as Wager's Island to end
his days upon; but he was obliged by the rest to go off with them. We had
not been long out before it began to blow a storm of wind; and the mist
came on so thick, that we could not see the land, and were at a loss which
way to steer; but we heard the sea, which ran exceedingly high, breaking
near us, upon which we immediately hauled aft the sheet, and hardly
weathered the breakers by a boat's length. At the same time we shipped a
sea that nearly filled us; it struck us with that violence as to throw me
and one or two more down into the bottom of the boat, where we were half
drowned before we could get up again. This was one of the most
extraordinary escapes we had in the course of this expedition; for Captain
Cheap and every one else had entirely given themselves up for lost.
However, it pleased God that we got that evening into Red-wood Cove, where
the weather continued so bad all night we could keep no fire in to dry
ourselves with; but there being no other alternative for us but to stay
here and starve, or put to sea again, we chose the latter, and put out in
the morning again, though the weather was very little mended.

In three or four days after, we arrived at our old station, Wager's Island,
but in such a miserable plight, that though we thought our condition upon
setting out would not admit of any additional circumstance of misery, yet
it was to be envied in comparison of what we now suffered, so worn and
reduced were we by fatigue and hunger, having eat nothing for some days but
sea-weed and tangle. Upon this expedition, we had been out, by our account,
just two months; in which we had rounded, backwards and forwards, the great
bay formed to the northward by that high land we had observed from Mount
Misery.

The first thing we did upon our arrival was to secure the barge, as this
was our sole dependence for any relief that might offer by sea; which done,
we repaired to our huts, which formed a kind of village or street,
consisting of several irregular habitations, some of which being covered by
a kind of brush-wood thatch, afforded tolerable shelter against the
inclemency of the weather. Among these, there was one which we observed
with some surprise to be nailed up. We broke it open, and found some iron-
work, picked out with much pains from those pieces of the wreck which, were
driven ashore. We concluded from hence, that the Indians who had been here
in our absence were not of that