair not only
- 10:15Speaker 1: improbable but impossible, and that therefore I ought not by
- 10:21Speaker 1: any means to remove. However, I was so enamored of
- 10:26Speaker 1: this place that I spent much of my time there
- 10:29Speaker 1: for the whole of the remaining part of the month
- 10:31Speaker 1: of July, And though upon second thoughts I resolved not
- 10:35Speaker 1: to move, yet I built me a little kind of
- 10:39Speaker 1: a bower and surrounded it at a distance with strong fence,
- 10:44Speaker 1: being a double hedge as high as I could reach,
- 10:47Speaker 1: well staked and filled between with brushwood. And here I
- 10:51Speaker 1: lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together, always
- 10:56Speaker 1: going over it with a ladder, so that I found see.
- 11:00Speaker 1: Now I had my country house and my seacoast house.
- 11:05Speaker 1: And this work took me up to the beginning of August.
- 11:12Speaker 1: I had but newly finished my fence and begun to
- 11:16Speaker 1: enjoy my labor when the rains came on and made
- 11:19Speaker 1: me stick close to my first habitation. For though I
- 11:23Speaker 1: had made me a tent like the other with a
- 11:26Speaker 1: piece of sail, and spread it very well, yet I
- 11:29Speaker 1: had not the shelter of a hill to keep me
- 11:32Speaker 1: from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat. Into
- 11:37Speaker 1: when the rains were extraordinary about the beginning of August,
- 11:42Speaker 1: as I said, I had finished my bower and began
- 11:46Speaker 1: to enjoy myself. The third of August, I found the
- 11:49Speaker 1: grapes I had hung up perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent,
- 11:53Speaker 1: good raisins of the sun. So I began to take
- 11:56Speaker 1: them down from the trees. And it was very happy
- 11:59Speaker 1: that I did so, for the rains which followed would
- 12:02Speaker 1: have spoiled them, and I had lost the best part
- 12:05Speaker 1: of my winter food, for I had above two hundred
- 12:09Speaker 1: large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them
- 12:13Speaker 1: down and carried the most of them home to my cave.
- 12:16Speaker 1: And then it began to rain, and from hints, which
- 12:21Speaker 1: was the fourteenth of August, it rained more or less
- 12:24Speaker 1: every day till the middle of October, and sometimes so
- 12:28Speaker 1: violently that I could not stir out of my cave
- 12:31Speaker 1: for several days. In this season, I was much surprised
- 12:36Speaker 1: with the increase of my family. I had been concerned
- 12:39Speaker 1: for the loss of one of my cats, who ran
- 12:42Speaker 1: away from me, or as I thought had been dead,
- 12:45Speaker 1: and I heard no more tidings of her till to
- 12:48Speaker 1: my astonishment, she came home about the end of August
- 12:52Speaker 1: with three kittens. This was the more strange to me
- 12:55Speaker 1: because though I had killed a wild cat, as I
- 12:59Speaker 1: called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was
- 13:02Speaker 1: quite a different kind from our European cats. But the
- 13:06Speaker 1: young cats were the same kind of house breed as
- 13:09Speaker 1: the old one, and both my cats being females, I
- 13:13Speaker 1: thought it very strange. But from these three cats, I
- 13:17Speaker 1: afterwards came to be so pestered with cats that I
- 13:21Speaker 1: was forced to kill them like vermin or wild beasts,
- 13:24Speaker 1: and to drive them from my house as much as possible.
- 13:29Speaker 1: From the fourteenth of August to the twenty sixth, incessant
- 13:32Speaker 1: rain so that I could not stir, and was now
- 13:36Speaker 1: very thankful not to be much wet. In this confinement,
- 13:41Speaker 1: I began to be straightened for food, but venturing out
- 13:44Speaker 1: twice I one day killed a goat, and the last day,
- 13:48Speaker 1: which was the twenty sixth, found a very large tortoise,
- 13:52Speaker 1: which was a treat to me, and my food was regulated.
- 13:55Speaker 1: Thus I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast,
- 13:59Speaker 1: a piece of the boat's flesh or of the turtle
- 14:02Speaker 1: for my dinner, broiled for to my great misfortune. I
- 14:06Speaker 1: had no vessel to boil or stew anything, and two
- 14:11Speaker 1: or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper. During
- 14:16Speaker 1: this confinement in my cover by the rain, I worked
- 14:19Speaker 1: daily two or three hours at enlarging my cave, and
- 14:22Speaker 1: by degrees worked it on towards one side till I
- 14:26Speaker 1: came to the outside of the hill and made a
- 14:29Speaker 1: door or way out which came beyond my fence or wall.
- 14:34Speaker 1: And so I came in and out this way. But
- 14:38Speaker 1: I was not perfectly easy at lying so open, For
- 14:42Speaker 1: as I had managed myself before, I was in a
- 14:45Speaker 1: perfect enclosure, whereas now I thought I lay exposed and
- 14:51Speaker 1: opened for anything to come in upon me. And yet
- 14:54Speaker 1: I could not perceive that there was any living thing
- 14:57Speaker 1: to fear. The biggest creature that I had yet seen
- 15:00Speaker 1: upon the island being a goat. September thirtieth, I was
- 15:07Speaker 1: now come to the unhappy anniversary of my landing. I
- 15:11Speaker 1: cast up the notches on my post and found I
- 15:15Speaker 1: had been on shore three hundred and sixty five days.
- 15:19Speaker 1: I kept this day as a solemn fast, setting it
- 15:22Speaker 1: apart for religious exercise, prostrating myself on the ground with
- 15:26Speaker 1: the most serious humiliation, confessing my sins to God, acknowledging
- 15:32Speaker 1: his righteous judgments upon me, and praying to him to
- 15:36Speaker 1: have mercy on me through Jesus Christ, and not having
- 15:40Speaker 1: tasted the least refreshment for twelve hours even till the
- 15:44Speaker 1: going down of the sun. I then ate a biscuit
- 15:48Speaker 1: cake and a bunch of grapes, and went to bed,
- 15:51Speaker 1: finishing the day as I began it. I had all
- 15:56Speaker 1: this time observed no Sabbath day, for as at first
- 16:01Speaker 1: I had no sense of religion upon my mind, I
- 16:05Speaker 1: had after some time omitted to distinguish the weeks by
- 16:09Speaker 1: making a longer notch than ordinary for the Sabbath day,
- 16:12Speaker 1: and so did not really know what any of the
- 16:15Speaker 1: days were. But now having cast up the days as above,
- 16:20Speaker 1: I found I had been there a year. So I
- 16:22Speaker 1: divided it in two weeks and set apart every seventh
- 16:25Speaker 1: day for a Sabbath, though I found at the end
- 16:29Speaker 1: of my account I had lost a day or two
- 16:32Speaker 1: in my reckoning. A little after this, my ink began
- 16:36Speaker 1: to fail me, and so I contented myself to use
- 16:39Speaker 1: it more sparingly, and to write down only the most
- 16:43Speaker 1: memorable events of my life without continuing a daily memorandum
- 16:49Speaker 1: of other things. The rainy season and the dry season
- 16:54Speaker 1: began now to appear regular to me, and I learned
- 16:59Speaker 1: to divide them to provide for them accordingly. But I
- 17:04Speaker 1: bought all my experience before I had it, and this
- 17:08Speaker 1: I am going to relate was one of the most
- 17:10Speaker 1: discouraging experiments that I made. I have mentioned that I
- 17:16Speaker 1: had saved the few years of barley and rice, which
- 17:19Speaker 1: I had so surprisingly found spring up as I thought
- 17:23Speaker 1: of themselves, and I believe there were about thirty stocks
- 17:27Speaker 1: of rice and about twelve of barley, and now I
- 17:31Speaker 1: thought it a proper time to sow it. After the rains,
- 17:34Speaker 1: the sunbeam in its southern position going from me. Accordingly,
- 17:39Speaker 1: I dug up a piece of ground as well as
- 17:41Speaker 1: I could with my wooden spade, and dividing it into
- 17:45Speaker 1: two parts, I sowed my grain. But as I was
- 17:49Speaker 1: sowing it casually occurred to my thoughts that I would
- 17:53Speaker 1: not sew it all at first, because I did not
- 17:56Speaker 1: know what was the proper time for it. I sewed
- 18:00Speaker 1: about two thirds of the seed, and leaving about a
- 18:03Speaker 1: handful of each. It was a great comfort to me
- 18:07Speaker 1: afterwards that I did so for not one grain of
- 18:11Speaker 1: what I sowed this time came to anything. For the
- 18:14Speaker 1: dry months following the earth having had no rain after
- 18:19Speaker 1: the seed was sown, it had little moisture to assist
- 18:22Speaker 1: its growth, and never came up at all till the
- 18:26Speaker 1: wet season had come again, and then it grew as
- 18:29Speaker 1: much as if it had been but newly sown. Finding
- 18:34Speaker 1: my first seed did not grow, which I easily imagined
- 18:37Speaker 1: was by the drought, I sought out for a moisture
- 18:41Speaker 1: piece of ground to make another trial, And I dug
- 18:44Speaker 1: up a piece of ground near my new bower, and
- 18:47Speaker 1: sowed the rest of my seed in February, a little
- 18:50Speaker 1: before the vernal equinox. And this, having the rainy months
- 18:56Speaker 1: of March and April toward, it sprung up very pleasantly
- 19:00Speaker 1: and yielded a very good crop. And having part of
- 19:03Speaker 1: the seed left only, and not daring to sow all
- 19:07Speaker 1: that I had, I had but a small quantity at last,
- 19:11Speaker 1: my whole crop, not amounting to above half a peck
- 19:15Speaker 1: of each kind. But by this experiment I was made
- 19:19Speaker 1: master of my business, and knew exactly when the proper
- 19:23Speaker 1: season was to sow, and that I might expect two
- 19:26Speaker 1: seed times and two harvests every year. While this corn
- 19:32Speaker 1: was growing, I made a little discovery which was of
- 19:36Speaker 1: use to me afterwards. As soon as the rains were
- 19:39Speaker 1: over and the weather began to settle, which was about
- 19:43Speaker 1: the month of November, I made a visit up the
- 19:46Speaker 1: country to my bower, where, though I had not been
- 19:51Speaker 1: some months yet, I found all things just as I
- 19:54Speaker 1: left them. The circle or double edge that I had
- 19:58Speaker 1: made was not only firm and entire, but the steaks
- 20:03Speaker 1: which I had cut out of some trees that grew
- 20:05Speaker 1: thereabouts were all shot out and grown with long branches,
- 20:10Speaker 1: as much as a willow tree usually shoots the first
- 20:14Speaker 1: year after lopping its head. I could not tell what
- 20:18Speaker 1: tree to call it that these steaks were cut from.
- 20:22Speaker 1: I was surprised and yet well pleased to see the
- 20:25Speaker 1: young trees grow, and I pruned them and led them
- 20:30Speaker 1: up to grow as much alike as I could. And
- 20:34Speaker 1: it is scarce credible how beautiful a figure they grew
- 20:37Speaker 1: into in three years, so that though the hedge made
- 20:42Speaker 1: a circle of about twenty five yards in diameter, yet
- 20:45Speaker 1: the trees for such as I might now call them,
- 20:48Speaker 1: soon covered it, and it was a complete shade sufficient
- 20:53Speaker 1: to lodge under all the dry season. This made me
- 20:58Speaker 1: resolve to cut some more steak and make me a
- 21:01Speaker 1: hedge like this in a semicircle round my wall. I
- 21:04Speaker 1: mean that of my first dwelling, which I did in
- 21:08Speaker 1: placing the trees or steaks in a double row at
- 21:12Speaker 1: about eight yards distance from my first fence. They grew
- 21:15Speaker 1: presently and were at first a fine cover to my habitation,
- 21:20Speaker 1: and afterwards served for a defense. Also, as I shall
- 21:24Speaker 1: observe in its order, I found now that the seasons
- 21:30Speaker 1: of the year might generally be divided, not into summer
- 21:33Speaker 1: and winter, as in Europe, but into the rainy seasons
- 21:38Speaker 1: and the dry seasons, which were generally thus the half
- 21:43Speaker 1: of February, the whole of March, and the half of
- 21:46Speaker 1: April rainy, the sun being then on or near the equinox,
- 21:52Speaker 1: the half of April, the whole of May, June and July,
- 21:56Speaker 1: and the half of August dry, the sun being then
- 22:00Speaker 1: to the north of the line. The half of August,
- 22:04Speaker 1: the whole of September, and the half of October rainy,
- 22:08Speaker 1: the sun being then come back the half of October,
- 22:12Speaker 1: the whole of November, December, and January and the half
- 22:15Speaker 1: of February dry, the sun being then to the south
- 22:20Speaker 1: of the line. The rainy seasons sometimes held longer or
- 22:25Speaker 1: shorter as the winds happened to blow. But this was
- 22:29Speaker 1: the general observation I made. After I had found by
- 22:33Speaker 1: experience the ill consequences of being abroad in the rain,
- 22:38Speaker 1: I took care to furnish myself with provisions beforehand that
- 22:41Speaker 1: I might not be obliged to go out, and I
- 22:45Speaker 1: sat within doors as much as possible during the wet months.
- 22:50Speaker 1: This time I found much employment, and very suitable also
- 22:54Speaker 1: to the time, for I found great occasion for many
- 22:58Speaker 1: things which I had no way to furnish myself with,
- 23:01Speaker 1: but by hard labor and constant application. Particularly, I tried
- 23:07Speaker 1: many ways to make myself a basket, but all the
- 23:11Speaker 1: twigs I could get for the purpose proved so brittle
- 23:15Speaker 1: that they would do nothing. It proved of excellent advantage
- 23:20Speaker 1: to me now that when I was a boy, I
- 23:22Speaker 1: used to take great delight in standing at a basket
- 23:26Speaker 1: maker's in the town where my father lived, to see
- 23:30Speaker 1: them make their wicker wear, and being as boys usually
- 23:35Speaker 1: are very officious to help and a great observer of
- 23:38Speaker 1: the manner in which they worked these things, and sometimes
- 23:42Speaker 1: lending a hand. I had, by these means full knowledge
- 23:46Speaker 1: of the methods of it, and I wanted nothing but
- 23:50Speaker 1: the materials. When it came into my mind that the
- 23:54Speaker 1: twigs of that tree from whence I cut my steaks
- 23:57Speaker 1: that grew might possible be as tough as the sallows,
- 24:02Speaker 1: willows and ossiers in England, and I resolved to try accordingly.
- 24:09Speaker 1: The next day I went to my country house, as
- 24:11Speaker 1: I called it, and cutting down some of the smaller twigs,
- 24:16Speaker 1: I found them to my purpose as much as I
- 24:18Speaker 1: could desire. Whereupon I came the next time prepared with
- 24:23Speaker 1: a hatchet to cut down a quantity which I soon found,
- 24:27Speaker 1: for there was a great plenty of them. These I
- 24:31Speaker 1: set up to dry within my circle or hedge, and
- 24:35Speaker 1: when they were fit for use, I carried them to
- 24:37Speaker 1: my cave, and here during the next season I employed
- 24:41Speaker 1: myself in making, as well as I could, a great
- 24:45Speaker 1: many baskets, both to carry earth or to carry or
- 24:50Speaker 1: lay up anything as I had occasion. And though I
- 24:54Speaker 1: did not finish them very handsomely, yet I made them
- 24:57Speaker 1: sufficiently serviceable for my purpose. Thus, afterwards I took care
- 25:04Speaker 1: never to be without them, And as my wicker ware decayed,
- 25:09Speaker 1: I made more, especially strong, deep baskets to place my
- 25:14Speaker 1: corn in instead of sacks, when I should come to
- 25:18Speaker 1: have any quantity of it. Having mastered this difficulty and
- 25:22Speaker 1: employed a world of time about it, I bestirred myself
- 25:26Speaker 1: to see, if possible, how to supply two Once I
- 25:31Speaker 1: had no vessels to hold anything that was liquid, except
- 25:36Speaker 1: two runlets which were almost full of rum, and some
- 25:41Speaker 1: glass bottles, some of the common size, and others which
- 25:44Speaker 1: were case bottles square for the holding of water, spirits,
- 25:48Speaker 1: et cetera. I had not so much as a pot
- 25:52Speaker 1: to boil anything except a great kettle, which I saved
- 25:56Speaker 1: out of the ship, and which was too big for
- 25:59Speaker 1: such as I desired it, that is, to make broth
- 26:03Speaker 1: and stew a bit of meat by itself. The second
- 26:07Speaker 1: thing I fain would have had was a tobacco pipe,
- 26:11Speaker 1: but it was impossible to make me one. However, I
- 26:15Speaker 1: found a contrivance for that too. At last I employed
- 26:20Speaker 1: myself in planting my second rows of steaks or piles,
- 26:25Speaker 1: and in this wicker working all the summer or dry season.
- 26:29Speaker 1: When another business took me up more time than it
- 26:33Speaker 1: could be imagined. I could spare end of chapter seven,