At the end of this march, I came to an opening where the country seemed to descend to the west. A little spring of fresh water, which issued out of the side of the hill by me, ran the other way, due east. 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 to think this was all my own. I was king and lord of all this country indefeasibly, and had a right of possession. 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 I gathered were not only pleasant to eat but very wholesome. I mixed their juice afterwards with water, which made it very cool and refreshing.
I found now I had business enough to gather and carry home. I resolv’d to lay up a store of grapes and 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. Taking a few of each with me, I traveled homeward and resolv’d to come again and bring a bag or sack or what I could make to carry the rest home.
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. 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 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. 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, and concluded I had pitched upon a place to fix my abode 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. I was so enamoured of this place I spent much of my time there for the whole remaining part of the month of July. Tho’, upon second thoughts, I resolv’d 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 fill’d between with brush-wood. Here I lay very secure, sometimes two or three nights together. So I fancied now I had my country and my sea-coast house, and always one would be close no matter where I awaken'd after the full moon. This work took me up till the beginning of August.
It is worth recalling an oddity of behavior, though not one of my own. The beast had been strangely control'd since the fever vision of last month, as if the sight of the dark dream lord had made it more wary than vicious. On these three nights of late July, viz. 21-23, it did not hunt the island so much as stalk it, as an animal does patrol and mark its territory. This had ne'er happen'd afore, yet this was the first time the beast had found itself with such a territory of its own, so I pay'd it not too much mind.
I had but finish’d my fence and began to enjoy my labour when the rains came on and made me stick close to my first habitation. For tho’ 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.