I not only thought these the pure productions of Providence for my support,but,not doubting but that there was more in the place,I went all over that part of the island where I had been before,peering in every corner,and under every rock,to see for more of it;but I could not find any.At last it occurred to my thoughts that I had shook a bag of chickens’meat out in that place,and then the wonder began to cease;and I must confess,my religious thankfulness to God's providence began to abate too,upon the discovering that all this was nothing but what was common;though I ought to have been as thankful for so strange and unforeseen providence,as if it had been miraculous;for it was really the work of Providence as to me,that should order or appoint,that ten or twelve grains of corn should remain unspoiled (when the rats had destroyed all the rest),as if it had been dropped from heaven;as also that I should throw it out in that particular place,where,it being in the shade of a high rock,it sprang up immediately;whereas,if I had thrown it anywhere else at that time,it had been burnt up and destroyed.
I carefully saved the ears of this corn,you may be sure,in their season,which was about the end of June;and laying up every corn,I resolved to sow them all again,hoping in time to have some quantity sufficient to supply me with bread.But it was not till the fourth year that I could allow myself the least grain of this corn to eat,and even then but sparingly,as I shall say afterwards in its order;for I lost all that I sowed the first season,by not observing the proper time;for I sowed it just before the dry season,so that it never came up at all,at least not as it would have done;of which in its place.
Besides this barley,there was,as above,twenty or thirty stalks of rice,which I preserved with the same care,and whose use was of the same kind,or to the same purpose,viz.,to make me bread,or rather food;for I found ways to cook it up without baking,though I did that also after some time.But to return to my Journal.
I worked excessive hard these three or four months to get my wall done;and the 14th of April I closed it up,contriving to go into it,not by a door,but over the wall by a ladder,that there might be no sign in the outside of my habitation.
April 16-I finished the ladder,so I went up with the ladder to the top,and then pulled it up after me,and let it down on the inside.This was a complete enclosure to me;for within I had room enough,and nothing could come at me from without,unless it could first mount my wall.
The very next day after this wall was finished,I had almost had all my labour overthrown at once,and myself killed.The case was thus:As I was busy in the inside of it,behind my tent,just in the entrance into my cave,I was terribly frighted with a most dreadful surprising thing indeed;for all on a sudden I found the earth come crumbling down from the roof of my cave,and from the edge of the hill over my head,and two of the posts I had set up in the cave cracked in a frightful manner.I was heartily scared,but thought nothing of what was really the cause,only thinking that the top of my cave was falling in,as some of it had done before;and for fear I should be buried in it,I ran forward to my ladder;and not thinking myself safe there neither,I got over my wall for fear of the pieces of the hill which I expected might roll down upon me.I was no sooner stepped down upon the firm ground,but I plainly saw it was a terrible earthquake;for the ground I stood on shook three times at about eight minutes’distance,with three such shocks,as would have overturned the strongest building that could be supposed to have stood on the earth;and a great piece of the top of a rock,which stood about half a mile from me next the sea,fell down with such a terrible noise,as I never heard in all my life.I perceived also the very sea was put into violent motion by it;and I believe the shocks were stronger under the water than on the island.
I was so amazed with the thing itself,having never felt the like,or discoursed with anyone that had,that I was like one dead or stupefied;and the motion of the earth made my stomach sick,like one that was tossed at sea.But the noise of the falling of the rock awaked me,as it were,and rousing me from the stupefied condition I was in,filled me with horror,and I thought of nothing then but the hill falling upon my tent and all my household goods,and burying all at once;and this sunk my very soul within me a second time.
After the third shock was over,and I felt no more for some time,I began to take courage;and yet I had not heart enough to go over my wall again,for fear of being buried alive,but sat still upon the ground,greatly cast down and disconsolate,not knowing what to do.All this while I had not the least serious religious thought,nothing but the common,‘Lord,have mercy upon me!’and when it was over,that went away too.
