Augustino, from whence keeping farther off at sea, we lost sight of land, and steered as if we were bound for the isle Fernand de Noronha, holding our course north-east by north, and leaving those isles on the east. In this course we passed the line in about twelve days time, and were by our last observation in 7 degrees 22 minutes, northern latitude, when a violent tornado, 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 twelve 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 twelve days, I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up, nor indeed did any in the ship expect to save their lives. In this distress, we had, besides the terror of the storm, one of our men died of the calenture, and one man and the boy washed overboard. 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 11 degrees north latitude, but that he was 22 degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St Augustino; so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of Guinea, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the river Amazons, toward that of the river Oroonoque, commonly called the Great River, and began to consult with me what course he should take; for the ship was leaky, and very much disabled, and 、he was going directly back to the coast of Brazil. I was positively against that, and, looking over the charts of the sea-coasts 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 Caribbee islands; and therefore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes, which, by keeping off at sea, to avoid the indraft of the bay or gulf of Mexico, we might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days sail; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some assistance, both to our ship and to ourselves. With this design we changed our course, and steered away N. W. by W. in order to reach some of our English islands, where I hoped for relief; but our voyage was otherwise determined; for, being in the latitude of 12 deg. 18 min. a second storm came upon us, which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce, that, had all our lives been saved, as to the sea, we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country. In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men, early in the morning, cried out, Land! and we had no sooner run out of the cabin to look out in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and, in a moment, her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner, that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea. It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition, to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such 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, though rather less than at first, we could not so much as 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 sat 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 |