126 LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF

so, it was my unquestioned duty to resign myself absolutely and
entirely to His will; and, on the other hand, it was my duty
also to hope in Him, pray to Him, and quietly to attend to the
dictates and directions of His daily providence.

These thoughts took me up many hours, days, nay, I may say
weeks and months: and one particular effect of my cogitations
on this occasion I cannot omit. One morning early, lying in my
bed, and filled with thoughts about my danger from the appear-
ances of savages, I found it discomposed me very much; upon
which these words of the Scripture came into my thoughts,
“Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee,
and thou shalt glorify Me.” Upon this, rising cheerfully out of
my bed, my heart was not only comforted, but I was guided and
encouraged to pray earnestly to God for deliverance: when I
had done praying I took up my Bible, and opening it to read,
the first words that presented to me were, “Wait on the Lord,
and be of good cheer, and He shall strengthen thy heart; wait,
I say, on the Lord.” It is impossible to express the comfort
this gave me. In answer, I thankfully laid down the book, and
was no more sad, at least on that occasion.

In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflec-
tions, it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a
mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print
of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat: this
cheered me up a little, too, and I began to persuade myself it
was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot ;
and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well as
I was going that way to the boat? Again, I considered also
that I could by no means tell for certain where I had trod, and
where I had not; and that if, at last, this was only the print of
my own foot, I had played the part of those fools who try to
make stories of spectres and apparitions, and then are frightened
at them more than anybody.

Now I began to take courage, and to peep abroad again, for I
had not stirred out of my castle for three days and nights, so
that I began to starve for provisions; for I had little or nothing
within doors but some barley-cakes and water; then I knew
that my goats wanted to be milked too, which usually was my
evening diversion: and the poor creatures were in great pain
and inconvenience for want of it; and, indeed, it almost spoiled
some of them, and almost dried up their milk. Encouraging
myself, therefore, with the belief that this was nothing but the
print of one of my own feet, and that I might be truly said to
start at my own shadow, I began to go abroad again, and went