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

6o ROBINSON CRUSOEjk
feafon, and in the mean while ufe my belt Endeavours ,
to provide myfelf with materials to make bread.
But where were my labours to end ? The want of'
a plough to turn up the earth, or fhovel to dig it, I
conquered by making me a wooden fpade after a
particular manner : The want of a harrow, I fup- i
plied myfelf by dragging over the corn a great bough ,
of a tree : "When it was growing or fully ripe, I :
was forced to fence it, mow it, carry it home, threfh i
it, part it from the chaff, and fave it : And after all ;
this, I wanted a mill to grind it, fieves to drefs it, ;
yeaft and fait to make it into bread, and an oven to :
bake it. This fet my brains on work to find fome 1
expedient for every one of thefe neceffaries again ft 1
the next harveft.
And now, having more feed, my fir ft care was ‘o j
prepare me more land. I pitched upon two large :
flat pieces of ground near my caftle for that purpofe, j
in which I fowed my feed, and fenced it with a good
hedge, which took me up three months, by which .
time it was the wet feafon. While the rain kept i
me within doors, I found feveral occafions to em¬
ploy myfelf; and while at work ufed to divert my- .
feif with talking to my parrot, learning him to know i
and fueak his own name, POLL, the firft welcome
word I ever heard fpoke on the ifland. I had been a "
long time contriving how to make earthen veflels,
which I wanted extremely ; and when I confidered
the heat of the climate, I did not doubt but, rf I could :
find any proper clay, I might botch up a pot, ftrong
enough, when dried in the fun, to bear handling,
and to hold any thing that was dry, as corn, meal,
and other things.
To be fhort, the cl: y I found ; but it would oc-
cafion the molt ferious perfon to fmile to fee what
aukward ways I took, and what ugly mifhapen things
I made ; how many either fell out or crack’d by the
violent heat of the fun, and fell in pieces when they
were