ROBINSON CRUSOE. 33

My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper
place for my habitation, and where to stow my goods, to secure
them from whatever might happen. Where I was, I yet knew
not ; whether on the continent or an island ; whether inhabited
or not inhabited; whether in danger of wild beasts or not.
There was a hill not above a mile from me which rose up very
steep and high, and which seemed to overtop some other hills,
which lay as in a ridge from it, northward. I took out one
of the fowling-pieces, and one of the pistols, and a horn of
powder; and thus armed, I travelled for discovery up to the
iop of that hill, where, after I had with great labor and difficulty
got to the top, I saw my fate, to my great affliction, viz.: that I
was in an island environed on every side by the sea: no land
to be seen except some rocks, which lay a great way off; and
two small islands less than this, which lay about three leagues
to the west.

I found also that the island I was in was barren, and as I
saw good reason to believe, uninhabited except by wild beasts,
of whom, however, I sawnone, Yet I saw abundance of fowls,
but I knew not their kinds ; neither, when I killed them, could
{ tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back,
I shot at a great bird, which I saw sitting upon a tree, on the
side of a great wood. I believe it was the first gun that had
been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no
sooner fired, than from all the parts of the wood there arose an
innumerable number of fowls, of many sorts, making a confused
Screaming and crying, every one according to his usual note,
but net one of them of any kind that I knew. As for the crea-
ture I killed, I took it to be a kind of a hawk, its color and
beak resembling it, but it had no talons or claws more than
common. Its flesh was carrion, and fit for nothing.

Contented with this discovery, I came back to my raft, and
fell to work to bring my cargo on shore, which took me up the
rest of that day: what to do with myself at night I knew not,
nor indeed where to rest, for I was afraid to lie down on the
' ground, not knowing but some wild beast might devour me,
though, as I afterwards found, there was really no need for
those fears,

However, as well as I could, I barricaded myself round
With the chests and boards that I had brought on shore, and
made a kind of hut for that night’s lodging. As for food, I yet
saw not which way to supply myself, except that I had seen two
or three creatures, like hares, run out of the wood where I
shot the fowl,