In this journey, my dog surprised a young kid, and seized upon it; and running to take hold of it, I caught it, and saved it alive from the dog.  I had a great mind to bring it home if I could; for I had often been musing whether it might not be possible to get a kid or two, and so raise a breed of tame goats, which might supply me when my powder and shot should be all spent.  I made a collar for this little creature, and with a string which I had made of some rope-yarn, which I always carried about me, I led him along, though with some difficulty, till I came to my bower, and there I enclosed him and left him; for I was very impatient to be at home, from whence I had been absent above a month.

I cannot express what a satisfaction it was to me to come into my old hutch, and lie down in my hammock-bed.  This little wandering journey, without a settled place of abode, had been so unpleasant to me, that my own house, as I called it to myself, was a perfect settlement to me, compared to that; and it rendered every thing about me so comfortable, that I resolved I would never go a great way from it again, while it should be my lot to stay on the island.

I reposed myself here a week, to rest and regale myself after my long journey:  during which, most of the time was taken up in the weighty affair of making a cage for my Pol, who began now to be more domestic, and to be mighty well acquainted with me.  Then I began to think of the poor kid which I had penned within my little circle, and resolved to fetch it home, or give it some food:  accordingly I went, and found it where I left it (for indeed it could not get out,) but was almost starved for want of food.  I went and cut boughs of trees, and branches of such shrubs as I could find, and threw it over, and having fed it, I tied it as I did before, to lead it away; but it was so tame with being hungry, that I had no need to have tied it, for it followed me like a dog:  and as I continually fed it, the creature became so loving, so gentle, and so fond, that it was from that time one of my domestics also, and would never leave me afterwards.

The rainy season of the autumnal equinox was now come, and I kept the 30th of September in the same solemn manner as before, being the anniversary of my landing on the island; having now been there two years, and no more prospect of being delivered than the first day I came there.  I spent the whole day in humble and thankful acknowledgments for the many wonderful mercies which my solitary condition was attended with, and without which it might have been infinitely more miserable.  I gave humble and hearty thanks to God for having been pleased to discover to me, that it was possible I might be more happy even in this solitary condition, than I should have been in the enjoyment of society, and in all the pleasures of the world:  that he could fully make up to me the deficiencies of my solitary state, and the wont of human society, by his presence, and the communications of his grace to my soul; supporting, comforting, and encouraging me to depend upon his providence here, and to hope for his eternal presence hereafter.