124 DAY AFTER DAY.

hand, for, seeing her sit upright, and not broken to pieces, I hoped,
if the wind abated, I might get on board and get some food and
necessaries out of her for my relief; so, on the other hand, it
renewed my grief at the loss of my comrades, who, I imagined, if we
had all stayed on board, might have saved the ship, or at least that
they would not have been all drowned as they were; and that, had

. the men been saved, we might perhaps have built us a boat out of
the ruins of the ship to have carried us to some other part of the
world. I spent great part of this day in perplexing myself on
these things; but at length, seeing the ship almost dry, I went
upon the sand as near as I could, and then swam on board; this
day also it continued raining, though with no wind at all.

From the 1st of October to the 24th. All these days entirely
spent in many several voyages to get all I could out of the ship,
which I brought on shore, every tide of flood, upon rafts. Much
rain also in these days, though with some intervals of fair weather ;
but, it seems, this was the rainy season.

October 20. I overset my raft, and all the goods I had got upon
it; but being in shoal water, and the things being chiefly heavy,
I recovered many of them when the tide was out.

October 25. It rained all night and all day, with some gusts of
wind, during which time the ship broke in pieces, the wind blow-
ing a little harder than before, and was no more to be seen, except
the wreck of her, and that only at low water. I spent this day
in covering and securing the goods which I had saved, that the
rain might not spoil them.

October 26. I walked about the shore almost all day to find out
a place to fix my habitation, greatly concerned to secure myself
from an attack in the night either from wild beasts or men. To-
wards night I fixed upon a proper place under a rock, and marked
out a semicircle for my encampment, which I resolved to strengthen
with a work, wall, or fortification made of double piles, lined within
with cables and without with turf.

From the 26th to the 30th I worked very hard in carrying all
my goods to my new habitation, though some part of the time it
rained exceeding hard.

The 31st in the morning I went out into the island with my