CHAPTER III--WRECKED ON A DESERT ISLAND
After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten ortwelve days, living very sparingly on our provisions, which began toabate very much, and going no oftener to the shore than we were obligedto for fresh water. My design in this was to make the river Gambia orSenegal, that is to say anywhere about the Cape de Verde, where I was inhopes to meet with some European ship; and if I did not, I knew not whatcourse I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there amongthe negroes. I knew that all the ships from Europe, which sailed eitherto the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made thiscape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortuneupon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship or mustperish.
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; wecould also perceive they were quite black and naked. I was once inclinedto have gone on shore to them; but Xury was my better counsellor, andsaid to me, "No go, no go." However, I hauled in nearer the shore that Imight talk to them, and I found they ran along the shore by me a goodway. I observed they had no weapons in their hand, except one, who had along slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that they couldthrow them a great way with good aim; so I kept at a distance, but talkedwith them by signs as well as I could; and particularly made signs forsomething to eat: they beckoned to me to stop my boat, and they wouldfetch 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-hourcame 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 oneor the other was; however, we were willing to accept it, but how to comeat it was our next dispute, for I would not venture on shore to them, andthey were as much afraid of us; but they took a safe way for us all, forthey brought it to the shore and laid it down, and went and stood a greatway 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, onepursuing the other (as we took it) with great fury from the mountainstowards the sea; whether it was the male pursuing the female, or whetherthey were in sport or in rage, we could not tell, any more than we couldtell whether it was usual or strange, but I believe it was the latter;because, in the first place, those ravenous creatures seldom appear butin the night; and, in the second place, we found the people terriblyfrighted, especially the women. The man that had the lance or dart didnot fly from them, but the rest did; however, as the two creatures randirectly into the water, they did not offer to fall upon any of thenegroes, but plunged themselves into the sea, and swam about, as if theyhad come for their diversion; at last one of them began to come nearerour boat than at first I expected; but I lay ready for him, for I hadloaded my gun with all possible expedition, and bade Xury load both theothers. As soon as he came fairly within my reach, I fired, and shot himdirectly in the head; immediately he sank down into the water, but roseinstantly, 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 thewound, which was his mortal hurt, and the strangling of the water, hedied just before he reached the shore.
It is impossible to express the astonishment of these poor creatures atthe noise and fire of my gun: some of them were even ready to die forfear, and fell down as dead with the very terror; but when they saw thecreature dead, and sunk in the water, and that I made signs to them tocome to the shore, they took heart and came, and began to search for thecreature. I found him by his blood staining the water; and by the helpof a rope, which I slung round him, and gave the negroes to haul, theydragged him on shore, and found that it was a most curious leopard,spotted, and fine to an admirable degree; and the negroes held up theirhands 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 thegun, swam on shore, and ran up directly to the mountains from whence theycame; nor could I, at that distance, know what it was. I found quicklythe negroes wished to eat the flesh of this creature, so I was willing tohave them take it as a favour from me; which, when I made signs to themthat they might take him, they were very thankful for. Immediately theyfell to work with him; and though they had no knife, yet, with asharpened piece of wood, they took off his skin as readily, and much morereadily, than we could have done with a knife. They offered me some ofthe flesh, which I declined, pointing out that I would give it them; butmade signs for the skin, which they gave me very freely, and brought me agreat 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 outone of my jars to them, turning it bottom upward, to show that it wasempty, and that I wanted to have it filled. They called immediately tosome of their friends, and there came two women, and brought a greatvessel made of earth, and burnt, as I supposed, in the sun, this they setdown to me, as before, and I sent Xury on shore with my jars, and filledthem all three. The women were as naked as the men.
I was now furnished with roots and corn, such as it was, and water; andleaving 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 agreat length into the sea, at about the distance of four or five leaguesbefore me; and the sea being very calm, I kept a large offing to makethis point. At length, doubling the point, at about two leagues from theland, 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 thosethe islands called, from thence, Cape de Verde Islands. However, theywere at a great distance, and I could not well tell what I had best todo; for if I should be taken with a fresh of wind, I might neither reachone or other.
In this dilemma, as I was very pensive, I stepped into the cabin and satdown, Xury having the helm; when, on a sudden, the boy cried out,"Master, master, a ship with a sail!" and the foolish boy was frightedout of his wits, thinking it must needs be some of his master's shipssent to pursue us, but I knew we were far enough out of their reach. Ijumped out of the cabin, and immediately saw, not only the ship, but thatit was a Portuguese ship; and, as I thought, was bound to the coast ofGuinea, for negroes. But, when I observed the course she steered, I wassoon convinced they were bound some other way, and did not design to comeany nearer to the shore; upon which I stretched out to sea as much as Icould, resolving to speak with them if possible.
With all the sail I could make, I found I should not be able to come intheir way, but that they would be gone by before I could make any signalto 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 someEuropean boat, which they supposed must belong to some ship that waslost; so they shortened sail to let me come up. I was encouraged withthis, and as I had my patron's ancient on board, I made a waft of it tothem, for a signal of distress, and fired a gun, both which they saw; forthey told me they saw the smoke, though they did not hear the gun. Uponthese signals they very kindly brought to, and lay by for me; and inabout 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 onboard, called to me: and I answered him, and told him I was anEnglishman, that I had made my escape out of slavery from the Moors, atSallee; they then bade me come on board, and very kindly took me in, andall my goods.
It was an inexpressible joy to me, which any one will believe, that I wasthus delivered, as I esteemed it, from such a miserable and almosthopeless condition as I was in; and I immediately offered all I had tothe captain of the ship, as a return for my deliverance; but
hegenerously told me he would take nothing from me, but that all I hadshould be delivered safe to me when I came to the Brazils. "For," sayshe, "I have saved your life on no other terms than I would be glad to besaved myself: and it may, one time or other, be my lot to be taken up inthe 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 youhave, you will be starved there, and then I only take away that life Ihave given. No, no," says he: "Seignior Inglese" (Mr. Englishman), "Iwill carry you thither in charity, and those things will help to buy yoursubsistence there, and your passage home again."
As he was charitable in this proposal, so he was just in the performanceto a tittle; for he ordered the seamen that none should touch anythingthat I had: then he took everything into his own possession, and gave meback an exact inventory of them, that I might have them, even to my threeearthen jars.
As to my boat, it was a very good one; and that he saw, and told me hewould buy it of me for his ship's use; and asked me what I would have forit? I told him he had been so generous to me in everything that I couldnot 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 eightypieces of eight for it at Brazil; and when it came there, if any oneoffered to give more, he would make it up. He offered me also sixtypieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which I was loth to take; not thatI was unwilling to let the captain have him, but I was very loth to sellthe poor boy's liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring myown. However, when I let him know my reason, he owned it to be just, andoffered me this medium, that he would give the boy an obligation to sethim free in ten years, if he turned Christian: upon this, and Xury sayinghe 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 deTodos los Santos, or All Saints' Bay, in about twenty-two days after.And now I was once more delivered from the most miserable of allconditions 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 theleopard'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 ofbottles, two of my guns, and a piece of the lump of beeswax--for I hadmade candles of the rest: in a word, I made about two hundred and twentypieces of eight of all my cargo; and with this stock I went on shore inthe Brazils.
I had not been long here before I was recommended to the house of a goodhonest 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, andacquainted myself by that means with the manner of planting and making ofsugar; and seeing how well the planters lived, and how they got richsuddenly, I resolved, if I could get a licence to settle there, I wouldturn planter among them: resolving in the meantime to find out some wayto get my money, which I had left in London, remitted to me. To thispurpose, getting a kind of letter of naturalisation, I purchased as muchland that was uncured as my money would reach, and formed a plan for myplantation and settlement; such a one as might be suitable to the stockwhich 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 callhim my neighbour, because his plantation lay next to mine, and we went onvery sociably together. My stock was but low, as well as his; and werather planted for food than anything else, for about two years.However, we began to increase, and our land began to come into order; sothat the third year we planted some tobacco, and made each of us a largepiece of ground ready for planting canes in the year to come. But weboth wanted help; and now I found, more than before, I had done wrong inparting with my boy Xury.
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 remoteto my genius, and directly contrary to the life I delighted in, and forwhich 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 lowlife, which my father advised me to before, and which, if I resolved togo on with, I might as well have stayed at home, and never have fatiguedmyself in the world as I had done; and I used often to say to myself, Icould have done this as well in England, among my friends, as have gonefive thousand miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in awilderness, and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of theworld 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 workto be done, but by the labour of my hands; and I used to say, I livedjust like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobodythere but himself. But how just has it been--and how should all menreflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others thatare worse, Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convincedof their former felicity by their experience--I say, how just has itbeen, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an island of meredesolation, should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it withthe life which I then led, in which, had I continued, I had in allprobability been exceeding prosperous and rich.
I was in some degree settled in my measures for carrying on theplantation before my kind friend, the captain of the ship that took me upat sea, went back--for the ship remained there, in providing his ladingand preparing for his voyage, nearly three months--when telling him whatlittle stock I had left behind me in London, he gave me this friendly andsincere advice:--"Seignior Inglese," says he (for so he always calledme), "if you will give me letters, and a procuration in form to me, withorders to the person who has your money in London to send your effects toLisbon, to such persons as I shall direct, and in such goods as areproper for this country, I will bring you the produce of them, Godwilling, at my return; but, since human affairs are all subject tochanges and disasters, I would have you give orders but for one hundredpounds sterling, which, you say, is half your stock, and let the hazardbe run for the first; so that, if it come safe, you may order the restthe same way, and, if it miscarry, you may have the other half to haverecourse to for your supply."
This was so wholesome advice, and looked so friendly, that I could notbut be convinced it was the best course I could take; so I accordinglyprepared letters to the gentlewoman with whom I had left my money, and aprocuration to the Portuguese captain, as he desired.
I wrote the English captain's widow a full account of all myadventures--my slavery, escape, and how I had met with the Portuguesecaptain at sea, the humanity of his behaviour, and what condition I wasnow in, with all other necessary directions for my supply; and when thishonest captain came to Lisbon, he found means, by some of the Englishmerchants there, to send over, not the order only, but a full account ofmy story to a merchant in London, who represented it effectually to her;whereupon she not only delivered the money, but out of her own pocketsent the Portugal captain a very handsome present for his humanity andcharity 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, withoutmy direction (for I was too young in my business to think of them), hehad taken care to have all sorts of tools, ironwork, and utensilsnecessary for my plantation, and which were of great use to me.
When this cargo arrived I thought my fortune made, for I was surprisedwith the joy of it; and my stood steward, the captain, had laid out thefive pounds, which my friend had sent him for a present for himself, topurchase and bring me over a servant, under bond for six years' service,and would not accept of any consideration, except a little tobacco, whichI would have him accept, being of my own produce
.
Neither was this all; for my goods being all English manufacture, such ascloths, stuffs, baize, and things particularly valuable and desirable inthe country, I found means to sell them to a very great advantage; sothat 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 theadvancement of my plantation; for the first thing I did, I bought me anegro slave, and an European servant also--I mean another besides thatwhich the captain brought me from Lisbon.
But as abused prosperity is oftentimes made the very means of ourgreatest adversity, so it was with me. I went on the next year withgreat success in my plantation: I raised fifty great rolls of tobacco onmy own ground, more than I had disposed of for necessaries among myneighbours; 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 ofprojects and undertakings beyond my reach; such as are, indeed, often theruin of the best heads in business. Had I continued in the station I wasnow in, I had room for all the happy things to have yet befallen me forwhich my father so earnestly recommended a quiet, retired life, and ofwhich he had so sensibly described the middle station of life to be fullof; but other things attended me, and I was still to be the wilful agentof all my own miseries; and particularly, to increase my fault, anddouble the reflections upon myself, which in my future sorrows I shouldhave leisure to make, all these miscarriages were procured by my apparentobstinate adhering to my foolish inclination of wandering abroad, andpursuing that inclination, in contradiction to the clearest views ofdoing myself good in a fair and plain pursuit of those prospects, andthose measures of life, which nature and Providence concurred to presentme with, and to make my duty.
As I had once done thus in my breaking away from my parents, so I couldnot be content now, but I must go and leave the happy view I had of beinga rich and thriving man in my new plantation, only to pursue a rash andimmoderate desire of rising faster than the nature of the thing admitted;and thus I cast myself down again into the deepest gulf of human miserythat ever man fell into, or perhaps could be consistent with life and astate of health in the world.
To come, then, by the just degrees to the particulars of this part of mystory. You may suppose, that having now lived almost four years in theBrazils, and beginning to thrive and prosper very well upon myplantation, I had not only learned the language, but had contractedacquaintance and friendship among my fellow-planters, as well as amongthe merchants at St. Salvador, which was our port; and that, in mydiscourses among them, I had frequently given them an account of my twovoyages to the coast of Guinea: the manner of trading with the negroesthere, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles--suchas beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and thelike--not only gold-dust, Guinea grains, elephants' teeth, &c., butnegroes, 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, whichwas a trade at that time, not only not far entered into, but, as far asit was, had been carried on by assientos, or permission of the kings ofSpain and Portugal, and engrossed in the public stock: so that fewnegroes were bought, and these excessively dear.
It happened, being in company with some merchants and planters of myacquaintance, and talking of those things very earnestly, three of themcame to me next morning, and told me they had been musing very much uponwhat I had discoursed with them of the last night, and they came to makea secret proposal to me; and, after enjoining me to secrecy, they told methat they had a mind to fit out a ship to go to Guinea; that they had allplantations as well as I, and were straitened for nothing so much asservants; that as it was a trade that could not be carried on, becausethey could not publicly sell the negroes when they came home, so theydesired to make but one voyage, to bring the negroes on shore privately,and divide them among their own plantations; and, in a word, the questionwas whether I would go their supercargo in the ship, to manage thetrading part upon the coast of Guinea; and they offered me that I shouldhave my equal share of the negroes, without providing any part of thestock.
This was a fair proposal, it must be confessed, had it been made to anyone that had not had a settlement and a plantation of his own to lookafter, which was in a fair way of coming to be very considerable, andwith a good stock upon it; but for me, that was thus entered andestablished, and had nothing to do but to go on as I had begun, for threeor four years more, and to have sent for the other hundred pounds fromEngland; and who in that time, and with that little addition, couldscarce 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 mostpreposterous thing that ever man in such circumstances could be guiltyof.
But I, that was born to be my own destroyer, could no more resist theoffer 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 withall my heart, if they would undertake to look after my plantation in myabsence, and would dispose of it to such as I should direct, if Imiscarried. This they all engaged to do, and entered into writings orcovenants to do so; and I made a formal will, disposing of my plantationand effects in case of my death, making the captain of the ship that hadsaved my life, as before, my universal heir, but obliging him to disposeof my effects as I had directed in my will; one half of the produce beingto himself, and the other to be shipped to England.
In short, I took all possible caution to preserve my effects and to keepup my plantation. Had I used half as much prudence to have looked intomy own interest, and have made a judgment of what I ought to have doneand not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from so prosperousan undertaking, leaving all the probable views of a thrivingcircumstance, and gone upon a voyage to sea, attended with all its commonhazards, to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particularmisfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on, and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy ratherthan my reason; and, accordingly, the ship being fitted out, and thecargo furnished, and all things done, as by agreement, by my partners inthe 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 atHull, in order to act the rebel to their authority, and the fool to myown interests.
Our ship was about one hundred and twenty tons burden, carried six gunsand fourteen men, besides the master, his boy, and myself. We had onboard no large cargo of goods, except of such toys as were fit for ourtrade with the negroes, such as beads, bits of glass, shells, and othertrifles, especially little looking-glasses, knives, scissors, hatchets,and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail, standing away to the northwardupon our own coast, with design to stretch over for the African coastwhen we came about ten or twelve degrees of northern latitude, which, itseems, 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 theheight of Cape St. Augustino; from whence, keeping further off at sea, welost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle Fernandode Noronha, holding our course N.E. by N., and leaving those isles on theeast. In this course we passed the line in about twelve days' time, andwere, by our last observation, in seven degrees twenty-two minutesnorthern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us quiteout of our knowledge. It began from the south-east, came about to thenorth-west, and then settled in the north-east; from whence it blew insuch a terrible manner, that for twelve days together we could do nothingbut drive, and, scudding away before it, let it carry us whither fate andthe fury of the winds directed; and, during these twelve days, I need notsay that I expected every day to be swallowed up; nor, indeed, did any inthe ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of our mendie of the calenture, and on
e man and the boy washed overboard. Aboutthe twelfth day, the weather abating a little, the master made anobservation as well as he could, and found that he was in about elevendegrees north latitude, but that he was twenty-two degrees of longitudedifference west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was upon thecoast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazon,toward that of the river Orinoco, commonly called the Great River; andbegan to consult with me what course he should take, for the ship wasleaky, and very much disabled, and he was going directly back to thecoast of Brazil.
I was positively against that; and looking over the charts of thesea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabitedcountry for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle of theCaribbee Islands, and therefore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes;which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft of the Bay or Gulf ofMexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days'sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast ofAfrica without some assistance both to our ship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course, and steered away N.W. by W., inorder to reach some of our English islands, where I hoped for relief.But our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in the latitude oftwelve degrees eighteen minutes, a second storm came upon us, whichcarried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so outof the way of all human commerce, that, had all our lives been saved asto the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages thanever returning to our own country.
In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men earlyin the morning cried out, "Land!" and we had no sooner run out of thecabin 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 sostopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner that we expected weshould all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven intoour close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of thesea.
It is not easy for any one who has not been in the like condition todescribe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances. Weknew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we weredriven--whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or notinhabited. As the rage of the wind was still great, though rather lessthan at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold manyminutes without breaking into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind ofmiracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking uponone another, and expecting death every moment, and every man,accordingly, preparing for another world; for there was little or nothingmore for us to do in this. That which was our present comfort, and allthe comfort we had, was that, contrary to our expectation, the ship didnot 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 shiphaving thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expecther getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothingto do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had aboat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first staved bydashing 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 adoubtful thing. However, there was no time to debate, for we fanciedthat the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us shewas actually broken already.
In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and withthe help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship's side; andgetting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven innumber, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though the storm was abatedconsiderably, yet the sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore, and mightbe 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 thesea went so high that the boat could not live, and that we should beinevitably drowned. As to making sail, we had none, nor if we had couldwe 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 knewthat when the boat came near the shore she would be dashed in a thousandpieces by the breach of the sea. However, we committed our souls to Godin the most earnest manner; and the wind driving us towards the shore, wehastened our destruction with our own hands, pulling as well as we couldtowards land.
What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal, we knewnot. The only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow ofexpectation was, if we might find some bay or gulf, or the mouth of someriver, where by great chance we might have run our boat in, or got underthe lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But there wasnothing 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 wereckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us, andplainly bade us expect the _coup de grace_. It took us with such a fury,that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as well from the boatas from one another, gave us no time to say, "O God!" for we were allswallowed up in a moment.
Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sankinto the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not delivermyself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having drivenme, or rather carried me, a vast way on towards the shore, and havingspent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but halfdead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind, as wellas breath left, that seeing myself nearer the mainland than I expected, Igot upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast asI could before another wave should return and take me up again; but Isoon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after meas high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy, which I had no meansor strength to contend with: my business was to hold my breath, and raisemyself upon the water if I could; and so, by swimming, to preserve mybreathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible, my greatestconcern now being that the sea, as it would carry me a great way towardsthe shore when it came on, might not carry me back again with it when itgave back towards the sea.
The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty feetdeep in its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a mighty forceand 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 readyto burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, tomy immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot out above thesurface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of time that Icould keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me breath, and newcourage. I was covered again with water a good while, but not so longbut I held it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and began toreturn, I struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt groundagain with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recover breath, andtill the waters went from me, and then took to my heels and ran with whatstrength I had further towards the shore. But neither would this deliverme from the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; andtwice 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 seahaving hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashed me,against a piece of rock, and that with such force, that it left mesenseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blowtaking my side and breast, beat the breath as it were quite out of mybody; and had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangledin 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 holdfast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, tillthe wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so high as at first,being nearer la
nd, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetchedanother 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 greatcomfort, I clambered up the cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon thegrass, 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 Godthat my life was saved, in a case wherein there was some minutes beforescarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to express, to thelife, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it is sosaved, as I may say, out of the very grave: and I do not wonder now atthe custom, when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tiedup, and just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him--Isay, I do not wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him bloodthat very moment they tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive theanimal 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 Imay say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance; making athousand gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting uponall my comrades that were drowned, and that there should not be one soulsaved but myself; for, as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or anysign of them, except three of their hats, one cap, and two shoes thatwere not fellows.
I cast my eye to the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of thesea being so big, I could hardly see it, it lay so far of; andconsidered, Lord! how was it possible I could get on shore?
After I had solaced my mind with the comfortable part of my condition, Ibegan to look round me, to see what kind of place I was in, and what wasnext 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 anyprospect before me but that of perishing with hunger or being devoured bywild beasts; and that which was particularly afflicting to me was, that Ihad no weapon, either to hunt and kill any creature for my sustenance, orto defend myself against any other creature that might desire to kill mefor theirs. In a word, I had nothing about me but a knife, atobacco-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 Iran about like a madman. Night coming upon me, I began with a heavyheart to consider what would be my lot if there were any ravenous beastsin 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 upinto a thick bushy tree like a fir, but thorny, which grew near me, andwhere I resolved to sit all night, and consider the next day what death Ishould die, for as yet I saw no prospect of life. I walked about afurlong 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 tobaccointo my mouth to prevent hunger, I went to the tree, and getting up intoit, endeavoured to place myself so that if I should sleep I might notfall. 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 fastasleep, and slept as comfortably as, I believe, few could have done in mycondition, and found myself more refreshed with it than, I think, I everwas on such an occasion.