beaten to pieces with the sea; and as her forecastle, which
stuck in the rocks, had run on with great violence, her mainmast and
foremast were brought by the board, that is to say, broken short off;
but her bowsprit was sound, and the head and bow appeared firm. When I
came close to her, a dog appeared upon her, who, seeing me coming,
yelped and cried; and as soon as I called him, jumped into the sea to
come to me; I took him into the boat, but found him almost dead with
hunger and thirst. I gave him a cake of my bread, and he devoured it
like a ravenous wolf that had been starving a fortnight in the snow: I
then gave the poor creature some fresh water, with which, if I would
have let him, he would have burst himself. After this, I went on board;
but the first sight I met with was two men drowned in the cook-room, or
forecastle of the ship, with their arms fast about one another. I
concluded, as is indeed probable, that when the ship struck, it being in
a storm, the sea broke so high, and so continually over her, that the
men were not able to bear it, and were strangled with the constant
rushing in of the water, as much as if they had been under water.
Besides the dog, there was nothing left in the ship that had life; nor
any goods, that I could see, but what were spoiled by the water. There
were some casks of liquor, whether wine or brandy I knew not, which lay
lower in the hold, and which, the water being ebbed out, I could see;
but they were too big to meddle with. I saw several chests, which I
believed belonged to some of the seamen; and I got two of them into the
boat, without examining what was in them. Had the stern of the ship been
fixed, and the fore-part broken off, I am persuaded I might have made a
good voyage; for, by what I found in these two chests, I had room to
suppose the ship had a great deal of wealth on board; and, if I may
guess from the course she steered, she must have been bound from Buenos
Ayres, or the Rio de la Plata, in the south part of America, beyond the
Brazils, to the Havanna, in the Gulf of Mexico, and so perhaps to Spain.
She had, no doubt, a great treasure in her, but of no use, at that time,
to any body; and what became of her crew, I then knew not.

I found, besides these chests, a little cask full of liquor, of about
twenty gallons, which I got into my boat with much difficulty. There
were several muskets in the cabin, and a great powder-horn, with about
four pounds of powder in it