r 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 11
degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude
difference west from Cape St. Augustino; so that he found he was gotten
upon the coast of Guinea, or the north part of Brasil, beyond the river
Amazones, toward that of the river Oronoque, 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 Brasil.

I was positively against that, and looking over the charts of the sea
coasts 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 min. 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 run 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 dr