The boat was really much bigger than ever I saw a canoe or periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life.

Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure; and had I gotten it into the water, I make no question, but I should have begun the maddest voyage, and the most unlikely to be performed, that ever was undertaken.
But all my devices to get it into the water failed me; though they cost me infinite labour too.

It lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was up hill towards the creek.

Well, to take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity: this I began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains (but who grudge pains who have their deliverance in view ?); but when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was still much the same, for I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat.

Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water.