As in my present condition there were not really many things which I wanted, so indeed I thought that the frights I had been in about these savage wretches, and the concern I had been in for my own preservation, had taken off the edge of my invention, for my own conveniences; and I had dropped a good design, which I had once bent my thoughts upon, and that was to try if I could not make some of my barley into malt, and then try to brew myself some beer. This was really a whimsical thought, and I reproved myself often for the simplicity of it: for I presently saw there would be the want of several things necessary to the making my beer that it would be impossible for me to supply; as, first, casks to preserve it in, which was a thing that, as I have observed already, I could never compass: no, though I spent not only many days, but weeks, nay months, in attempting it, but to no purpose.
Ik had zelfs geheel een voornemen laten varen, dat ik eens gekoesterd had, namelijk van te beproeven, of ik niet van mijn graan wat mout kon maken, en hiermede bier brouwen. Dit was inderdaad een uitsporig denkbeeld, en dikwijls bespotte ik mij zelven er over; want ik zag thans in, dat ik om bier te brouwen, verscheidene dingen noodig had, die ik onmogelijk vervaardigen kon; als vooreerst vaten om het in te bewaren; die ik in spijt van al mijne pogingen nimmer kon maken, gelijk ik reeds gezegd heb, schoon ik het weken, zelfs maanden lang, doch vruchteloos, beproefde.