found to be Spaniards, and therefore retired from them, on which they fired at him, but he escaped into the woods.  Had they been French, he would have surrendered to them; but chose rather to run the risk of dying alone on the island than fall into the hands of the Spaniards, as he suspected they would either put him to death, or make him a slave in their mines.  The Spaniards had landed before he knew what they were, and came so near him that he had much ado to escape; for they not only shot at him, but pursued him into the woods, where he climbed up a tree, at the foot of which some of them made water, and killed several goats just by, yet went away without discovering him.

He told us that he was born in Largo, in the county of Fife in Scotland, and was bred a sailor from his youth.  The reason of his being left here was a difference with Captain Stradling; which, together with the ship being leaky, made him at first rather willing to stay here than to continue in the ship; and when at last he was inclined to have gone, the captain would not receive him.  He had been at the island before to wood and water, when two of the men were left upon it for six months, the ship being chased away by two French South-Sea ships; but the Cinque-ports returned and took them off, at which time he was left.  He had with him his clothes and bedding, with a firelock and some powder and bullets, some tobacco, a knife, a kettle, a bible, with some other books, and his mathematical instruments.  He diverted himself and provided for his sustenance as well as he could; but had much ado to bear up against melancholy for the first eight months, and was sore distressed at being left alone in such a desolate place.  He built himself two huts of pimento trees, thatched with long grass, and lined with goat-skins, killing goats as he needed them with his gun, so long as his powder lasted, which was only about a pound at first.  When that was all spent, he procured fire by rubbing two sticks of pimento wood together.  He slept in his larger hut, and cooked his victuals in the smaller, which was at some distance, and employed himself in reading, praying, and singing psalms, so that he said he was a better Christian during his solitude than he had ever been before, or than, as he was afraid, he should ever be again.

At first he never ate but when constrained by hunger, partly from grief; and partly for want of bread and salt.  Neither did he then go to bed till he could watch no longer, the pimento wood serving him both for fire and candle, as it burned very clear, and refreshed him by its fragrant smell.  He might have had fish enough, but would not eat them for want of salt, as they occasioned a looseness; except cray-fish, which are as large as our lobsters, and are very good.  These he sometimes boiled, and at other times broiled, as he did his goat’s flesh, of which he made good broth, for they are not so rank as our goats.  Having kept an account, he said he had killed 500 goats