turning 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 run out of the
cabin 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 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. 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 into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of
miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking upon
one another, and expecting death every moment, and every man,
accordingly, 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, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the ship
having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to expect
her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had nothing
to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We had a
boat at our stern just before the storm, but she was first staved by
dashing 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 a
doubtful thing. However, there was no time to debate, for we fancied
that the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some told us she
was actually broken already.

In this distress the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat, and with
the help of the rest of the men got her slung over the ship's side; and
getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, being eleven in
number, to God's mercy and the wild sea; for though the storm was abate