on a flat piece of ground, to moor her there, and stuck my two
oars in the sand, one on each side of the raft. Thus I let her
lie till the ebb of the tide, and when it went down, she was left
safe on land with all her freight.

I saw that there were birds on the isle, and I shot one of them.
Mine must have been the first gun that had been heard there since
the world was made; for at the sound of it, whole flocks of birds
flew up, with loud cries, from all parts of the wood. The shape
of the beak of the one I shot was like that of a hawk, but the
claws were not so large.

I now went back to my raft to land my stores, and this took up
the rest of the day. What to do at night I knew not, nor where to
find a safe place to land my stores on. I did not like to lie
down on the ground, for fear of beasts of prey, as well as
snakes, but there was no cause for these fears, as I have since
found. I put the chests and boards round me as well as I could,
and made a kind of hut for the night.

As there was still a great store of things left in the ship,
which would be of use to me, I thought that I ought to bring them
to land at once; for I knew that the first storm would break up
the ship. So I went on board, and took good care this time not to
load my raft too much.

The first thing, I sought for was the tool chest; and in it were
some bags of nails, spikes, saws, knives, and such things: but
best of all I found a stone to grind my tools on. There were two
or three flasks, some large bags of shot, and a roll of lead; but