So I went to work, and with a carpenter's saw I cut a spare topmast
into three lengths, and added them to my raft, with a great deal of
labour and pains. But the hope of furnishing myself with
necessaries encouraged me to go beyond what I should have been able
to have done upon another occasion.
My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight. My
next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what I laid
upon it from the surf of the sea; but I was not long considering
this. I first laid all the planks or boards upon it that I could
get, and having considered well what I most wanted, I got three of
the seamen's chests, which I had broken open, and emptied, and
lowered them down upon my raft; the first of these I filled with
provisions - viz. bread, rice, three Dutch cheeses, five pieces of
dried goat's flesh (which we lived much upon), and a little
remainder of European corn, which had been laid by for some fowls
which we brought to sea with us, but the fowls were killed. There
had been some barley and wheat together; but, to my great
disappointment, I found afterwards that the rats had eaten or
spoiled it all.
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