clear, and the storm had abated, so that the sea did not rage and swell as before; but that which surprised me most was, that the ship had been lifted by the tide from the sand bar where she lay the night before, and carried almost as far as the rock where I had been so bruised by the wave dashing me against it. This was within a mile of the shore where I was, and as the ship seemed to be upright still, I wished that I was on board, that I might save some things very necessary to my use.

When I came down from my lodging in the tree, I looked about me again; and the first thing I saw was the boat, which lay upon the shore, as the wind and sea had tossed her, about two miles to my right. I walked along the shore toward it as far as I could, but found an inlet of water about half a mile wide that I had no means of crossing, so I came back, being intent upon getting at the ship, where I hoped to find something for my subsistence.

A little after noon, I found the sea very calm, and the tide ebbed out so far, that I could come within a quarter of a mile of the ship. Here I found a fresh renewing of my grief; for it was evident that if we had kept on board that we should have all been safe; that is, we should all have reached the shore in safety, and I should not have been so miserable as to be left entirely destitute of all comfort and company, as I now was. This thought forced tears to my eyes again; but, as there was little relief in that, I resolved, if possible, to get to the ship; so I pulled off my clothes, for the weather was extremely hot, and swam out to it; but when I reached it, I was at loss to know how to get on board, for the ship lay aground, and high out of the water, so that there was nothing within

my reach that I could lay hold of. I swam around the vessel twice, and finally saw a small piece of rope, which I wondered I did not see at first, hanging down by the forechain so low that, with great difficulty, I managed to get hold of it, and by its help climb into the forecastle of the ship. Here I found that the ship was bulged, and had a great deal of water in her hold; and that she lay so on the side of a bank of hard sand, that her stern lay lifted up upon the bank and her head low, almost to the water. By this means all her quarter was free, and all that was in that part was dry. You may be sure that my first work was to see what was spoiled and what was good. I found that all the ship's provisions were dry and untouched by the water; and being very hungry, I went to the bread room and filled my pockets with biscuit, and ate as I went about other things, for I had no time to lose. All that I needed was a boat in order to furnish myself with many things which I foresaw would be very necessary to me.

It was in vain to sit still and wish for what was not be had. I had set my wits to work to see what could be done. We had several spare yards, and two or three large spars of wood, and a spare topmast or two in the ship. I resolved to fall to work with these, and I threw overboard all whose weight was such that I could manage them. I tied each one with a rope so that it would not drift away. When I had done this, I went down the ship's side and pulled four of the sticks together and tied them so as to form the framework of a raft. I laid several pieces of plank across, but found that the timbers were too light to support any great weight, so I took a carpen

ter's saw and cut a spare topmast into three pieces and added them to the raft. I did this at the expense of great

labor and pains, for the hope of furnishing myself with necessaries enabled me to do more than I should have been able to do under other circumstances.

My raft was now strong enough to bear any reasonable weight. My next care was what to load it with, and how to preserve what I laid upon it from the surf of the sea. I first put upon the raft all the plank and boards I could get, and after this, having considered well what I most wanted, I first put three of the seamen's chests down upon my raft. I had to empty these in order to be able to lower them. One of these I filled with provisions, viz. : bread, rice, Dutch cheeses, five pieces of dried goat's flesh (which we lived much upon), and a little European corn, which had been laid by for some fowls which we brought to sea with us, but the fowls had been killed. There had been some barley and wheat, but, to my great disappointment, I found afterwards that the rats had eaten and spoiled it all. While I was loading the raft, I found the tide began to flow, though very calm; and I had the mortification of seeing my shirt, coat, and waistcoat, which I had left on the sand at the shore, swim away. As my breeches were only linen, and open-kneed, I swam out to the ship in them and my stockings. This mishap set me to rummaging for clothes, of which I found enough, but took no more than I wanted for present use, for there were other things which I needed more; first, tools to work with. After a long search, I found the carpenter's chest, which was, indeed, a very useful prize to me, and much more valuable than a ship load of gold would have been at that time. I got it down on my raft without losing time to look into it, for I knew in general what it contained.

My next care was for some arms and ammunition. There were two very good fowling pieces and two pistols

in the great cabin. I secured these, with some powderhorns, a small bag of shot, and two old rusty swords. I knew there were three barrels of powder in the ship, but did not know where our gunner had stowed them. After much search, I found them; two dry, but the third damaged by water. I put these on board my raft, and, finding it pretty well freighted, I began to think how I should get it to the shore, as I had neither sail, oar, nor rudder. The least wind would have upset my raft, and ruined all the goods that I had on board of it.

There was much in my favor. The sea was smooth and calm; the tide was rising and setting in toward the shore, and what little wind there was blew towards the land. Having found several broken oars, and added to my tools two saws, an ax, and a hammer, I put to sea. For a mile, or thereabouts, my raft went very well, only that I found it to drift a little distant from the place where I had landed before; by which I perceived that there was some indraft of the water, and, consequently, I hoped to find some creek or river there, which I might make use of as a port to land with my cargo.

As I imagined, so it was. There appeared before me a little opening of the land, and I found a strong current of the tide set into it; so I guided my raft, as well as I could, to keep in the middle of the stream.

But here I had liked to have suffered a second shipwreck, which, if I had, I think, verily, would have broken my heart; for, knowing nothing of the coast, my raft ran aground at one end of it upon a shoal, and, not being aground at the other end, I was very near having my cargo all slip off at the end that was afloat. I did