Taking the examples of Negroes and Indians, Crusoe wondered if it were in his power to build a canoe or a piragua. He chose a tree in the woods and, with much difficulty, cut it down, and began to fashion a kind of boat, but he did not consider how he was to get it to the sea, which was "fortyfive fathoms of land away." After five months, he finished the boat.
When he finished his work on the boat, he was pleased with himself, especially since he had never in his life seen either a canoe or a piragua that was made of one tree and was as big as this one. He tried to get it into the water, but it was too heavy to move. He then thought of the possibility of bringing water to the boat by digging a series of trenches, but this endeavor also failed and, with "great reluctancy I gave this attempt over also." This endeavor was profitable because it taught him an important lesson — that is, "the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it." This work took him through his fourth year on the island.
Thinking again on his condition, he realized that on this island his wants were supplied, he had more materials than he needed to work with, and he was delivered from temptations. He suffered neither from lust, pride, nor greed. He now found his life to be much easier than before, and he frequently admired God's wisdom: "All our discontents about what we want appeared to me to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have."
He spent entire days meditating on what his condition would have been if he had not been able to save provisions from the ship and if he had not been so plentifully supplied with game. These reflections worked on his mind, causing him to come to a "resignation to the will of God in the present disposition of my circumstances.
