ng upon us, and destroying us.
Upon this it presently occurred to me, that in a little while the ship's
crew, wondering what was become of their comrades, and of the boat,
would certainly come on shore in their other boat to see for them; and
that then perhaps they might come armed, and be too strong for us: this
he allowed was rational.

Upon this I told him, the first thing we had to do was to stave the
boat, which lay upon the beach, so that they might not carry her off;
and taking every thing out of her, leaving her so far useless as not to
be fit to swim; accordingly we went on board, took the arms which were
left on board out of her, and whatever else we found there, which was a
bottle of brandy, and another of rum, a few biscuit cakes, an horn of
powder, and a great lump of sugar in a piece of canvas; the sugar was
five or six pounds; all which was very welcome to me, especially the
brandy and sugar, of which I had had none left for many years.

When we had carried all these things on shore, (the oars, mast, sail,
and rudder of the boat were carried before as above,) we knocked a great
hole in her bottom, that if they had come strong enough to master us,
yet they could not carry off the boat.

Indeed it was not much in my thoughts, that we could be capable to
recover the ship; but my view was, that if they went away without the
boat, I did not much question to make her fit again to carry us away to
the Leeward Islands, and call upon our friends the Spaniards in my way,
for I had them still in my thoughts.

While we were thus preparing our designs, and had first by main strength
heaved the boat up upon the beach, so high that the tide would not float
her off at high water mark; and, besides, had broken a hole in her
bottom too big to be quickly stopped, and were sat down musing what we
should do; we heard the ship fire a gun, and saw her make a waft with
her ancient, as a signal for the boat to come on board; but no boat
stirred; and they fired several times, making other signals for
the boat.

At last, when all their signals and firings proved fruitless, and they
found the boat did not stir, we saw them (by the help of our glasses)
hoist another boat out, and row towards the shore; and we found, as they
approached, that there were no less than ten men in her, and that they
had fire-arms with them.

As the ship lay almost two leagues from the shore, we had a full view of
them as they came, and a plain sight