astened our destruction with our own hands,
pulling as well as we could towards land.

What the shore was, whether rock or sand, whether steep or shoal, we
knew not; the only hope that could rationally give us the least shadow
of expectation, was, if we might happen into some bay or gulf, or the
mouth of some river, where, by great chance, we might have run our boat
in, or got under the lee of the land, and perhaps made smooth water. But
there was nothing of this appeared; but as we made nearer and nearer the
shore, the land looked more frightful than the sea.

After we had rowed, or rather driven about a league and a half, as we
reckoned it, a raging wave, mountain-like, came rolling astern of us,
and plainly had us expect the _coup-de-grace_. In a word, it took us
with such a fury, that it overset the boat at once; and separating us as
well from the boat, as from one another, gave us not time hardly to say
O God! for we were all swallowed up in a moment.

Nothing can describe the confusion of thought which I felt when I sunk
into the water; for though I swam very well, yet I could not deliver
myself from the waves so as to draw breath, till that wave having driven
me, or rather carried me a vast way on towards the shore, and having
spent itself, went back, and left me upon the land almost dry, but half
dead with the water I took in. I had so much presence of mind as well as
breath left, that, seeing myself nearer the main land than I expected, I
got upon my feet, and endeavoured to make on towards the land as fast as
I could, before another wave should return, and take me up again. But I
soon found it was impossible to avoid it; for I saw the sea come after
me as high as a great hill, and as furious as an enemy which I had no
means or strength to contend with; my business was to hold my breath,
and raise myself upon the water, if I could; and so by swimming to
preserve my breathing, and pilot myself towards the shore, if possible;
my greatest concern now being, that the sea, as it would carry me a
great way towards the shore when it came on, might not carry me back
again with it when it gave back towards the sea.

The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirty
foot deep in its own body; and I could feel myself carried with a mighty
force and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but I held my
breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I
was ready to burst with