May 3. – I began with my saw, and cut a piece of a beam through, which I thought held some of the upper part or quarter-deck together, and when I had cut it through, I cleared away the sand as well as I could from the side which lay highest; but the tide coming in, I was obliged to give over for that time.
May 4. – I went a-fishing, but caught not one fish that I durst eat of, till I was weary of my sport; when, just going to leave off, I caught a young dolphin. I had made me a long line of some rope-yarn, but I had no hooks; yet I frequently caught fish enough, as much as I cared to eat; all which I dried in the sun, and eat them dry.
May 5. – Worked on the wreck, cut another swim asunder, and brought three great fir planks off from the decks, which I tied together, and made on shore, when the tide of flood came on.
May 6. – Worked on the wreck, got several iron bolts out of her and other pieces of ironwork; worked very hard, and came home very much tired, and had thoughts giving it over.
May 7. – Went to the wreck again, but with an intent to work, but found the weight of the wreck had broke itself down, the beams being cut; that several pieces of the ship seemed to lie loose, and the inside of the hold lay so open, that I could see into it, but almost full of water and sand.
May 8. – Went to the wreck, and carried an iron crow to wrench up the deck, which lay now quite clear of the water or sand. I wrenched open two planks, and brought them on shore also with the tide. I left the iron crow in the wreck for next day.
May 9. – Went to the wreck, and with the crow made way into the body of the wreck, and felt several casks, and loosened them with the crow, but could not break them up. I felt also the roll of English lead, and could stir it, but it was too heavy to remove.
May 10, 11, 12, 13, 14. – Went every day to the wreck, and got a great many deal of pieces of timber, and boards, or plank, and two or three hundredweight of iron.
May 15. – I carried two hatchets to try if I could not cut a piece off the roll of lead, by placing the edge of one hatchet, and driving it with the other; but as it lay about a foot and a half in the water, I could not make any blow to drive the hatchet.
May 16. – It had blown hard in the night, and the wreck appeared more broken by the force of the water; but I stayed so long in the woods to get pigeons for food, that the tide prevented my going to the wreck that day.
May 17. – I saw some pieces of the wreck blown on shore, at a great distance, near two miles off me, but resolved [resolved〈adj.〉決心的] to see what they were, and found it was a piece of the head, but too heavy for me to bring away.
May 24. – Every day to this day I worked on the wreck, and with hard labour I loosened some things so much with the crow, that the first blowing tide several casks floated out, and two of the seamen’s chests. But the wind blowing from the shore, nothing came to land that day but pieces of timber, and a hogshead, which had some Brazil pork [pork〈n.〉豬肉〔尤指未醃過的〕] in it, but the salt water and the sand had spoiled it.
I continued this work every day to the 15th of June, except the time necessary to get food, which I always appointed, during this part of my employment, to be when the tide was up, that I might be ready when it was ebbed out. And by this time I had gotten timber and plank, and ironwork enough to have built a good boat, if I had known how; and also, I got at several times, and in several pieces, near one hundredweight of the sheet lead.
June 16. – Going down to the seaside, I found a large tortoise [tortoise〈n.〉陸龜], or turtle [turtle〈n.〉海龜]. This was the first I had seen, which it seems was only my misfortune, not any defect of the place, or scarcity; for had I happened to be on the other side of the island, I might have had hundreds of them every day, as I found afterwards; but, perhaps, had paid dear enough for them.
June 17. – I spent in cooking the turtle. I found in her threescore [threescore〈n.〉六十] eggs; and her flesh was to me, at that time, the most savoury [savoury〈adj.〉好吃的] and pleasant that ever I tasted in my life, having had no flesh, but of goats and fowls, since I landed in this horrid place.