In the middle of these cogitations, apprehensions, and reflections, it came into my thoughts one day that all this might be a mere chimera of my own, and that this foot might be the print of my own foot, when I came on shore from my boat: this cheered me up a little, too, and I began to persuade myself it was all a delusion; that it was nothing else but my own foot; and why might I not come that way from the boat, as well as I was going that way to the boat?
En medio de estas meditaciones, miedos y reflexiones, un día se me ocurrió que todo esto podía ser, simplemente, una fantasía creada por mi imaginación y que aquella huella bien podía ser mía, dejada en alguna de las ocasiones que fui a la piragua. Esta idea me reanimó y comencé a persuadirme de que todo era una ilusión, que no era otra cosa que la huella de mi propio pie.