When my ammunition is wasted, then shall I remain without any defence against wild men and beasts.

I have no creature, no soul to speak to; none to beg assistance from.  Some comfort would it be to resound my woes where I am understood, and beg assistance where I might hope for relief.

GOOD

But yet I am preserved, while my companions are perished in the raging ocean.

Yet set apart to be spared from death.  And he, who has so preserved me, can deliver me from this condition.

However, I have food to eat, and even a happy prospect of subsistence while life endures.

At present I enjoy what is absolutely needful; and the climate is so hot, that had I never so many, I would hardly wear them.

Yet if it does, I see no danger of any hurt to me, as in Africa; And what if I had been cast away, upon that coast.

Is there not God to converse to, and is not he able to relieve thee?  Already has he afforded thee sustenance, and put it in thy power to provide for thyself till he sends thee a deliverance.

And now easing my mind a little by these reflections, I began to render my life as easy as possible.

I must here add, to the description I have given of my habitation, that having raised a turf wall against the outside of it, I thatched it so close as might keep it from the inclemency of the weather; I also improved it within, enlarged my cave, and made a passage and door in the rock, which came out beyond the pale of my fortification.  I next proceeded to make a chair and a table, and so began to study such mechanical arts as seemed to me practicable.  When I wanted a plank or board I hewed down a tree with my hatchet, making it as thin with my ax as possible, and then smooth enough with an adz to answer my designs:  yet though I could make no more this way than one board out of a tree, in length of time I got boards enough to shelter all my stores, every thing being regularly placed, and my guns securely hanging against the side of the rock.  This made it a very pleasant sight to me, as being the result of vast labour and diligence; which leaving for a while, and me to the enjoyment of it, I shall give the reader an account of my Journal from the day of my landing, till the fixing and settling of my habitation, as heretofore shown.

* * * * *

JOURNAL.

September 30, 1659.  I unhappy Robinson Crusoe, having suffered shipwreck, was driven on this desolate island, which I named the Desolate Island of Despair, my companions being swallowed up in the tempestous ocean.  The next day I spent in consideration of my unhappy circumstances, having no prospect but of death, either to be starved with hunger, or devoured with beasts or merciless savages.