<h2>CHAPTER III—WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND</h2>
<p>After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for
ten or twelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions,
which began to abate very much, and going no oftener to the shore
than we were obliged to for fresh water. My design in this
was to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to say anywhere
about the Cape de Verde, where I was in hopes to meet with some
European ship; and if I did not, I knew not what course I had to
take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the
negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which
sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East
Indies, made this cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put
the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I
must meet with some ship or must perish.</p>
<p>When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I
have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited; and in two
or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the
shore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black
and naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to
them; but Xury was my better counsellor, and said to me,
“No go, no go.” However, I hauled in nearer the
shore that I might talk to them, and I found they ran along the
shore by me a good way. I observed they had no weapons in
their hand, except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury
said was a lance, and that they could throw them a great way with
good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talked with them by signs
as well as I could; and particularly made signs for something to
eat: they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they would fetch me
some meat. Upon this I lowered the top of my sail and lay
by, and two of them ran up into the country, and in less than
half-an-hour came back, and brought with them two pieces of dried
flesh and some corn, such as is the produce of their country; but
we neither knew what the one or the other was; however, we were
willing to accept it, but how to come at it was our next dispute,
for I would not venture on shore to them, and they were as much
afraid of us; but they took a safe way for us all, for they
brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a
great way off till we fetched it on board, and then came close to
us again.</p>
<p>We made signs of thanks to them, for we had nothing to make
them amends; but an opportunity offered that very instant to
oblige them wonderfully; for while we were lying by the shore
came two mighty creatures, one pursuing the other (as we took it)
with great fury from the mountains towards the sea; whether it
was the male pursuing the female, or whether they were in sport
or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we could tell
whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;
because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom
appear but in the night; and, in the second place, we found the
people terribly frighted, especially the women. The man
that had the lance or dart did not fly from them, but the rest
did; however, as the two creatures ran directly into the water,
they did not offer to fall upon any of the negroes, but plunged
themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if they had come for
their diversion; at last one of them began to come nearer our
boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I had
loaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load
both the others. As soon as he came fairly within my reach,
I fired, and shot him directly in the head; immediately he sank
down into the water, but rose instantly, and plunged up and down,
as if he were struggling for life, and so indeed he was; he
immediately made to the shore; but between the wound, which was
his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, he died just
before he reached the shore.</p>
<p>It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor
creatures at the noise and fire of my gun: some of them were even
ready to die for fear, and fell down as dead with the very
terror; but when they saw the creature dead, and sunk in the
water, and that I made signs to them to come to the shore, they
took heart and came, and began to search for the creature.
I found him by his blood staining the water; and by the help of a
rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, they
dragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious
leopard, spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the
negroes held up their hands with admiration, to think what it was
I had killed him with.</p>
<p>The other creature, frighted with the flash of fire and the
noise of the gun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the
mountains from whence they came; nor could I, at that distance,
know what it was. I found quickly the negroes wished to eat
the flesh of this creature, so I was willing to have them take it
as a favour from me; which, when I made signs to them that they
might take him, they were very thankful for. Immediately
they fell to work with him; and though they had no knife, yet,
with a sharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as
readily, and much more readily, than we could have done with a
knife. They offered me some of the flesh, which I declined,
pointing out that I would give it them; but made signs for the
skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me a great deal
more of their provisions, which, though I did not understand, yet
I accepted. I then made signs to them for some water, and
held out one of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to
show that it was empty, and that I wanted to have it
filled. They called immediately to some of their friends,
and there came two women, and brought a great vessel made of
earth, and burnt, as I supposed, in the sun, this they set down
to me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and
filled them all three. The women were as naked as the
men.</p>
<p>I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and
water; and leaving my friendly negroes, I made forward for about
eleven days more, without offering to go near the shore, till I
saw the land run out a great length into the sea, at about the
distance of four or five leagues before me; and the sea being
very calm, I kept a large offing to make this point. At
length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from the land, I
saw plainly land on the other side, to seaward; then I concluded,
as it was most certain indeed, that this was the Cape de Verde,
and those the islands called, from thence, Cape de Verde
Islands. However, they were at a great distance, and I
could not well tell what I had best to do; for if I should be
taken with a fresh of wind, I might neither reach one or
other.</p>
<p>In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the
cabin and sat down, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the
boy cried out, “Master, master, a ship with a sail!”
and the foolish boy was frighted out of his wits, thinking it
must needs be some of his master’s ships sent to pursue us,
but I knew we were far enough out of their reach. I jumped
out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the ship, but
that it was a Portuguese ship; and, as I thought, was bound to
the coast of Guinea, for negroes. But, when I observed the
course she steered, I was soon convinced they were bound some
other way, and did not design to come any nearer to the shore;
upon which I stretched out to sea as much as I could, resolving
to speak with them if possible.</p>
<p>With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able
to come in their way, but that they would be gone by before I
could make any signal to them: but after I had crowded to the
utmost, and began to despair, they, it seems, saw by the help of
their glasses that it was some European boat, which they supposed
must belong to some ship that was lost; so they shortened sail to
let me come up. I was encouraged with this, and as I had my
patron’s ancient on board, I made a waft of it to them, for
a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; for
they told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the
gun. Upon these signals they very kindly brought to, and
lay by for me; and in about three hours; time I came up with
them.</p>
<p>They asked me what I was, in Portuguese, and in Spanish, and
in French, but I understood none of them; but at last a Scotch
sailor, who was on board, called to me: and I answered him, and
told him I was an Englishman, that I had made my escape out of
slavery from the Moors, at Sallee; they then bade me come on
board, and very kindly took me in, and all my goods.</p>
<p>It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe,
that I was thus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a
miserable and almost hopeless condition as I was in; and I
immediately offered all I had to the captain of the ship, as a
return for my deliverance; but he generously told me he would
take nothing from me, but that all I had should be delivered safe
to me when I came to the Brazils. “For,” says
he, “I have saved your life on no other terms than I would
be glad to be saved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my
lot to be taken up in the same condition. Besides,”
said he, “when I carry you to the Brazils, so great a way
from your own country, if I should take from you what you have,
you will be starved there, and then I only take away that life I
have given. No, no,” says he: “Seignior
Inglese” (Mr. Englishman), “I will carry you thither
in charity, and those things will help to buy your subsistence
there, and your passage home again.”</p>
<p>As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the
performance to a tittle; for he ordered the seamen that none
should touch anything that I had: then he took everything into
his own possession, and gave me back an exact inventory of them,
that I might have them, even to my three earthen jars.</p>
<p>As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and
told me he would buy it of me for his ship’s use; and asked
me what I would have for it? I told him he had been so
generous to me in everything that I could not offer to make any
price of the boat, but left it entirely to him: upon which he
told me he would give me a note of hand to pay me eighty pieces
of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came there, if any one
offered to give more, he would make it up. He offered me
also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was loth
to take; not that I was unwilling to let the captain have him,
but I was very loth to sell the poor boy’s liberty, who had
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However,
when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, and
offered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation
to set him free in ten years, if he turned Christian: upon this,
and Xury saying he was willing to go to him, I let the captain
have him.</p>
<p>We had a very good voyage to the Brazils, and I arrived in the
Bay de Todos los Santos, or All Saints’ Bay, in about
twenty-two days after. And now I was once more delivered
from the most miserable of all conditions of life; and what to do
next with myself I was to consider.</p>
<p>The generous treatment the captain gave me I can never enough
remember: he would take nothing of me for my passage, gave me
twenty ducats for the leopard’s skin, and forty for the
lion’s skin, which I had in my boat, and caused everything
I had in the ship to be punctually delivered to me; and what I
was willing to sell he bought of me, such as the case of bottles,
two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax—for I
had made candles of the rest: in a word, I made about two hundred
and twenty pieces of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock I
went on shore in the Brazils.</p>
<p>I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house
of a good honest man like himself, who had an <i>ingenio</i>, as
they call it (that is, a plantation and a sugar-house). I
lived with him some time, and acquainted myself by that means
with the manner of planting and making of sugar; and seeing how
well the planters lived, and how they got rich suddenly, I
resolved, if I could get a licence to settle there, I would turn
planter among them: resolving in the meantime to find out some
way to get my money, which I had left in London, remitted to
me. To this purpose, getting a kind of letter of
naturalisation, I purchased as much land that was uncured as my
money would reach, and formed a plan for my plantation and
settlement; such a one as might be suitable to the stock which I
proposed to myself to receive from England.</p>
<p>I had a neighbour, a Portuguese, of Lisbon, but born of
English parents, whose name was Wells, and in much such
circumstances as I was. I call him my neighbour, because
his plantation lay next to mine, and we went on very sociably
together. My stock was but low, as well as his; and we
rather planted for food than anything else, for about two
years. However, we began to increase, and our land began to
come into order; so that the third year we planted some tobacco,
and made each of us a large piece of ground ready for planting
canes in the year to come. But we both wanted help; and now
I found, more than before, I had done wrong in parting with my
boy Xury.</p>
<p>But, alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no
great wonder. I hail no remedy but to go on: I had got into
an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to
the life I delighted in, and for which I forsook my
father’s house, and broke through all his good
advice. Nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or
upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before,
and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as well have
stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world as I
had done; and I used often to say to myself, I could have done
this as well in England, among my friends, as have gone five
thousand miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in a
wilderness, and at such a distance as never to hear from any part
of the world that had the least knowledge of me.</p>
<p>In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the
utmost regret. I had nobody to converse with, but now and
then this neighbour; no work to be done, but by the labour of my
hands; and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast away upon
some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself.
But how just has it been—and how should all men reflect,
that when they compare their present conditions with others that
are worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be
convinced of their former felicity by their experience—I
say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I
reflected on, in an island of mere desolation, should be my lot,
who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then
led, in which, had I continued, I had in all probability been
exceeding prosperous and rich.</p>
<p>I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on
the plantation before my kind friend, the captain of the ship
that took me up at sea, went back—for the ship remained
there, in providing his lading and preparing for his voyage,
nearly three months—when telling him what little stock I
had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly and
sincere advice:—“Seignior Inglese,” says he
(for so he always called me), “if you will give me letters,
and a procuration in form to me, with orders to the person who
has your money in London to send your effects to Lisbon, to such
persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as are proper for
this country, I will bring you the produce of them, God willing,
at my return; but, since human affairs are all subject to changes
and disasters, I would have you give orders but for one hundred
pounds sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, and let the
hazard be run for the first; so that, if it come safe, you may
order the rest the same way, and, if it miscarry, you may have
the other half to have recourse to for your supply.”</p>
<p>This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I
could not but be convinced it was the best course I could take;
so I accordingly prepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I
had left my money, and a procuration to the Portuguese captain,
as he desired.</p>
<p>I wrote the English captain’s widow a full account of
all my adventures—my slavery, escape, and how I had met
with the Portuguese captain at sea, the humanity of his
behaviour, and what condition I was now in, with all other
necessary directions for my supply; and when this honest captain
came to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the English merchants
there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account of my
story to a merchant in London, who represented it effectually to
her; whereupon she not only delivered the money, but out of her
own pocket sent the Portugal captain a very handsome present for
his humanity and charity to me.</p>
<p>The merchant in London, vesting this hundred pounds in English
goods, such as the captain had written for, sent them directly to
him at Lisbon, and he brought them all safe to me to the Brazils;
among which, without my direction (for I was too young in my
business to think of them), he had taken care to have all sorts
of tools, ironwork, and utensils necessary for my plantation, and
which were of great use to me.</p>
<p>When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made, for I was
surprised with the joy of it; and my stood steward, the captain,
had laid out the five pounds, which my friend had sent him for a
present for himself, to purchase and bring me over a servant,
under bond for six years’ service, and would not accept of
any consideration, except a little tobacco, which I would have
him accept, being of my own produce.</p>
<p>Neither was this all; for my goods being all English
manufacture, such as cloths, stuffs, baize, and things
particularly valuable and desirable in the country, I found means
to sell them to a very great advantage; so that I might say I had
more than four times the value of my first cargo, and was now
infinitely beyond my poor neighbour—I mean in the
advancement of my plantation; for the first thing I did, I bought
me a negro slave, and an European servant also—I mean
another besides that which the captain brought me from
Lisbon.</p>
<p>But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of
our greatest adversity, so it was with me. I went on the
next year with great success in my plantation: I raised fifty
great rolls of tobacco on my own ground, more than I had disposed
of for necessaries among my neighbours; and these fifty rolls,
being each of above a hundredweight, were well cured, and laid by
against the return of the fleet from Lisbon: and now increasing
in business and wealth, my head began to be full of projects and
undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often the ruin
of the best heads in business. Had I continued in the
station I was now in, I had room for all the happy things to have
yet befallen me for which my father so earnestly recommended a
quiet, retired life, and of which he had so sensibly described
the middle station of life to be full of; but other things
attended me, and I was still to be the wilful agent of all my own
miseries; and particularly, to increase my fault, and double the
reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I should have
leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my
apparent obstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of
wandering abroad, and pursuing that inclination, in contradiction
to the clearest views of doing myself good in a fair and plain
pursuit of those prospects, and those measures of life, which
nature and Providence concurred to present me with, and to make
my duty.</p>
<p>As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents,
so I could not be content now, but I must go and leave the happy
view I had of being a rich and thriving man in my new plantation,
only to pursue a rash and immoderate desire of rising faster than
the nature of the thing admitted; and thus I cast myself down
again into the deepest gulf of human misery that ever man fell
into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and a state of
health in the world.</p>
<p>To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of this
part of my story. You may suppose, that having now lived
almost four years in the Brazils, and beginning to thrive and
prosper very well upon my plantation, I had not only learned the
language, but had contracted acquaintance and friendship among my
fellow-planters, as well as among the merchants at St. Salvador,
which was our port; and that, in my discourses among them, I had
frequently given them an account of my two voyages to the coast
of Guinea: the manner of trading with the negroes there, and how
easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles—such as
beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the
like—not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants’
teeth, &c., but negroes, for the service of the Brazils, in
great numbers.</p>
<p>They listened always very attentively to my discourses on
these heads, but especially to that part which related to the
buying of negroes, which was a trade at that time, not only not
far entered into, but, as far as it was, had been carried on by
assientos, or permission of the kings of Spain and Portugal, and
engrossed in the public stock: so that few negroes were bought,
and these excessively dear.</p>
<p>It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters
of my acquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly,
three of them came to me next morning, and told me they had been
musing very much upon what I had discoursed with them of the last
night, and they came to make a secret proposal to me; and, after
enjoining me to secrecy, they told me that they had a mind to fit
out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had all plantations as well
as I, and were straitened for nothing so much as servants; that
as it was a trade that could not be carried on, because they
could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so they
desired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore
privately, and divide them among their own plantations; and, in a
word, the question was whether I would go their supercargo in the
ship, to manage the trading part upon the coast of Guinea; and
they offered me that I should have my equal share of the negroes,
without providing any part of the stock.</p>
<p>This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been
made to any one that had not had a settlement and a plantation of
his own to look after, which was in a fair way of coming to be
very considerable, and with a good stock upon it; but for me,
that was thus entered and established, and had nothing to do but
to go on as I had begun, for three or four years more, and to
have sent for the other hundred pounds from England; and who in
that time, and with that little addition, could scarce have
failed of being worth three or four thousand pounds sterling, and
that increasing too—for me to think of such a voyage was
the most preposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances
could be guilty of.</p>
<p>But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more
resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs
when my father’ good counsel was lost upon me. In a
word, I told them I would go with all my heart, if they would
undertake to look after my plantation in my absence, and would
dispose of it to such as I should direct, if I miscarried.
This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings or
covenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my
plantation and effects in case of my death, making the captain of
the ship that had saved my life, as before, my universal heir,
but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my
will; one half of the produce being to himself, and the other to
be shipped to England.</p>
<p>In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects
and to keep up my plantation. Had I used half as much
prudence to have looked into my own interest, and have made a
judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have done, I had
certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking,
leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance, and
gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its common hazards,
to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular
misfortunes to myself.</p>
<p>But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my
fancy rather than my reason; and, accordingly, the ship being
fitted out, and the cargo furnished, and all things done, as by
agreement, by my partners in the voyage, I went on board in an
evil hour, the 1st September 1659, being the same day eight years
that I went from my father and mother at Hull, in order to act
the rebel to their authority, and the fool to my own
interests.</p>
<p>Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried
six guns and fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and
myself. We had on board no large cargo of goods, except of
such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes, such as
beads, bits of glass, shells, and other trifles, especially
little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets, and the
like.</p>
<p>The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the
northward upon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the
African coast when we came about ten or twelve degrees of
northern latitude, which, it seems, was the manner of course in
those days. We had very good weather, only excessively hot,
all the way upon our own coast, till we came to the height of
Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping further off at sea, we
lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle
Fernando de Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N., and leaving
those isles on the east. In this course we passed the line
in about twelve days’ time, and were, by our last
observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutes northern
latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quite out
of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, came about
to the north-west, and then settled in the north-east; from
whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for twelve days
together we could do nothing but drive, and, scudding away before
it, let it carry us whither fate and the fury of the winds
directed; and, during these twelve days, I need not say that I
expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any in
the ship expect to save their lives.</p>
<p>In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one
of our men die of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed
overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating a
little, the master made an observation as well as he could, and
found that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude, but
that he was twenty-two degrees of longitude difference west from
Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was upon the coast of
Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon,
toward that of the river Orinoco, commonly called the Great
River; and began to consult with me what course he should take,
for the ship was leaky, and very much disabled, and he was going
directly back to the coast of Brazil.</p>
<p>I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of
the sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no
inhabited country for us to have recourse to till we came within
the circle of the Caribbee Islands, and therefore resolved to
stand away for Barbadoes; which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid
the indraft of the Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we might easily
perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days’ sail; whereas
we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa
without some assistance both to our ship and to ourselves.</p>
<p>With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W.
by W., in order to reach some of our English islands, where I
hoped for relief. But our voyage was otherwise determined;
for, being in the latitude of twelve degrees eighteen minutes, a
second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the same
impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the way of all human
commerce, that, had all our lives been saved as to the sea, we
were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever
returning to our own country.</p>
<p>In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our
men early in the morning cried out, “Land!” and we
had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of
seeing whereabouts in the world we were, than the ship struck
upon a sand, and in a moment her motion being so stopped, the sea
broke over her in such a manner that we expected we should all
have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into
our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of
the sea.</p>
<p>It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like
condition to describe or conceive the consternation of men in
such circumstances. We knew nothing where we were, or upon
what land it was we were driven—whether an island or the
main, whether inhabited or not inhabited. As the rage of
the wind was still great, though rather less than at first, we
could not so much as hope to have the ship hold many minutes
without breaking into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of
miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat
looking upon one another, and expecting death every moment, and
every man, accordingly, preparing for another world; for there
was little or nothing more for us to do in this. That which
was our present comfort, and all the comfort we had, was that,
contrary to our expectation, the ship did not break yet, and that
the master said the wind began to abate.</p>
<p>Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet
the ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast
for us to expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition
indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as
well as we could. We had a boat at our stern just before
the storm, but she was first staved by dashing against the
ship’s rudder, and in the next place she broke away, and
either sunk or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope from
her. We had another boat on board, but how to get her off
into the sea was a doubtful thing. However, there was no
time to debate, for we fancied that the ship would break in
pieces every minute, and some told us she was actually broken
already.</p>
<p>In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat,
and with the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the
ship’s side; and getting all into her, let go, and
committed ourselves, being eleven in number, to God’s mercy
and the wild sea; for though the storm was abated considerably,
yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well
called <i>den wild zee</i>, as the Dutch call the sea in a
storm.</p>
<p>And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we all saw
plainly that the sea went so high that the boat could not live,
and that we should be inevitably drowned. As to making
sail, we had none, nor if we had could we have done anything with
it; so we worked at the oar towards the land, though with heavy
hearts, like men going to execution; for we all knew that when
the boat came near the shore she would be dashed in a thousand
pieces by the breach of the sea. However, we committed our
souls to God in the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us
towards the shore, we hastened our destruction with our own
hands, pulling as well as we could towards land.</p>
<p>What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or
shoal, we knew not. The only hope that could rationally
give us the least shadow of expectation was, if we might find
some bay or gulf, or the mouth of some river, where by great
chance we might have run our boat in, or got under the lee of the
land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there was nothing
like this appeared; but as we made nearer and nearer the shore,
the land looked more frightful than the sea.</p>
<p>After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a
half, as we reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came
rolling astern of us, and plainly bade us expect the <i>coup de
grâce</i>. It took us with such a fury, that it
overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from the boat
as from one another, gave us no time to say, “O God!”
for we were all swallowed up in a moment.</p>
<p>Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt
when I sank into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I
could not deliver myself from the waves so as to draw breath,
till that wave having driven me, or rather carried me, a vast way
on towards the shore, and having spent itself, went back, and
left me upon the land almost dry, but half dead with the water I
took in. I had so much presence of mind, as well as breath
left, that seeing myself nearer the mainland than I expected, I
got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as
fast as I could before another wave should return and take me up
again; but I soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw
the sea come after me as high as a great hill, and as furious as
an enemy, which I had no means or strength to contend with: my
business was to hold my breath, and raise myself upon the water
if I could; and so, by swimming, to preserve my breathing, and
pilot myself towards the shore, if possible, my greatest concern
now being that the sea, as it would carry me a great way towards
the shore when it came on, might not carry me back again with it
when it gave back towards the sea.</p>
<p>The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or
thirty feet deep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried
with a mighty force and swiftness towards the shore—a very
great way; but I held my breath, and assisted myself to swim
still forward with all my might. I was ready to burst with
holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my
immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot out above the
surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time
that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me
breath, and new courage. I was covered again with water a
good while, but not so long but I held it out; and finding the
water had spent itself, and began to return, I struck forward
against the return of the waves, and felt ground again with my
feet. I stood still a few moments to recover breath, and
till the waters went from me, and then took to my heels and ran
with what strength I had further towards the shore. But
neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which
came pouring in after me again; and twice more I was lifted up by
the waves and carried forward as before, the shore being very
flat.</p>
<p>The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me, for
the sea having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather
dashed me, against a piece of rock, and that with such force,
that it left me senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own
deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat the
breath as it were quite out of my body; and had it returned again
immediately, I must have been strangled in the water; but I
recovered a little before the return of the waves, and seeing I
should be covered again with the water, I resolved to hold fast
by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible,
till the wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so high
as at first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave
abated, and then fetched another run, which brought me so near
the shore that the next wave, though it went over me, yet did not
so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run I took, I
got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up
the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from
danger and quite out of the reach of the water.</p>
<p>I was now landed and safe on shore, and began to look up and
thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was
some minutes before scarce any room to hope. I believe it
is impossible to express, to the life, what the ecstasies and
transports of the soul are, when it is so saved, as I may say,
out of the very grave: and I do not wonder now at the custom,
when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied up,
and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to
him—I say, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with
it, to let him blood that very moment they tell him of it, that
the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the heart and
overwhelm him.</p>
<blockquote><p>“For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at
first.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole
being, as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my
deliverance; making a thousand gestures and motions, which I
cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades that were
drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself;
for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of
them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes that
were not fellows.</p>
<p>I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and
froth of the sea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so
far of; and considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on
shore?</p>
<p>After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my
condition, I began to look round me, to see what kind of place I
was in, and what was next to be done; and I soon found my
comforts abate, and that, in a word, I had a dreadful
deliverance; for I was wet, had no clothes to shift me, nor
anything either to eat or drink to comfort me; neither did I see
any prospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being
devoured by wild beasts; and that which was particularly
afflicting to me was, that I had no weapon, either to hunt and
kill any creature for my sustenance, or to defend myself against
any other creature that might desire to kill me for theirs.
In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, a tobacco-pipe,
and a little tobacco in a box. This was all my provisions;
and this threw me into such terrible agonies of mind, that for a
while I ran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I
began with a heavy heart to consider what would be my lot if
there were any ravenous beasts in that country, as at night they
always come abroad for their prey.</p>
<p>All the remedy that offered to my thoughts at that time was to
get up into a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew
near me, and where I resolved to sit all night, and consider the
next day what death I should die, for as yet I saw no prospect of
life. I walked about a furlong from the shore, to see if I
could find any fresh water to drink, which I did, to my great
joy; and having drank, and put a little tobacco into my mouth to
prevent hunger, I went to the tree, and getting up into it,
endeavoured to place myself so that if I should sleep I might not
fall. And having cut me a short stick, like a truncheon,
for my defence, I took up my lodging; and having been excessively
fatigued, I fell fast asleep, and slept as comfortably as, I
believe, few could have done in my condition, and found myself
more refreshed with it than, I think, I ever was on such an
occasion.</p>
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