hand, by the sea side, I was very pensive upon the subject of my present
condition, when reason, as it were, expostulated with me the other way,
thus: "Well, you are in a desolate condition, it is true; but, pray
remember, where are the rest of you? Did not you come eleven of you into
the boat? Where are the ten? Why were not they saved, and you lost? Why
were you singled out? Is it better to be here or there?" And then I
pointed to the sea. All evils are to be considered with the good that is
in them, and with what worse attends them.

Then it occurred to me again, how well I was furnished for my
subsistence, and what would have been my case if it had not happened
(which was a hundred thousand to one) that the ship floated from the
place where she first struck, and was driven so near to the shore, that
I had time to get all these things out of her: what would have been my
case, if I had been to have lived in the condition in which I at first
came on shore, without necessaries of life, or necessaries to supply and
procure them? "Particularly, said I aloud (though to myself,) what
should I have done without a gun, without ammunition, without any tools
to make any thing, or to work with, without clothes, bedding, a tent, or
any manner of covering?" and that now I had all these to a sufficient
quantity, and was in a fair way to provide myself in such a manner as to
live without my gun, when my ammunition was spent: so that I had a
tolerable view of subsisting, without any want, as long as I lived; for
I considered, from the beginning, how I should provide for the accidents
that might happen, and for the time that was to come, not only after my
ammunition should be spent, but even after my health or strength
should decay.

I confess, I had not entertained any notion of my ammunition being
destroyed at one blast, I mean my powder being blown up by lightning;