CHAPTER SEVEN

Life on the Island Continues

When I was not adding little things to my new home, I was busy learning about the animals and plants on the island, and about myself.

I discovered that the birds that lived in holes in the rocks were good to eat.

One day I found an old bag that I wanted to use to store things in. Some old corn fell out of this bag and made roots in the dirt. Soon green barley grew from the seeds. When I saw these plants, I cried. They reminded me of England. When I was young I wanted to leave England for a life of adventure at sea, but now that I was trapped alone, I only wanted to return.

One day when I was sitting by my little cave I heard a terrible noise. The next moment, much dirt came falling down the hill. There was so much of it I was afraid it would swallow me! I ran away and climbed over my fence using a ladder I had made. I realized that the island was being shaken by a terrible earthquake.

The earthquake soon ended, but then a terrible storm began. The sea became black and violent and full of huge waves that crashed onto the beach. Thunder roared and lightning hit the water. The storm lasted for three hours, but when it finished, it began to rain. This was not the gentle, calm rain of England, but a rain so hard and terrible that I had to cut a hole in my fence to let the water pour out. Otherwise, my house would have been drowned, and me with it!

I knew that if there were often earthquakes on the island, then it was not safe for me to live on the side of a hill. If I lived there, the shaking of the earth might cause rocks and dirt to fall on me.

I decided I would build another small house in an open place. I would build a strong wall around it, like the one around my cave. I spent two days sharpening my tools, and then I was ready to look for a place to make a new house.

On the first day of May, I was walking along the beach thinking about where to build my new house. That day I found the remains of the broken ship. The sea had brought them up to the beach.

When the tide went out, I walked out to the broken ship. Then I had a good idea. I could use the remains of the ship to build my new house!

In the following weeks, I took a lot of wood and metal from the ship. I stopped my work only to hunt and fish, so I would not be hungry.

While I was living on the island I ate many interesting animals. One day I caught a dolphin, and dried the meat in the sun and ate it. Another day I caught a turtle and spent the next day cooking it. There were more than fifty eggs inside her. I think that animal gave me some of the best meals of my life!

One day I spent a long time in the woods hunting birds to cook over a fire. By the time I went to the beach, the water had come in, and I could not reach the ship. I had taken so much wood from it that it looked like a skeleton.

As always, I wrote everything I did each day in my journal.

In late June I became terribly sick. On June 18th, it had rained all day. I felt extremely cold, but I stayed outside working. The next day I woke up and felt terrible. My body shook as if it was the middle of winter. That night, I had a fever.

I felt so bad I thought I would die, but I felt a little better the next day.

Unfortunately, my sickness continued. On June 22nd, I felt worse than ever. My head hurt as though it had been beaten with a stick. My body burned with fever.

On June 25th, I realized that I had eaten nothing for days. Somehow, I found the strength to walk to where the goats ate grass. I shot one and dragged it home. It was terribly hard because I was so sick, but I had to eat. I cooked and ate the goat and fell asleep. The next day I was so weak I couldn't even get out of bed to stop my terrible thirst.

I was so scared of death that I cried out, "God, I don't want to die alone here. God, please let me live!" Then I fell into a deep sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I thought I felt a little better. I drank some rum and water and ate some goat's meat and turtle's eggs. I tried to walk but I was still weak, so I could only walk a few steps from my house. When I got back to my bed, I drank some more rum and then fell asleep.

I didn't waken until the next afternoon, or perhaps the day after that!

Whenever it was, I felt so much better that I thought God might have answered my call. The next day I was strong enough to hunt for food. I killed some sea birds, and a duck of some kind.

I continued to get better, but I was not completely strong until late July, the next month. How terribly sick I had been!

I was so thankful to God for not letting me die that I began to read my Bible often. I also began to pray, asking him to forgive me for my sins. I also asked God to help me leave the island, one day.

In July, I started to feel so well that I started to explore more of the island than ever before. By this time I had been on the island for three months, but I had never gone very far from my house on the hill.

By a stream of fresh water I discovered more green fields where tobacco and wild sugar plants grew. These grew on my plantation in Brazil. Beyond the fields, there were woods. There I found melons, and vines full of grapes! These fruits were very sweet and made a good meal.

I spent the night in the woods sleeping in the branches of a tree, in case wild animals came by at night.

The next morning, I continued to walk until I found a place where the country became flat to the west. A little stream flowed through the fields, and the country was green and fresh. In the distance I saw there were some trees, and I walked towards them.

These trees were lime trees. I picked the limes and squeezed the juice into water as I walked. This was a delicious drink.

I decided to gather lots of fruit before the rainy months, which would arrive soon. I picked many lemons, limes and grapes from the fields and forests. I left these fruits in piles on the ground, hoping to return the next day and get them. But the next day I saw that much of the fruit had been crushed and eaten, probably by birds.

I picked more grapes and hung them on branches to dry in the sun. These would last me for many months.

When I arrived back at my house on the hill my bags were full of lemons, limes and grapes that were dried into raisins. I was as happy as a farmer, when he looks at his harvest!

I wanted to build a house in this beautiful area full of fruits, but it was too far away from the sea. If I built my house here, I would be telling myself that I would never leave the island. No passing ship would see my house there. But I did make a little garden of grape vines and lime trees. I built a fence around it to keep animals out.

As I sat in the garden one day, I laughed at my thoughts. I now had a seaside house and a country house. I was just like the rich people in England!

Soon a hard rain began to fall every day. I had to return to my house by the ocean for shelter. It rained for two weeks, beginning on August 14th.

I did not go out because it was too wet, except once when I killed a goat for food. I worked to make my storage area in my house bigger, and filled it with dried meat and fruit. Soon it was so large that I made a door into it from outside my fence.

Soon after this, one of the ship's cats came back with three kittens. This was a surprise, because I had thought that both the ship's cats were female!

Soon these kittens grew up and had more kittens. In a few years there were so many cats on the island that they were a problem. They were lovely cats, but they got into my food and ate it. I had to kill them as if they were rats!

A few weeks later, the rains stopped, I realized that it was September 30th.

I had been on my island for a year, and I had been able to live well.

That day I did not eat anything. I decided that every seventh day in the week I would celebrate the Sabbath day, and read my Bible.

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