The Reason Of His Being Left Here
Was A Difference With Captain Stradling; Which, Together With The Ship
Being Leaky, Made Him At First Rather Willing To Stay Here Than To
Continue In The Ship; And When At Last He Was Inclined To Have Gone, The
Captain Would Not Receive Him.
He had been at the island before to wood
and water, when two of the men were left upon it for six months, the
ship being chased away by two French South-Sea ships; but the
Cinque-ports returned and took them off, at which time he was left.
He
had with him his clothes and bedding, with a firelock and some powder
and bullets, some tobacco, a knife, a kettle, a bible, with some other
books, and his mathematical instruments. He diverted himself and
provided for his sustenance as well as he could; but had much ado to
bear up against melancholy for the first eight months, and was sore
distressed at being left alone in such a desolate place. He built
himself two huts of pimento trees, thatched with long grass, and lined
with goat-skins, killing goats as he needed them with his gun, so long
as his powder lasted, which was only about a pound at first. When that
was all spent, he procured fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento wood
together. He slept in his larger hut, and cooked his victuals in the
smaller, which was at some distance, and employed himself in reading,
praying, and singing psalms, so that he said he was a better Christian
during his solitude than he had ever been before, or than, as he was
afraid, he should ever be again.
At first he never ate but when constrained by hunger, partly from grief;
and partly for want of bread and salt. Neither did he then go to bed
till he could watch no longer, the pimento wood serving him both for
fire and candle, as it burned very clear, and refreshed him by its
fragrant smell. He might have had fish enough, but would not eat them
for want of salt, as they occasioned a looseness; except cray-fish,
which are as large as our lobsters, and are very good. These he
sometimes boiled, and at other times broiled, as he did his goat's
flesh, of which he made good broth, for they are not so rank as our
goats. Having kept an account, he said he had killed 500 goats while on
the island, besides having caught as many more, which he marked on the
ear and let them go. When his powder failed, he run down the goats by
speed of foot; for his mode of living, with continual exercise of
walking and running, cleared him of all gross humours, so that he could
run with wonderful swiftness through the woods, and up the hills and
rocks, as we experienced in catching goats for us. We had a bull-dog,
which we sent along with several of our nimblest runners to help him in
catching goats, but he outstript our dog and men, caught the goats, and
brought them to us on his back.
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