This And Their Extraordinary Thirst Quite Cast
Them Down, And Made Them Believe That They Had Lost Their Way, For
According to their reckoning they had now run twenty leagues and ought to
have been in sight of Hispaniola; but
It was weariness that deceived them,
for a canoe that rows well cannot in a day and night proceed above ten
leagues, and they had been retarded by the currents which were adverse to
their course.
Night being come on they had to throw one into the sea who had died of
thirst, and others were lying stretched out in the bottom of the canoe
perfectly exhausted, those who were still able to bear up a little being
sunk almost in despair, and so weak and spent that they could hardly make
any way at all. Some took sea water to refresh their thirst, which may be
called a comfort of that kind which was offered to our Saviour when he
complained of thirst upon the cross. In this manner they feebly held on
their way at the commencement of the second night; but it pleased God to
send them succour in their utmost need, for when the moon began to rise,
James Mendez perceived that she got up over some land, as a little island
covered her in the nature of an eclipse, neither could they have seen this
island, it was so small, if it had not been for this circumstance, and
without the timely relief of water which it afforded they must all have
perished of thirst on the following day.
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