Indeed, I often did consider how much more happy I was in this fate of life, than in that accursed manner of living formerly used; and sometimes when hunting, or viewing the country, the anguish of my soul would break out upon me, and my very heart would sink within me, to think of the woods, the mountains, the desarts I was in; and how I was a prisoner locked up within the eternal bars and bolts of the ocean, in an uninhabited wilderness, without hopes, and without redemption:  In this condition I would often wring my hands, and weep like a child:  And even sometimes, in the middle of my work, this fit would take me; and then I would sit down and sigh, looking on the ground for an hour or two together, till such time as my grief got vent in a flood of tears.

One morning as I was sadly employed in this manner, I opened my Bible, when I immediately fixed my eyes upon these words, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee! Surely, thought I, these words are directed to me, or else why should they appear just at a moment when I am bemoaning my forlorn condition? and if God does not forsake, what matters it, since he can me more happy in this state of life, than if I enjoyed the greatest splendour in the world?  But while I was going to return God thanks for my present state, something seemed to shock my mind, as if it had thus said:  Unworthy wretch; can you pretend to be thankful for a condition, from which you would pray to be delivered?  Therefore I stopt:—­and tho’ I could not say, I thanked the Divine Majesty for being there, yet I gave God thanks for placing in my view my former course of life, and granting me a true knowledge of repentance.  And whenever I opened or read the Bible, I blessed kind Providence, that directed my good friend in England to send it among my goods without any order, and for assisting me to save it from the power of the raging ocean.

And now beginning my third year, my several daily employments were these:  First, My duty to Heaven, and diligently reading the Holy Scriptures, which I did twice or thrice every day:  Secondly, Seeking provision with my gun, which commonly took me up, when it did not rain, three hours every morning:  Thirdly, The ordering, curing, preserving, and cooking what I killed, or catched for my supply which took me up great part of the day:  for, in the middle of the day, the sun being in its height, it was so hot, that I could not stir out; so that I had only but four hours in the evening to work in:  and then the want of tools, of assistance, and skill, wasted a great deal of time to little purpose.  I was no less than two and forty days making a board fit for a long shelf, which two sawyers with their tools and saw-pit, would have cut off the same tree in half a day.  It was a large tree, as my board was to be broad.  I was three days in cutting it down and two more in lopping off the boughs, and reducing it to a piece of timber.  This I hacked