and swam on shore to me the day after I went on shore with my first
cargo, and was a trusty servant to me many years; I wanted nothing that
he could fetch me, nor any company that he could make up to me; I only
wanted to have him talk to me, but that he could not do. As I observed
before, I found pen, ink, and paper, and I husbanded them to the utmost;
and I shall shew, that while my ink lasted, I kept things very exact;
but after that was gone I could not, for I could not make any ink by any
means that I could devise.

And this put me in mind that I wanted many things, notwithstanding all
that I had amassed together; and of these, this of ink was one, as also
spade, pickaxe, and shovel, to dig or remove the earth; needles, pins,
and thread. As for linen, I soon learnt to want that without much
difficulty.

This want of tools made every work I did go on heavily, and it was near
a whole year before I had entirely finished my little pale or surrounded
habitation: the piles or stakes, which were as heavy as I could well
lift, were a long time in cutting and preparing in the woods, and more
by far in bringing home; so that I spent sometimes two days in cutting
and bringing home one of those posts, and a third day in driving it into
the ground; for which purpose I got a heavy piece of wood at first, but
at last bethought myself of one of the iron crows, which however, though
I found it, yet it made driving those posts or piles very laborious and
tedious work.

But what need I have been concerned at the tediousness of any thing I
had to do, seeing I had time enough to do it in? Nor had I any other
employment if that had been over, at least that I could foresee, except
the ranging the island to seek for food, which I did more or less