Accidents > Life and most surprising adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, mariner, who lived eight and twenty years in an uninhabited island on the coast of America, near the mouth of the great river Oroonoque

ROBINSON CRUSOE.
looked out in the morning, no more fhip was to be
feen. This much furprized me for the prefent, yet
when I confidered I had loft no lime, abated no pains,
md had got every thing uleful out of her, I com¬
forted myfelf in the beft manner, and entirely fub-
mitted to the will of Providence.
INly next thoughts were, how I fhould defend
and fecure myfelf from favages and wild beafts, if
any fuch were in the ifland. At one time I thought
of digging a cave •, at another, I was for erecting
a tent; and, in fhorf, I refolved to do both: The
manner or form of which will not, I hope, be un-
pleafing to defcribe.
When I confidered the ground where I was, that
it was moorifh, and had no frefh water near it; my
refolutions were to fearch for a foil healthy and well
watered, where I might not only be fheltered from
the fun’s fcorching heat, but be more conveniently
fituated, as well to be fecured from wild men and
beafts of prey, as more eafily to difcover any diftant
fail, fhould it ever fo happen.
And' indeed it was not long before I had my de¬
fire ; I found a little plain near a rifing hill, the
front towards which being as fteep as a houfe-fide,
nothing could defcend on me from the top. On the
fide of this rock was a little hollow place, refem-
bling the entrance or door of a cave. Juft before
this place, on the-circle of the green, I refolved my
tent fhould ftand. This plain did not much ex¬
ceed 100 yards broad, and about twice as long, like
a delightful green before my door, with a pleafing,
though irregular defeent every way to the low-
grounds by the fea-fide, lying on the N. N. W. fide
of the hill, fo that it was fheltered from the excef-
five heat of the fun. After this I drew a fenfi-
circle, containing ten yards in its femi-diameter,
and twenty yards in the whole, driving down two
rows of ftrong flakes, not fix inches from each
other.