rang a leak, and the water
soon rose in her hold above two tiers of hogsheads that stood over the
ballast, and the crew had to stand up to their waists in the water, and
bail out with buckets, baricos, and kettles. They continued bailing and
pumping for three days and nights without intermission, yet the water
appeared rather to gain upon them than decrease; so that all hands,
being at length utterly exhausted, came to the desperate resolution to
shut down the hatches and resign themselves to their fate; and some
having "good and comfortable waters fetched them, and drank to one
another as taking their last farewell." During all this time the aged
Sir George Somers, sitting upon the quarter-deck, scarce taking time to
eat or sleep, bearing the helm so as to keep the ship as upright as
possible, but for which she must have foundered,--at last descried land.
At this time many of the unhappy crew were asleep, and when the voice of
Sir George was heard announcing "land," it seemed as if it was a voice
from heaven, and they hurried up above the hatches to look for what they
could scarcely credit. On finding the intelligence true, and that they
were, indeed, in sight of land,--although it was a coast that all men
usually tried to avoid,--yet they now spread all sail to reach it. Soon
the ship struck upon a rock, till a surge of the sea dashed her off from
thence, and so from one to another till, at length, fortunately, she
lodged (July twenty-eighth) upright between two rocks, as if she was
laid up in a natural dry-dock. Till this, at every lurch they had
expected instant death; but now, all at once, the storm gave place to a
calm, and the billows, which at each successive dash had threatened
destruction, were stilled; and, quickly taking to their boats, they
reached the shore, distant upwards of a league, without the loss of a
single man out of upwards of one hundred and fifty. Their joy at an
escape so unexpected and almost miraculous, arose to the pitch of
amazement. Yet their escape was not more wonderful in their eyes than
their preservation after they had landed on the island; for the
Spaniards had always looked upon it as more frightful than purgatory
itself; and all seamen had reckoned it no better than an enchanted den
of Furies and devils--the most dangerous, desolate, and forlorn place in
the whole world; instead of which it turned out to be healthful,
fertile, and charming.

The Bermudas are a cluster of islands l