I gathered and cured my grapes, and did every
necessary thing as before.
The rainy season was in the meantime upon me, when I kept more
within doors than at other times. We had stowed our new vessel as
secure as we could, bringing her up into the creek, where, as I
said in the beginning, I landed my rafts from the ship; and hauling
her up to the shore at high-water mark, I made my man Friday dig a
little dock, just big enough to hold her, and just deep enough to
give her water enough to float in; and then, when the tide was out,
we made a strong dam across the end of it, to keep the water out;
and so she lay, dry as to the tide from the sea: and to keep the
rain off we laid a great many boughs of trees, so thick that she
was as well thatched as a house; and thus we waited for the months
of November and December, in which I designed to make my adventure.
When the settled season began to come in, as the thought of my
design returned with the fair weather, I was preparing daily for
the voyage. And the first thing I did was to lay by a certain
quantity of provisions, being the stores for our voyage; and
intended in a week or a fortnight's time to open the dock, and
launch out our boat.
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