บทที่ บทที่ 3 · WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND

. WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a

good honest man like himself, who had an _ingenio_, 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.

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.

But, alas! for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great

wonder. I had 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.

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made, for I was surprised

with the joy of it; and my good 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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’s

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 _den wild zee_, as the Dutch call the sea in a

storm.

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.

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.

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 _coup de grâce_. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

“For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at first.”

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.

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 off; and

considered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?

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.

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.