not far from this which had the lead nailed on it, which had continued
burning at least five days before our arrival.

This advertisement notwithstanding, our Captain meant not to depart
before he had built his pinnaces; which were yet aboard in pieces: for
which purpose he knew this port to be a most convenient place.

And therefore as soon as we had moored our ships, our Captain commanded
his pinnaces to be brought ashore for the carpenters to set up; himself
employing all his other company in fortifying a place (which he had
chosen out, as a most fit plot) of three-quarters of an acre of ground,
to make some strength or safety for the present, as sufficiently as
the means he had would afford. Which was performed by felling of
great trees; bowsing and hauling them together, with great pulleys and
hawsers, until they were enclosed to the water; and then letting others
fall upon them, until they had raised with trees and boughs thirty feet
in height round about, leaving only one gate to issue at, near the
water side; which every night, that we might sleep in more safety and
security, was shut up, with a great tree drawn athwart it.

The whole plot was built in pentagonal form, to wit, of five equal
sides and angles, of which angles two were toward the sea, and that side
between them was left open, for the easy launching of our pinnaces: the
other four equal sides were wholly, excepting the gate before mentioned,
firmly closed up.

Without, instead of a trench, the ground was rid [laid bare] for fifty
feet space, round about. The rest was very thick with trees, of which
many were of those kinds which are never without green leaves, till they
are dead at the root: excepting only one kind of tree amongst them,