This was the 21st.
_April_ 22 .-- The next morning I begin to consider of means to put this resolve into execution; but I was at a great loss about my tools.

I had three large axes, and abundance of hatchets (for we carried the hatchets for traffic with the Indians); but with much chopping and cutting knotty hard wood, they were all full of notches, and dull; and though I had a grindstone, I could not turn it and grind my tools too.

This cost me as much thought as a statesman would have bestowed upon a grand point of politics, or a judge upon the life and death of a man.

At length I contrived a wheel with a string, to turn it with my foot, that I might have both my hands at liberty.

_Note_ .-- I had never seen any such thing in England, or at least, not to take notice how it was done, though since I have observed, it is very common there; besides that, my grindstone was very large and heavy.