very terrible to me, from the remembrance of the hazard I had been in
before, and my heart began to fail me; for I foresaw that if I was
driven into either of those currents, I should be carried a great way
out to sea, and perhaps out of my reach, or sight of the island again;
and that then, as my boat was but small, if any little gale of wind
should rise, I should be inevitably lost.

These thoughts so oppressed my mind, that I began to give over my
enterprise; and having hauled my boat into a little creek on the shore,
I stepped out, and sat me down upon a rising bit of ground, very pensive
and anxious, between fear and desire, about my voyage; when, as I was
musing, I could perceive that the tide was turned, and the flood come
on; upon which my going was impracticable for so many hours. Upon this,
presently it occurred to me, that I should go up to the highest piece of
ground I could find, and observe, if I could how the sets of the tide,
or currents, lay when the flood came in, that I might judge whether, if
I was driven one way out, I might not expect to be driven another way
home, with the same rapidness of the currents. This thought was no
sooner in my head than I cast my eye upon a little hill, which
sufficiently overlooked the sea both ways, and from whence I had a clear
view of the currents, or sets of the tide, and which way I was to guide
myself in my return. Here I found, that as the current of the ebb set
out close by the south point of the island, so the current of the flood
set in close by the shore of the north side; and that I had nothing to
do but to keep to the north side of the island in my return, and I
should do well enough.

Encouraged with this observation, I resolved, the next morning, to set
out with the first of the tide; and reposing myself for the night in my
canoe, under the great watch-coat I mentioned, I launched out. I first
made a little out to sea, full north, till I began to feel the benefit
of the current, which set eastward, and which carried me at a great
rate; and yet did not so hurry me as the current on the south side had
done before, so as to take from me all government of the boat; but
having a strong steerage with my paddle, I went at a great rate directly
for the wreck, and in less than two hours I came up to it. It was a
dismal sight to look at: the ship, which, by its building, was Spanish,
stuck fast, jammed in between two rocks; all the stern and quarter of
her were