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

82 ROBINSON CRUSOE.
pofe the next morning : And then, joining reafon
with my fear, I confidered, that this delightful and
pleafant ifland might not be entirely forfaken, as I
might think ; or that the inhabitants from the other
fhore might fail either with defign or necefllty by
crofs winds ; and if the latter circumftance, they de¬
parted upon the firft opportunity. But Bill my fear
occafioned me to think of a place for retreat, upon an
attack. I now repented that I had made the door
that came out beyond rny fortification *, but refol-
ving to make me a fecond, I drove between that
double row of trees, which I planted about 12 years
before, feveral piles, thickening it with pieces of tim¬
ber and old cables, and ftrengthening the foot of it
with earth which I dug out of my cave. I alfo made
me feven holes, wherein I planted my mulkets like
cannon, fitting them into frames refemhling carriages.
This being finilhed with indefatigable induftry,
for a great way every way I planted flicks of ofier-
like wood, about twenty thoufand of them, leaving
a large fpace between them and my wall, that I might
have room to fee an enemy, and that they might not
be fheltered by the young trees, if they offered to
approach the outer wall. And indeed fcarce two
years had pafled over my head, when there appeared
a lovely fhady grove, and in fix years it became a
thick wood perfectly impaflable. For my fafety, I
left no avenue to go in or out ; inftead of which I fet
two ladders ; one to a part of the rock which was
low, and then broke in,' leaving room to place ano¬
ther ladder upon that; fo that when I took thole
down, it was impoffible for any man to defeend with¬
out hurting himfelf; and if they had, they would
ftill be at the out£de of my outer wall. But while I
took all thefe meafures of human prudence for my
own prefervation, I was not altogether unmindful of
affairs : To preferve my flocks of tame goats, that
the enemy fhould not take all at once, 1 looked out