 so without Help abandon'd, so entirely depress'd, that
it could hardly be rational to be thankful for such a Life.
    But something always return'd swift upon me to check these Thoughts, and to
reprove me; and particularly one Day walking with my Gun in my Hand by the
Sea-side, I was very pensive upon the Subject of my present Condition, when
Reason as it were expostulated with me t'other Way, thus: Well, you are in a
desolate Condition 'tis true, but pray remember, Where are the rest of you? Did
not you come Eleven of you into the Boat, where are the Ten? Why were not they
sav'd and you lost? Why were you singled out? Is it better to be here or there,
and then I pointed to the Sea? All Evils are to be consider'd with the Good that
is in them, and with what worse attends them.
    Then it occurr'd to me again, how well I was furnish'd for my Subsistence,
and what would have been my Case if it had not happen'd, Which was an Hundred
Thousand to one, that the Ship floated from the Place where she first struck and
was driven so near to the Shore that I had time to get all these Things out of
her: What would have been my Case, if I had been to have liv'd in the Condition
in which I at first came on Shore, without Necessaries of Life, or Necessaries
to supply and procure them? Particularly said I aloud, (tho' to my self) what
should I ha' done without a Gun, without Ammunition, without any Tools to make
any thing, or to work with, without Clothes, Bedding, a Tent, or any manner of
Covering, and that now I had all these to a Sufficient Quantity, and was in a
fair way to provide my self in such a manner, as to live without my Gun when my
Ammunition was spent; so that I had a tollerable View of subsisting without any
Want as long as I liv'd; for I consider'd from the beginning how I would provide
for the Accidents that might happen, and for the time that was to come, even not
only after my Ammunition should be spent, but even after my Health or Strength
should decay.
    I confess I had not entertain'd any Notion of my Ammunition being destroy'd
at one Blast, I mean my Powder being blown up by Lightning, and this made the
Thoughts of it so
