A WILD LIFE. 403 



species which had got on shore from ships that had wooded and 

 watered at the island. The rats gnawed his feet and clothes 

 when he was asleep, which obliged him to cherish the cats, by 

 feeding them with goats' flesh, so that many of them became so 

 tame that they used to lie beside him in hundreds, and soon 

 delivered him from the rats. He also tamed some kids, and, for 

 his diversion, would sometimes sing and dance with them and 

 his cats. So that by the favor of Providence and the vigor of 

 youth — for he was now only thirty years of age — he came at 

 length to conquer all the inconveniences of his solitude, and to 

 be quite easy in his mind. 



"When his clothes were worn out, he made himself a coat 

 and a cap of goat-skins, w T hich he stitched together with thongs 

 of the same cut out with his knife, — using a nail by way of a 

 needle or awl. When his knife was worn out, he made others 

 as well as he could of old hoops that had been left upon the 

 shore, which he beat out thin between two stones and grinded 

 to an edge on a smooth stone. Having some linen cloth, he 

 sewed himself some shirts by means of a nail for a needle, 

 stitching them with worsted which he pulled out from his old 

 stockings ; and he had the last of his shirts on when we found 

 him. At his first coming on board, he had so much forgotten 

 his language, for want of use, that we could scarcely understand 

 him, as he seemed to speak his words only by halves. We 

 offered him a dram, which he refused, having drunk nothing but 

 water all the time he had been upon the island ; and it was some 

 time before he could relish our provisions. He had seen no 

 venomous or savage creature on the island, nor any other animal 

 than goats, bred there from a few brought by Juan Fernandez, 

 a Spaniard who settled there with a few families till the oppo- 

 site continent of Chili began to submit to the Spaniards, when 

 they removed there as more profitable." 



Captain Rogers remained here a fortnight, refitting his ship. 

 The "governor," as his men called Selkirk, never failed to pro- 



