136 A SHIFT FOR A GRINDSTONE,

I composed myself for a time, and resolved that I would go to
work with all speed to build me a wall with piles and cables, &e..
ina circle as before, and set my tent up in it when it was finished,
but that I would venture to stay where [ was till it was finished
and fit to remove to. This was the 21st.

April 22. The next morning [ began to consider of means. to
put this resolve in execution, but T was at a great loss about my
tools. Thad three large axes and abundance of hatchets (for we
carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians), but with much
chopping and cutting knotty hard wood they were all full. of
notches and dull; and though [ had a grindstone, [ could not turn
it and grind my tools too. ‘This cost me as much thought as a
statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of polities, or
a judge upon the life and death of aman. At length I contrived
a wheel with a string to turn it with my foot, that [ might have
both my hands at liberty —ote. I had never seen any such thing
in Hngland, or at least not to take notice how it was done, though
since T have observed it is very common there; besides that, my
grindstone was very large and heavy. This machine cost me a
full week’s work to bring it to perfection.

Apri 28, 29, These two whole days I took up in grinding my
tools, my machine for turning my grindstone performing very
well.

atpril 30. Having perceived my bread had been low a great
while, now I took a survey of it, and reduced myself to one biseuit-
cake a day, which made my heart very heavy.

May 1. In the morning, looking towards the sea-side, the tide
being low, T saw something lie on the shore bigger than ordinary,
and it looked like a cask. When I came to it, I found a small
barrel and two or three pieces of the wreck of the ship, which were
driven on shore by the late hurricane; and looking towards the
wreck itself, I thought it seemed to lie higher out of the water than
it used to do. I examined the barrel which was driven on shore,
and soon found it was a barrel of gunpowder; but it had taken
water, and the powder was caked as hard as a stone. However, I
rolled it further on shore for the present, and went on upon the
sands as near as [ could to the wreck of the ship to look for more.