grove, these fowls all lived among these low trees, and bred there,
which was very agreeable to me; so that, as I said above, I began to be
very well contented with the life I led, if it might but have been
secured from the dread of savages.

But it was otherwise directed; and it might not be amiss for all people
who shall meet with my story to make this just observation from it, viz.
How frequently, in the course of our lives, the evil, which in itself
we seek most to shun, and which, when we are fallen into, is the most
dreadful to us, is oftentimes the very means or door of our deliverance,
by which alone we can be raised again from the affliction we are fallen
into. I could give many examples of this in the course of my
unaccountable life; but in nothing was it more particularly remarkable,
than in the circumstances of my last years of solitary residence in
this island.

It was now the mouth of December, as I said above, in my twenty-third
year; and this being the southern solstice, for winter I cannot call it,
was the particular time of my harvest, and required my being pretty much
abroad in the fields; when going out pretty early in the morning, even
before it was thorough daylight, I was surprised with seeing a light of
some fire upon the shore, at a distance from me of about two miles,
towards the end of the island, where I had observed some savages had
been, as before; but not on the other side; but, to my great affliction,
it was on my side of the island.

I was indeed terribly surprised at the sight, and stopped short within
my grove, not daring to go out, lest I might be surprised; and yet I had
no more peace within, from the apprehensions I had, that if these
savages, in rambling over the island, should find my corn standing, or