238 CRUSOE’S ALARM REVIVES.

of the next that I saw there, let them be who or how many se-
ever.

It seemed evident to me that the visits which they thus make to
this island are not very frequent; for it was above fifteen months
before any more of them came on shore there again ;—that is to
say, I neither saw them, nor any footsteps or signals of them, in
all that time; for as to the rainy seasons, then they are sure not
to come abroad, at least not so far. Yet all this while I lived un-
comfortably, by reason of the constant apprehensions I was in of
their coming upon me by surprise; from whence I observe that the
expectation of evil is more bitter than the suffering, especially if there
is no room to shake off that expectation or those apprehensions.

During all this time I was in the murdering humour, and took
up most of my hours, which should have been better employed,
in contriving how to circumvent and fall upon them the very next
time I should see them, especially if they should be divided, aa
they were the last time, into two parties. Nor did I consider at
all that if I killed one party—suppose ten or a dozen—I was still
the next day, or week, or month, to kill another, and so another,
even ad infinitum, till I should be at length no less a murderer
than they were in being man-eaters, and perhaps much more so.

          
   

 

SPENT my ‘days now in great perplexity and
\G) anxiety of mind, expecting that I should one
day or other fall into the hands of these merci-

    

 

with the greatest care and caution imaginable.
And now I found to my great comfort how
happy it was that I provided for a tame flock or herd of goats:
for I durst not upon any account fire my gun, especially near that
side of the island where they usually came, lest I should alarm the