n 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 re