had to do was to teach my boys to be wise and good, to live at my
ease, and see my wealth grow day by day. Yet the wish to go back
to my wild haunts clung round me like a cloud, and I could in no
way drive it from me, so true is it that "what is bred in the
bone will not come out of the flesh."

At length I lost my wife, which was a great blow to me, and my
home was now so sad, that I made up my mind to launch out once
more on the broad sea, and go with my man Friday to that lone
isle where dwelt all my hopes.

I took with me as large a store of tools, clothes, and such like
goods as I had room for, and men of skill in all kinds of trades,
to live in the isle. When we set sail, we had a fair wind for
some time, but one night the mate, who was at the watch, told me
he saw a flash of fire, and heard a gun go off. At this we all
ran on deck, from whence we saw a great light, and as there was
no land that way, we knew that it must be some ship on fire at
sea, which could not be far off, for we heard the sound of the
gun.

The wind was still fair, so we made our way for the point where
we saw the light, and in half an hour, it was but too plain that
a large ship was on fire in the midst of the broad sea. I gave
the word to fire off five guns, and we then lay by, to wait till
break of day. But in the dead of the night, the ship blew up in
the air, the flames shot forth, and what there was left of the
ship sank. We hung out lights, and our guns kept up a fire all
night long, to let the crew know that there was help at hand.