which with great pain and difficulty I guided my raft, and at last
got so near that, reaching ground with my oar, I could thrust her
directly in. But here I had like to have dipped all my cargo into
the sea again; for that shore lying pretty steep - that is to say
sloping - there was no place to land, but where one end of my
float, if it ran on shore, would lie so high, and the other sink
lower, as before, that it would endanger my cargo again. All that
I could do was to wait till the tide was at the highest, keeping
the raft with my oar like an anchor, to hold the side of it fast to
the shore, near a flat piece of ground, which I expected the water
would flow over; and so it did. As soon as I found water enough -
for my raft drew about a foot of water - I thrust her upon that
flat piece of ground, and there fastened or moored her, by sticking
my two broken oars into the ground, one on one side near one end,
and one on the other side near the other end; and thus I lay till
the water ebbed away, and left my raft and all my cargo safe on
shore.

My next work was to view the country, and seek a proper place for
my habitation, and where to stow my goods to secure them from
whatever might happen. Where I was, I yet knew not; whether on the
continent or on an island; whether inhabited or not inhabited;
whether in danger of wild beasts or not. There was a hill not
above a mile from me, which rose up very steep and high, and which
seemed to overtop some other hills, which lay as in a ridge from it
northward. I took out one of the fowling-pieces, and one of the
pistols, and a horn of powder; and thus armed, I travelled for
discovery up to the top of that hill, where, after I had with great
labour and difficulty got to the top, I saw any fate, to my great
affliction - viz. that I was in an island environed every way with