An account of the grotto—A room added to it—-A view of that building—The author makes a little cart—Also a wet dock for his boat—Goes in quest of provision—A description of divers fruits and plants—He brings home a cart-load of different sorts—Makes experiments on them—Loads his cart with others—A great disappointment—Makes good bread—Never sees the sun—The nature of the light

H aving come to a full resolution of fixing my residence at the grotto, and making that my capital seat, it is proper to give you some description of it.

This grotto, then, was a full mile from the lake, in the rock which encompassed the wood. The entrance was scarcely two feet wide, and about nine feet high, rising from the height of seven feet upward to a point in the middle. The cavity was about fifteen feet long within, and about five wide. Being obliged to lie lengthwise in it, full six feet of it were taken up at the farther end for my lodging only, as nothing could stand on the side of my bed that would leave me room to come at it. The remaining nine feet of the cave's length were taken up, first, by my fireplace, which was the deepest side of the doorway, ranging with my bed (which I had set close to the rock on one side), and took up near three feet in length; and my furniture and provisions, of one sort or other, so filled up the rest, that I had much ado to creep between them into my bed.

In the chest which I had taken for a seat in the boat, as aforesaid, upon breaking it open by the water-side, I found a mattress, some shirts, shoes, stockings, and several other useful things; a small case of bottles with cordials in them, some instruments of surgery, plasters and salves; all which, together with a large quantity of fish that I had salted, I carried to the grotto.

My habitation being thus already overcharged, and as I could not, however, bear the thoughts of quitting it, or of having any of my goods exposed to the weather on the outside, I was naturally bent on contriving how I should increase my accommodations. As I had no prospect of enlarging the grotto itself, I could conceive no other way of effecting my desire but by the addition of an outer room. This thought pleased me very much, so that the next day I set myself to plan out the building, and trace the foundation of it.

I told you before there was about the space of a cart-way between the wood and the rock clear; but this breadth, as I was building for life (so I imagined), not appearing to me spacious enough for my new apartment, I considered how I should extend its bounds into the wood. Hereupon I set myself to observe what trees stood at a proper distance from my grotto, that might serve as they stood, with a little management of hewing and the like, to compose a noble doorway, posts, and supporters; and I found, that upon cutting down three of the nearest trees, I should answer my purpose in this respect; and there were several others, about twenty feet from the grotto, and running parallel with the rock, the situation of which was so happily adapted to my intention, that I could make them become, as I fancied, an out-fence or wall; so I took my axe and cut down my nearest trees, but as I was going to strike, a somewhat different scheme presented itself to my imagination that altered my resolution.

In conformity with this new plan, I fixed the height of my intended ceiling, and sawed off my nearest trees to that, sloping from the sides to the middle, to support cross-beams for the roof to rest on, and left the trunks standing, by way of pillars, both for the use and ornament of the structure. In short, I worked hard every day upon my building for a month, in which time I had cut all my timber into their proper lengths for my outworks and covering, but was at a great stand how to fix my side-posts, having no spade or mattock, and the ground almost as hard as flint, for to be sure it had never been stirred since the creation. I then thought I had the worst part of my job to get over; however, I went on, and having contrived, in most of my upright side-quarters, to take the tops of trees, and leave on the lower parts their cleft, where they began to branch out and divide from the main stem, I set one of them upright against the rock, then laid one end of my long ceiling-pieces upon the cleft of it, and laid the other end upon a tree on the same side, whose top I had also sawed off with a proper cleft I then went and did the same on the other side; after this I laid on a proper number of cross-beams, and tied all very firmly together with the bark of young trees stripped off in long thongs, which answered that purpose very well. Thus I proceeded, crossing, joining, and fastening all together, till the whole roof was so strong and firm that there was no stirring any part of it I then spread it over with small lop wood, on which I raised a ridge of dried grass and weeds, very thick, and thatched over the whole with the leaves of a tree very much resembling those of a palm, but much thicker, and not quite so broad; the entire surface, I might say, was as smooth as a die, and so ordered, by a gentle declivity every way, as to carry off the wet.

Having covered in my building, I was next to finish and close the walls of it; the skeleton of these was composed of sticks, crossing one another checker-wise and tied together; to fill up the voids, I wove upon them the longest and most pliable twigs of the underwood I could find, leaving only a doorway on one side, between two stems of a tree which, dividing in the trunk at about two feet from the ground, grew from thence, for the rest of its height, as if the branches were a couple of trees a little distance from one another, which made a sort of stile-way to my room. When this was all done, I tempered up some earth by the lake-side, and mixing it to a due consistence with mud, which I took from the lake, applied it as a plastering in this manner: I divided it into pieces, which I rolled up of the size of a foot-ball; these lumps I stuck close by one another on the lattice, pressing them very hard with my hands, which forced part of them quite through the small twigs, and then I smoothed both sides with the back of my saw, to about the thickness of five or six inches; so that by this means I had a wall round my new apartment a foot thick. This plaster-work cost me some time and a great deal of labour, as I had a full mile to go to the lake for every load of stuff, and could carry but little at once, it was so heavy; but there was neither water for tempering, nor proper earth to make it with any nearer. At last, however, I completed my building in every respect but a door, and for this I was forced to use the lid of my sea chest; which indeed I would have chosen not to apply that way, but I had nothing else that would, do; and there was, however, this conveniency, that it had hinges ready fixed thereon.

I now began to enjoy myself in my new habitation, like the absolute and sole lord of the country, for I had neither seen man nor beast since my arrival, save a few animals in the trees like our squirrels, and some water-rats about the lake; but there were several strange kinds of birds I had never before seen, both on the lake and in the woods.

That which now troubled me most was how to get my water nearer to me than the lake, for I had no lesser vessel than the cask, which held above twenty gallons, and to bring that up was a fatigue intolerable. My next contrivance, therefore, was this: I told you I had taken my chest-lid to make a door for my ante-chamber, as I now began to call it; so I resolved to apply the body of the chest also to a purpose different from that it originally answered. In order to this, I went to the lake where the body of the chest lay, and sawed it through within about three inches of the bottom. Of the two ends, having rounded them as well as I could, I made two wheels; and with one of the sides I made two more. I burnt a hole through the middle of each; then preparing two axle-trees, I fastened them, after putting on the wheels, to the bottom of the chest with the nails I had drawn out, of it. Having finished this machine, on which I bestowed no small labour, I was hugely pleased with it, and only wished I had a beast, if it were but an ass, to draw it; however, that task I was satisfied to perform myself, since there was no help for it; so I made a good strong cord out of my fishing-lines, and fixed that to drag it by. When all was thus in readiness, filling my water-cask, I bound it thereon, and so brought it to the grotto with such ease, comparatively, as quite charmed me. Having succeeded so well in the first essay, I no sooner unloaded but down went I again with my cart, or truckle rather, to the lake, and brought from thence on it my other chest, which I had left entire.

I had now nothing remaining near the lake but my boat, and had half a mind to try to bring that up too; but having so frequent occasion for her to get my water in, which I used in greater abundance now than I had done at first, a great part going to supply my domestic uses, as well as for drinking, I resolved against that, and sought out for a convenient dock to stow it in as a preservative against wind and weather, which I soon after effected; for having pitched upon a swampy place, overgrown with a sort of long flags or reeds, I soon cut a trench from the lake, with a sort of spade or board that I had chopped and sharpened for that use.

Thus having stowed my boat and looked over all my goods and sorted them, and taken a survey of my provisions, I found I must soon be in want of the last if I did not forthwith procure a supply; for though I had victualled so well at setting out, and had been very sparing ever since, yet had it not been for a great quantity of fish I took and salted in my passage to the gulf, I had been to seek for food much sooner. Hereupon I thought it highly prudent to look out before I really wanted.

With this resolution I accoutred myself, as in my first walk, with my instruments and arms; but instead of travelling the lake-side, I went along the wood, and therein found great plenty of divers kinds of fruits \ though I could scarce persuade myself to taste or try the effects of them, being so much unlike our own, or any I had seen elsewhere. I observed amongst the shrubs abundance of a fruit, or whatever else you may call it, which grew like a ram's-horn; sharp at the point next the twig it was fastened to, and circling round and round, one fold upon another, which gradually increased to the size of my wrist in the middle, and then as gradually decreased till it terminated in a point again at the contrary extreme; all which spiral, if it were fairly extended in length, might be a yard or an ell long. I surveyed this strange vegetable very attentively; it had a rind, or crust, which I could not break with my hand, but taking my knife and making an opening therewith in the shell, there issued out a sort of milky liquor in great quantity, to at least a pint and half, which having tasted, I found as sweet as honey, and very pleasant: however, I could not persuade myself any more than just to taste it. I then found on the large trees several kinds of fruit, like pears or quinces, but most of them exceeding hard and rough, and quite disagreeable; so I quitted my hopes of them.

About three miles from my grotto I met with a large space of ground full of a low plant, growing only with a single woody stalk half a foot high, and from thence issued a round head, about a foot or ten inches diameter, but quite flat, about three-quarters of an inch thick, and just like a cream-cheese standing upon its edge: these grew so close together, that upon the least wind stirring, their heads rattled against each other very musically; for though the stalks were so very strong that they would not easily either bend or break, yet the fanning of the wind upon the broad heads twisting the stalks, so as to let the heads strike each other, they made a most agreeable sound.

I stood some time admiring this shrub, and then cutting up one of them, I found it weighed about two pounds; they had a tough green rind or covering, very smooth, and the inside full of a stringy pulp, quite white. In short, I made divers other trials of berries, roots, herbs, and what else I could find, but received little satisfaction from any of them for fear of bad qualities. I returned back ruminating on what things I had seen, resolving to take my cart the next walk, and bring it home loaded with different kinds of them, in order to make my trials thereof at leisure: but my cart being too flat and wanting sides, I considered it would carry very little, and that what it would otherwise bear, on that account, must tumble and roll off, so I made a fire and turned smith; for with a great deal to do breaking off the wards of a large key I had, and making it red-hot, I by degrees fashioned it into a kind of spindle, and therewith making holes quite round the bottom of my cart, in them I stuck up sticks about two feet high that I had tapered at the end to fit them.

Having thus qualified my cart for a load, I proceeded with it to the wood, and cutting a small quantity of each species of green, berry, fruit, and flower that I could find, and packing them severally in parcels, I returned at night heavy-laden, and held a council with myself what use they could most properly be applied to.

I had amongst my goods, as I said, a copper-kettle which held about a gallon: this I set over my fire and boiled something by turns of every sort in it, watching all the while, and with a stick stirring and raising up one thing and then another, to feel when they were boiled tender: but of upwards of twenty greens which I thus dressed, only one proved eatable, all the rest becoming more stringy, tough, and insipid for the cooking. The one I have excepted was a round, thick, woolly-leafed plant, which boiled tender and tasted as well as spinach; I therefore preserved some leaves of this to know it again by; and for distinction called it by the name of that herb.

I then began upon my fruits of the pear and quince kind, at least eight different sorts; but I found I could make nothing of them, for they were most of them as rough and crabbed after stewing as before, so I laid them all aside. Lastly, I boiled my ram's-horn and cream-cheese, as I called them, together. Upon tasting the latter of these, it was become so watery and insipid, I laid it aside as useless. I then cut the other and tasted the juice, which proved so exceeding pleasant that I took a large gulp or two of it, and tossed it into the kettle again.

Having now gone through the several kinds of my exotics, I had a mind to re-examine them after cooling, but could make nothing of any of my greens but the spinach. I tried several berries and nuts too, but, save a few sort of nuts, they were all very tasteless. Then I began to review the fruits, and could find but two sorts that I had any the least hopes from. I then laid the best by and threw the others away. After this process, which took me up near a whole day, and clearing my house of good-for-nothings, I returned to reexamine my cheese, that was grown cold, and was now so dry and hard I could not get my teeth into it; upon which I was going to skim it away out of my grotto, saying, "Go, thou worthless!" (for I always spoke aloud my thoughts to myself)—I say I was just despatching it when I checked my hands, and as I could make no impression with my teeth, had a mind to try what my knife would do. Accordingly I began at the edge of the quarter, for I had boiled but a quarter of it, but the rind was grown so hard and brittle that my knife slipping and raking along the cut edge of it, scratched off some powder as white as possible; I then scraped it backward and forward some time, till I found it would all scrape away in this powder, except the rind, upon which I laid it aside again for farther experiment.

During this review my kettle and ram's-horn had been boiling, till hearing it blubber very loud, and seeing there was but little liquor in it, I whipped it off the fire, for fear of burning its bottom, but took no further notice of it till about two hours after; when returning to the grotto, I went to wash out my kettle, but could scarce get my ram's-horn from the bottom; and when I did, it brought up with it a sort of pitchy substance, though not so black, and several gummy threads hanging to it, drawn out to a great length. I wondered at this, and thought the shell of the ram's-horn had melted, or some such thing, till, venturing to put a little of the stuff on my tongue, it proved to my thinking as good treacle as I had ever tasted.

This new discovery pleased me very much. I scraped all the sweet thing up, and laid it near my grotto in a large leaf of one of the trees (about two feet long, and broad in proportion) to prevent its running about. In getting this curiosity out of my kettle, I found in it a small piece of my cheese, which I suppose had been broke off in stirring; and biting it (for it was soft enough) I think it was the most luscious and delicate morsel I ever put into my lips. This unexpected good fortune put me on trying the best of my pears again; so setting on my kettle, with very little water, and putting some of my treacle into it, and two of the best pears quartered, I found, upon a little boiling, they also became an excellent dainty.

Having succeeded so well, I was quite ripe for another journey with my cart; which I accordingly undertook, taking my route over the stone bridge, to see what the other side of the lake produced. In travelling through the trees, I met, amongst other things, with abundance of large gourds, which, climbing the trees, displayed their fruit to the height of twenty or thirty feet above the ground. I cut a great many of these, and some very large ones of different hues and forms; which of themselves making a great load, with some few new sorts of berries and greens, were the gathering of that day. But I must tell you I was almost foiled in getting them home; for coming to my stone bridge, it rose so steep, and was so much ruggeder than the grass or wood ground, that I was at a set upon the first entrance and terribly afraid that I should either break my wheels or pull off my axle-trees. Hereupon I was forced to unload, and carry my cargo over in my arms to the other side of the bridge; whither having then, with less fear but much caution, drawn my cart, I loaded again and got safe home.

I was mightily pleased with the acquisitions of this journey; for now, thought I, I shall have several convenient family utensils; so spent the next day or two in scooping my gourds and cleaning away the pulp. When I had done this, finding the rinds to be very weak and yielding, I made a good fire, and setting them round it at a moderate distance to dry, I went about something else without doors: but, alas! my hopes were ill founded; for coming home to turn my gourds and see how dry they were, I found them all warped and turned into a variety of uncouth shapes. This put me to a stand; but, however, I recovered some pieces of them for use, as the bottom parts of most of them, after paring away the sides, would hold something, though they by no means answered my first purpose.

Well, thought I, what if I have lost my gourds, I have gained experience. I will dry them next time with the guts in, and having stiffened their rinds in their proper dimensions, then try to cleanse them. So next morning (for I was very eager at it) I set out with my cart for another load; and having handed them over the bridge, got safe with them to the grotto. These by proper management proved exceedingly valuable to me, answering, in one way or other, the several uses of plates, bottles, pans, and divers other vessels.

I now got a large quantity of the vegetable ram's-horn, and filled a great many of the gourds with the treacle it yielded; I also boiled and dried a large parcel of my cheeses, and hung them up for use, for I had now for some time made all my bread of the latter, scraping and bruising the flour, and mixing it with my treacle and water; and this indeed made such a sweet and nourishing bread, that I could even have lived wholly upon it; but I afterwards very much improved it by putting the milky juice of the ram's-horn, unboiled, to my flour in a small quantity, and then baking it on the hearth, covered over with embers. This detracted nothing from the sweetness and mellowness of my bread, but made it much lighter than the treacle alone would have done.

Finding there was no fear of starving, but so far from it, that from day to day I found out something new to add to my repast, either in substantials or by way of dessert, I set me down very well contented with my condition. I had nothing to do but to lay up store against sickness and the dark weather, which last I expected would soon be upon me, as the days were now exceeding short. Indeed, though I had now been here six months, I had never seen the sun since I first entered the gulf; and though there was very little rain, and but few clouds, yet the brightest daylight never exceeded that of half an hour after sunset in the summer-time in England, and little more than just reddened the sky. For the first part of my time here, there was but little if any difference between day and night; but afterwards, what I might call the night, or lesser degree of light, took up more hours than the greater, and went on gradually increasing as to time, so that I perceived total darkness approached, such as I had on board my ship the year before.