642 SELKIRK AS A SOLITARY.

and the terror of being left alone in such a desolate place. He built two
huts with pimento-trees, covered with long grass, and lined them with the
skins of goats, which he killed with his gun as he wanted, so long as his
powder lasted, which was but a pound; and that being almost spent, he got
fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento-wood together upon his knee, In the
lesser hut, at some distance from the other, he dressed his victuals; and in
the larger he slept, and employed himself in reading, singing psalms, and
praying; so that, he said, he was a better Christian while in this solitude
than ever he was before, or than, he was afraid, he should ever be again.

At first he never ate anything till hunger constrained him, partly for
grief, and partly for want of bread and salt; nor did he go to bed till ho
could watch no longer: the pimento-wood, which burned very clear, served
him both for fire and candle, and refreshed him with its fragrant smell. He
might have had fish enough, but would not eat them for want of salt,
because they occasioned a looseness, except cray-fish, which are as large as
our lobsters, and very good. These he sometimes boiled, and at other times
broiled, as he did his goats’ flesh, of which he made very good broth, for
they are not so rank as ours. He kept an account of five hundred that he
killed while there, and caught as many more, which he marked on the ear
and let go. When his powder failed, he took them by speed of foot ; for his
way of living—continual exercise in walking and running—bared him of all
gross humours; so that he ran with wonderful swiftness through the woods,
and up the rocks and hills, as we perceived when we employed him to catch
goats for us. We had a bull-dog, which we sent with several of our nimblest
runners, to help him in catching goats; but he distanced and tired both the
dog and the men, caught the goats, and brought them to us on his back.
He told us that his agility in pursuing a goat had once like to have cost him
his life ; he pursued it with so much eagerness, that he catched hold of it on
the brink of a precipice, of which he was not aware, the bushes hiding it
from him, so that he fell with the goat down the precipice, a great height,
and was so stunned and bruised with the fall that he narrowly escaped with
his life; and, when he came to his senses, found the goat dead under him.
He lay there about twenty-four hours, and was scarce able to crawl to his
hut, which was about a mile distant, or to stir abroad again in ten
days.

He came at last to relish his meat well enough without salt or bread ;
and, in the season, had plenty of good turnips, which had been sown there
by Captain Dampier’s men, and have now overspread some acres of ground.
He had enough of good cabbage from the cabbage-trees, and seasoned his
meat with the fruit of the pimento-trees, which is the same as Jamaica
pepper, and smells deliciously. He found also a black pepper, called malageta.

He soon wore out all his shoes and clothes by running in the woods; and,
at last, being forced t6 shift without them, his feet became so hard that he
ran everywhere without difficulty, and it was some time before he could wear