elp in a loud voice, and in all the
languages I understood. I then fastened my handkerchief to a stick I
usually carried, and, thrusting it up the hole, waved it several times
in the air, that if any boat or ship were near, the seamen might
conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up in the box.

I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet
to be moved along; and in the space of an hour, or better, that side
of the box where the staples were, and had no windows, struck against
something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a rock, and found
myself tossed more than ever. I plainly heard a noise upon the cover
of my closet, like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it passed
through the ring. I then found myself hoisted up, by degrees, at least
three feet higher than I was before. Whereupon I again thrust up my
stick and handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse. In
return to which, I heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me
such transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who
feel them. I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling
through the hole with a loud voice, in the English tongue, If there be
anybody below, let them speak. I answered, I was an Englishman, drawn
by ill fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature
underwent, and begged, by all that was moving, to be delivered out of
the dungeon I was in. The voice replied, I was safe, for my box was
fastened to their ship; and the carpenter should immediately come and
saw a hole in the cover, large enough to pull me out. I answered that
was needless, and would take up too much time; for there was no more
to be done but let one of the crew put his finger into the ring, and
take the box out of the sea into the ship, and so into the captain's
cabin. Some of them, upon hearing me talk so wildly, thought I was
mad; others laughed; for indeed it never came into my head that I was
now got among people of my own stature and strength. The carpenter
came, and in a few minutes sawed a passage about four feet square,
then let down a small ladder, upon which I mounted, and from thence
was taken into the ship in a very weak condition.

The sailors were all in amazement, and asked me a thousand questions,
which I had no inclination to answer. I was equally confounded at the
sight of so many pygmies, for such I took them to be, after having so
long accustomed mine eyes to the monstr