ROLINSON CRUSOE. 59
brought on shore, but in a hammock, which was indeed a very
good one, and belonged to the mate of the ship.

Into thts tent I brought all my provisions, and everything
that would spoil by the wet; and having thus inclosed all my
goods, I made up the entrance, which till now I had left open,
and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.

When I had done this, I began to work my way into the
rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down out
through my tent, I laid them up within my fence, in the nature
of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within about a foot
and a half; and thus I made mea cave, just behind my tent,
which served me like a cellar to my house.

It cost me much labor and many days before all these things
were brought to perfection ; and, therefore, I must go back to
some other things which took upsome of my thoughts. At the
same time it happened, after I had laid my scheme for the set-
ting up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain fall-
ing from a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning
happened, and after that, a great clap of thunder, as is natu-
rally the effect of it. I was not so much surprised with the
lightning, as I was with a thought which darted into my mind
as swift as the lightning itself: O my powder! My very heart
sank within me when I thought that, at one blast, all my powder
might be destroyed ; on which, not my defence only, but the
providing: me food, as I thought, entirely depended. I was
nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had the
powder took fire, I should never have known who had hurt me.

Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm
was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying,
and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the
powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope
that whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once ;
and to keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make ©
one part fire another. I finished this work in about a fortnight ;
and I think my powder, which in all was about two hundred
and forty pounds weight, was divided into not less than a hun-
dred parcels. Asto the barrel that had been wet, I did not
apprehend any danger from that ; so I placed it in my new cave,
which, in my fancy, I call my kitchen; and the rest I hid up
and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come
to it, marking very carefully where I laid it.

In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out once
at least every day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to
see if I could kill anything fit for food ; nnd, as near as I could,