HIS VARIOUS RESOURCES. 207

ever I had occasion to be absent from my chief seat, I took up my
country habitation.

Adjoining to this I had my enclosures for my cattle, that is to
say, my goats; and as I had taken an inconceivable deal of pains
to fence and enclose this ground, so I was so uneasy to see it kept
entire, lest the goats should break through, that I never left off
till with infinite labour I had stuck the outside of the hedge so
full of small stakes, and so near to one another, that it was rather
a pale than a hedge, and there was scarce room to put a hand
through between them; which, afterwards, when those stakes grew,
as they all did in the next rainy season, made the enclosure strong
like a wall; indeed, stronger than any wall.

This will testify for me that I was not idle, and that I spared
no pains to bring to pass whatever appeared necessary for my com-
fortable support; for I considered the keeping up a breed of tame
creatures thus at my hand would be a living magazine of flesh,
milk, butter, and cheese for me as long as I lived in the place, if
it were to be forty years; and that keeping them in my reach
depended entirely upon my perfecting my enclosures to such a
degree that I might be sure of keeping them together; which by
this method, indeed, I so effectually secured, that when these little
stakes began to grow, I had planted them so very thick I was
forced to pull some of them up again. .

In this place, also, I had my grapes growing, which I princi-
pally depended on for my winter store of rasins; and which I
never failed to preserve very carefully, as the best and most agree-
able dainty of my whole diet; and, indeed, they were not agree-
able only, but physical, wholesome, nourishing, and refreshing to
the last degree. ;

As this was also about half way between my other habitation
and the place where I had laid up my boat, I generally stayed and
lay here in my way thither; for I used frequently to visit my
boat, and I kept all things about or belonging to her in very good
order. Sometimes I went out in her to divert myself; but no
more hazardous voyages would I go, nor scarce ever above a
stone’s cast or two from the shore, I was so apprehensive of being
hurried out of my knowledge again by the currents, or winds, or

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