own Interest, and have made a Judgment of what I ought to have done, and not to have done, I had certainly never gone away from fo profperous an Undertaking, leaving all the probable Views of a thriving Circumftance, and gone upon a Voyage to Sea, attended with all its common Hazards; to fay nothing of the Reasons I had to expect particular Misfortunes to my felf.

But I was hurry'd on, and obey'd blindly the Dictates of my Fancy rather than my Reason; and accordingly the Ship being fitted out, and the Care go furnished, and all Things done as by Agree ment, by my Partners in the Voyage, I went on Board in an evil Hour again, the first of September, 1659, being the fame Day eight Year that I went from my Father and Mother at Hall, in order to act the Rebel to their Authority, and the Fool to my own Intereft.

Our Ship was about 120 Tun Burthen, carried fix Guns, and fourteen Men, including the Master, his Boy, and my self; we had on Board no large Cargo of Goods, except of fuch Toys as were fit for our Trade with the Negroes, fuch as Beads, bits of Glafs, Shells, and odd Trifles, especially little Looking-Glaffes, Knives, Sciffars, Hatchets,... and the like.

The fame Day I went on Board we fer fail, standing away to the Northward upon our own Coaft, with Design to stretch over for the African Coast, when they came about 10 or 12 Degrees of Northern Latitude, which it feems was the manner of their Course in those Days. We had very good Weather, only exceffive hot, all the way up-1 on our own Coast, till we came the Height of Cape St. Auguftino, from whence keeping farther off... at Sea we lolt Sight of Land, and steer'd as if we was bound for the Ifle Fernand de Noronha, holding':

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our Course N. E. by N. and leaving those Ifles on the East; in this Course we past the Line in about 12 Days time, and were by our last Observation in 7 Degrees 22 Min. Northern Latitude, when a violent Tournado or Hurricane took us quite out of our Knowledge; it began from the South-East, came about to the North-West, and then settled into the North-East, from whence it blew in such a terrible manner, that for 12 Days together we could do nothing but drive, and scudding away: before it, let it carry us whither ever Fate and the Fury of the Winds directed; and during these 12 Days, I need not say, that I expected every Day to be swallowed up, nor indeed did any in the Ship expect to fave their Lives.

In this Distress, we had, befides the Terror of the Storm, one of our Men die of the Calenture, and one Man and the Boy wash'd over-board; about the twelfth Day the Weather abating a little, the Master made an Observation as well as he could, and found that he was in about eleven Degrees North Latitude, but that he was twenty two Degrees of Longitude difference West from Cape St. Auguftino; so that he found he was gotten upon the Coaft of Guiana, or the North Part of Brafil, beyond the River Amozones, toward that of the River Oroonoque, commonly call'd the Great River, and began to confult with me what Course he should take, for the Ship was leaky and very much difabled, and he was going directly back to the Coast of Brafil.

I was positively against that, and looking over the Charts of the Sea-Coast of America with him, we concluded there was no inhabited Country for us to have recourse to, till we came within the Circle of the Carribbe-Islands, and therefore refolved to stand away for Barbadoes, which by keeping off

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at Sea, to avoid the Indraft of the Bay or Gulph of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about 15 Days Sail; whereas we could not poffibly make our Voyage to the Coast of Africa, without fome Affistance, both to our Ship and to our selves.

*** With this Design we chang'd our Course, and fteer'd away N. W. by W. in order to reach fome of our English Iflands, where I hoped for Relier; but our Voyage was otherwise determined, for being in the Latitude of 12 Deg. 18 Min. a fecond Storm came upon us, which carry'd us away with the fame Impetuofity Westward, and drove us fo out of the very Way of all humane Commerce, that had our Lives been faved, as to the Sea, we were rather in Danger of being devour'd by Savages than ever returning to our own Country.

In this Distress, the Wind blowing still very hard, one of our Men early in the Morning, cry'd out, Land; and we had no fooner run out of the Cabin to look out, in hopes of feeing whereabouts in the World we were; but the Ship struck upon a Sand, and in a Moment her Motion being fo stopp'd, the Sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected we should all have perifh'd immediately, and we were immediately driven into close Quarters to shelter us from the very Foam and Sprye of the Sea.

It is not eafy for any one, who has not been in the like Condition, to defcribe or cor ceive the Confternation of Men in fuch Circumstances; we knew nothing where we were, or upon what Land it was we were driven, whether an Island, or the Main; whether inhabited, or not inhabited; and as the Rage of the Wind was still great, thorather less than at first, we could not so much as hope

hope to have the Ship hold many Minutes without breaking in Pieces, unless the Winds by a kind of Miracle should turn immediately about. In a word, we fat looking one upon another, and expecting Death every Moment, and every Man acting accordingly, as preparing for another World; for there was little or nothing more for us to do in this: That which was our present Comfort, and all the Comfort we had, was, That contrary to our Expectation the Ship did not break yet, and that the Master said, the Wind began to abate.

Now tho' we thought that the Wind did a little abate, yet the Ship having thus struck upon the Sand, and sticking too faft for us to expe& her getting off, we were in a dreadful Condition indeed, and had nothing to do but to think of saving our Lives as well as we could; we had a Boat at our Stern, just before the Storm, but she was first stav'd by dathing against the Ship's Rudder, and in the next Place she broke away, and either funk or was driven off to Sea; so there was no Hope from her: We had another Boat on Board, but how to get her off into the Sea, was a doubtful Thing; however, there was no room to debate, for we fancy'd the Ship would break in Pieces every Minute; and some told us she was actually broken already.

In this Distress, the Mate of our Vessel lays hold of the Boat, and with the Help of the rest of the Men, they got her slung over the Ship's-side, and getting all into her, let go, and committed cur selves, being Eleven in Number, to God's Mercy, and the wild Sea; for tho' the Storm was abated confiderably, yet the Sea went dreadful high upon the Shore, and might well be call'd, Den wild Zee, as the Dutch call the Sea in a Storma

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And now our Cafe was very dismal indeed; for we all faw plainly, that the Sea went so high, that the Boat could not live, and that we should be inevitably drown'd As to making Sail, we had none, nor, ifwe had, could we have done any thing with it's fo we work'd at the Oar towards the Land, tho' with heavy Hearts, like Men going to Execution, for we all knew, that when the Boat came nearer the Shore, the would be dasn'd in a thoufand Pieces by the Breach of the Sea. However we committed our Souls to God in the molt earnest manner, and the Wind driving us towards the Shore, we haften'd 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 leaft Shadow of Expectation, was, if we might happen into fome Bay or Gulph, or the Mouth of fome River, where by great Chance we might have run our Boat in, or got under the Lee of the Land, and perhaps made Imooth Water. But there was nothing of this appeared, but as we made nearer and nearer the Shore, the Landlook'd more frightful than the Sea

-After we had row'd, or rather driven about a Leagle and a Half, as we reckon'd it, a raging Wave, Mountain-like, came rowling a-stern of us, and plainly bad us expect the Coup-de-Grace. In a word, it took us with fuch a Fury, that it overfet the Boat at once and feparating us as well from the Boat, as from one another, gave us not Time hardly to fay, O God! for we are all swallowed bla Moment. W SALTFOR

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Nothing can defcribe the Confufion of Thought which I fe t when I funk into the Water; for tho fwam very well, yet I could not deliver myself from the Waves, so as to draw Breath, 'till the Wave