hat; 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
12 deg. 18', a second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the
same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very 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 ran out
of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world
we were, but 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; and 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 in pieces, unless the winds, by a kind
of miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking
one upon another, and expecting death every moment, and every man
acting accordingly, as 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, thoug