It was on the 15th of July that I began to take a more particular survey of the island itself. I went up the creek first, where, as I hinted, I brought my rafts on shore. I found, after I came about two miles up, that the tide did not flow any higher; and that it was no more than a little brook of running water, very fresh and good: but this being the dry season, there was hardly any water in some parts of it; at least, not any stream. On the banks of this brook I found many pleasant savannahs or meadows, plain, smooth, and covered with grass: and on the rising parts of them, next to the higher grounds (where the water as it might be supposed, never overflowed,) I found a great deal of tobacco, green, and growing to a very great and strong stalk: and there were divers other plants, which I had no knowledge of, or understanding about, and that might, perhaps, have virtues of their own, which I could not find out. I searched for the cassava root, which the Indians, in all that climate, make their bread of; but I could find none. I saw large plants of aloes, but did not understand them. I saw several sugar-canes, but wild; and, for want of cultivation, imperfect. I contented myself with these discoveries for this time; and came back, musing with myself what course I might take to know the virtue and goodness of any of the fruits or plants which I should discover; but could bring it to no conclusion; for, in short, I had made so little observation while I was in the Brazils, that I knew little of the plants in the field; at least, very little that might serve me to any purpose now in my distress.
The next day, the 16th, I went up the same way again; and after going something farther than I had gone the day before, I found the brook and the savannahs begin to cease, and the country become more woody than before. In this part I found different fruits; and particularly I found melons upon the ground, in great abundance, and grapes upon the trees: the vines, indeed, had spread over the trees, and the clusters of grapes were now just in their prime, very ripe and rich. This was a surprising discovery, and I was exceedingly glad of them, but I was warned by my experience to eat sparingly of them; remembering that when I was ashore in Barbary, the eating of grapes killed several of our Englishmen, who were slaves there, by throwing them into fluxes and fevers. I found, however, an excellent use for these grapes; and that was, to cure or dry them in the sun, and keep them as dried grapes or raisins are kept; which I thought would be (as indeed they were) as wholesome and as agreeable to eat, when no grapes were to be had.
I spent all that evening there, and went not back to my habitation; which, by the way, was the first night, as I might say, I had lain from home. At night, I took my first contrivance, and got up into a tree, where I slept well; and the next morning proceeded on my discovery, travelling near four miles, as I might judge by the length of the valley; keeping still due north, with a ridge of hills on the south and north sides of me. At the end of this march I came to an opening, where the country seemed to descend to the west; and a little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, that is, due east; and the country appeared so fresh, so green, so flourishing, every thing being in a constant verdure, or flourish of spring, that it looked like a planted garden. I descended a little on the side of that delicious vale, surveying it with a secret kind of pleasure (though mixed with other afflicting thoughts,) to think that this was all my own; that I was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of possession; and, if I could convey it, I might have it in inheritance as completely as any lord of a manor in England. I saw here abundance of cocoa trees, and orange, lemon, and citron trees, but all wild, and very few bearing any fruit; at least not then. However, the green limes that I gathered were not only pleasant to eat, but very wholesome; and I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very wholesome, and very cool and refreshing. I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home; and I resolved to lay up a store, as well of grapes as limes and lemons to furnish myself for the wet season, which I knew was approaching. In order to this, I gathered a great heap of grapes in one place, a lesser heap in another place; and a great parcel of limes and melons in another place; and, taking a few of each with me, I travelled homeward; and resolved to come again, and bring a bag or sack, or what I could make to carry the rest home. Accordingly, having spent three days in this journey, I came home (so I must now call my tent and my cave:) but before I got thither, the grapes were spoiled; the richness of the fruits, and the weight of the juice, having broken and bruised them, they were good for little or nothing: as to the limes, they were good, but I could bring only a few.
The next day, being the 19th, I went back, having made me two small bags to bring home my harvest; but I was surprised, when, coming to my heap of grapes, which were so rich and fine when I gathered them, I found them all spread about, trod to pieces, and dragged about, some here, some there, and abundance eaten and devoured. By this I concluded there were some wild creatures thereabouts which had done this, but what they were I knew not. However, as I found there was no laying them up in heaps, and no carrying them away in a sack; but that one way they would be destroyed, and the other way they would be crushed with their own weight; I took another course: I then gathered a large quantity of the grapes, and hung them upon the out-branches of the trees, that they might cure and dry in the sun; and as for the limes and lemons, I carried as many back as I could well stand under.
When I came home from this journey, I contemplated with great pleasure the fruitfulness of that valley, and the pleasantness of the situation; the security from storms on that side; the water and the wood: and concluded that I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode in, which was by far the worst part of the country. Upon the whole, I began to consider of removing my habitation, and to look out for a place equally safe as where I was now situate; if possible, in that pleasant fruitful part of the island.
This thought ran long in my head; and I was exceeding fond of it for some time, the pleasantness of the place tempting me: but when I came to a nearer view of it, I considered that I was now by the sea-side, where it was at least possible that something might happen to my advantage, and, by the same ill fate that brought me hither, might bring some other unhappy wretches to the same place; and though it was scarce probable that any such thing should ever happen, yet to enclose myself among the hills and woods in the centre of the island, was to anticipate my bondage, and to render such an affair not only improbable, but impossible; and that therefore I ought not by any means to remove. However, I was so enamoured of this place, that I spent much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the month of July; and though, upon second thoughts, I resolved, as above stated, not to remove; yet I built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it at a distance with a strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as I could reach, well staked, and filled between with brush-wood. Here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together; always going over it with a ladder, as before: so that I fancied now I had my country and my sea-coast house. This work took me up till the beginning of August.
I had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour, when the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habitation: for though I had made a tent like the other, with a piece of sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains were extraordinary.
About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my bower, and began to enjoy myself. The 3d of August, I found the grapes I had hung up were perfectly dried, and indeed were excellent good raisins of the sun: so I began to take them down from the trees; and it was very happy that I did so, as the rains which followed would have spoiled them, and I should have lost the best part of my winter food; for I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I taken them all down, and carried most of them home to my cave, but it began to rain: and from hence, which was the 14th of August, it rained, more or less, every day till the middle of October; and sometimes so violently, that I could not stir out of my cave for several days.
In this season, I was much surprised with the increase of my family. I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away from me, or, as I thought, had been dead; and I heard no more of her, till, to my astonishment, she came home with three kittens. This was the more strange to me, because, about the end of August, though I had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with my gun, yet I thought it was quite a different kind from our European cats: yet the young cats were the same kind of house-breed as the old one; and both of my cats being females, I thought it very strange. But from these three, I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats, that I was forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive them from my house as much as possible.
From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain; so that I could not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this confinement, I began to be straitened for food; but venturing out twice, I one day killed a goat, and the last day, which was the 26th, found a very large tortoise, which was a treat to me. My food was now regulated thus: I ate a bunch of raisins for my breakfast; a piece of the goat's flesh, or of the turtle, broiled, for my dinner (for, to my great misfortune, I had no vessel to boil or stew any thing;) and two or three of the turtle's eggs for my supper.