Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and every thing that would spoil by the wet; and having thus enclosed all my goods, I made up the entrance which till now I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.

When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock, and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug down out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within about a foot and an half; and thus I made me a cave, just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar to my house.  It cost me much labour and many days, before all these things were brought to perfection; and therefore I must go back to some other things which took up some of my thoughts.  At the same time it happened, after I had laid my scheme for the setting up my tent, and making the cave, that a storm of rain falling from a thick, dark cloud, a sudden flash of lightning happened, and after that, a great clap of thunder, as is naturally the effect of it.  I was not so much surprised with the lightning, as I was with a thought, which darted into my mind as swift as the lightning itself:  O my powder!  My very heart sunk within me when I thought, that at one blast, all my powder might be destroyed; on which, not my defence only, but the providing me food, as I thought, entirely depended.  I was nothing near so anxious about my own danger, though, had the powder took fire, I had never known who had hurt me.

Such impression did this make upon me, that after the storm was over, I laid aside all my works, my building and fortifying, and applied myself to make bags and boxes, to separate the powder, and to keep it a little and a little in a parcel, in hope that whatever might come, it might not all take fire at once; and to keep it so apart, that it should not be possible to make one part fire another.  I finished this work in about a fortnight; and I think my powder, which in all was about 240 lb. weight, was divided in not less than a hundred parcels.  As to the barrel that had been wet, I did not apprehend any danger from that; so I placed it in my new cave, which, in my fancy, I called my kitchen, and the rest I hid up and down in holes among the rocks, so that no wet might come to it, marking very carefully where I laid it.

In the interval of time while this was doing, I went out at least once every day with my gun, as well to divert myself, as to see if I could kill any thing fit for food; and, as near as I could, to acquaint myself with what the island produced.  The first time I went out, I presently discovered that there were goats upon the island, which was a great satisfaction to me; but then it was attended with this misfortune to me, viz. that they were so shy, so subtle, and so swift of foot, that it was the most difficult thing in the world to come at them:  but I was not discouraged at this, not doubting but I might now and then shoot one, as it soon happened; for after