CHAPTER 10 – CALENDAR
Chapter 10
The bigger tent protected the gunpowder and the food from rains. I lived in the smaller tent.
When the tents were finished, I started to dig a cave at the bottom of the hill. I wanted to use the cave for food. I brought stones and earth from the cave to the fence. I made a terrace on the inside of the fence.
I still worked on the cave when a storm came one day. There was some lightning during the storm. I thought that the lightning could hit one of the big boxes with the gunpowder. The explosion could destroy everything. It could even kill me. I was scared. I needed to make a change as soon as possible.
After the storm was gone, I opened the boxes with the gunpowder. I put the gunpowder into smaller boxes and bags. I hid the boxes and bags in the rocks. I had a lot of gunpowder, so this took me three days.
I also hunted every day. It was a break from the hard work. And I also needed some meat. Thanks to this I also started to know the island and the animals more. I discovered some goats. I hunted the goats. Then I had enough meat.
I was sad sometimes. I thought about my wife. I missed her a lot. I thought about my friends in Brazil. I thought about my parents.
I thought that living on this island alone was without meaning. I knew that travelling by sea could change your life completely. It could be great but it could be horrible too. I knew that my friends from the ship were dead. I knew that I was the only person alive. I was lucky to be alive. I was also lucky because I had all the things like food, guns and clothes. I couldn’t survive without these things.
I decided to make a big cross. I put it on the beach. It was near the place of my arrival to the island.
I wrote on it the date of my arrival. It was the 30th of September, 1659. I wanted to keep information about time. The cross was my calendar. I made a small cut in the cross every day. The seventh cut was longer. It marked the end of the week. The beginning of each month was also a longer cut.
One day, I thought about my situation. I had negative thoughts. This wasn’t good. I decided to make a list of all the good and bad things in my life.
I was alone on this island. I had nobody for a conversation. I had only a little chance that I could see England again.
But I was alive. I was safe. I had my freedom. I had food to eat. This was all positive. I didn’t have any good clothes, but I didn’t need a lot of clothes on this island. I had a dog. He understood some words. He understood when I said, “Sit down. Come here. Bring it. Don’t do it. Don’t jump. Let’s do it. Let’s eat. Let’s run.”
This list showed me that my situation wasn’t perfect. But I had also some good things in my life.
I tried to concentrate on positive things only. I continued to make my place better and better. I made the cave bigger. More space in the cave helped me keep all my things organized.
WORDS FROM CHAPTER 10
