beach to take measure of the footprint by my own.

I found it much larger! This filled me again with all manner of fears,
and when I went home I began to prepare against an attack. I got out my
muskets, loaded them, and went to an enormous amount of labour and
trouble--all because I had seen the print of a naked foot on the sand.
There seemed to me then no labour too great, no task too toilsome, and I
made me a second fortification, and planted a vast number of stakes on
the outside of my outer wall, which grew and became a thick grove of
trees, entirely concealing the place of my retreat, and adding greatly
to my security.

I had now been twenty-two years on the island, and had grown so
accustomed to the place that, had I felt myself secure from the attack
by savages, I fancied I could have been contented to remain there till I
died of old age.

For many months the perturbation of my mind was very great; in the day
great troubles overwhelmed me, and in the night I dreamed often of
killing savages. About two years after I first knew these fears, I was
surprised one morning by seeing five canoes on the shore. I could not
tell what to think of it, so went and lay in my castle perplexed and
discomforted. At length, becoming very impatient, I clambered up to the
top of the hill and perceived, by the help of my perspective glass, no
less than thirty men dancing round a fire with barbarous gestures. While
I was looking, two miserable wretches were dragged from the boats. One
was immediately knocked down, while the other, seeing himself a little
at liberty, started away from them and ran along the sands directly
towards me. I was dreadfully frightened, that I must acknowledge, when I
perceived him run my way, especially when, as I thought, I saw him