The Weather Being Tolerably Good, And Having Our Skiff At
Pulo-Way, I Resolved To Go Over To The Ship
In her myself; for I could
not hire men to carry over the junk, if I would have loaded her
With
silver, and I had not a man with me sound enough to stand on his legs;
so I hired three natives, and put to sea in the skiff. When out of sight
of Pulo-way, it came on to blow a heavy storm, so that I had to scud
before the wind and sea to save our lives; yet, thank God, we got sight
of Ceram, and kept her right afore the sea, but clean from the place
where our ship lay, and on nearing the shore the sea did break so aloft,
that we had no hope of getting safe on shore. Night being at hand, we
strove all we could to keep the sea till day; but as the storm
increased, we had no remedy for our lives but attempting to get through
the surf over a ledge of rocks. This we did, but durst not leave the
boat, lest we had been dashed in pieces on the rocks. Next morning we
got her on shore, being brim-full of water, and every thing we had
washed out.
Immediately afterwards, the blacks came and told us we must go to sea
again instantly, if we valued our lives, for we had landed in the
country of the canibals, who, if they saw us, would come and eat us.
They said, nothing could ransom us from them if once taken, and
especially because we were Christians, they would roast us alive, in
revenge for the wrongs the Portuguese had done them. Our blacks added,
if we would not put immediately to sea, they would go and hide
themselves, being sure the canibals would be at the water-side as soon
as it was light. On hearing this, and seeing by the moonlight that the
sea was more calm, the wind having dulled, we pushed off, and having the
tide in our favour, we got quickly a-head, so that by day-light we were
beyond the watches of the canibals; and keeping close to the shore, we
espied the hull of a bark, on nearing which we knew it to be the
Diligence.[312] Coming up to her, I found two Englishmen on board, who
told me they had come there to anchor the same night we had the storm in
the skiff, and anchoring at this place, their cable broke and she drove
on shore, Mr Herniman having gone to the town to get people to assist in
weighing her. The sandy beach was covered with people who came to
pillage her, and I advised the two Englishmen to fire a shot now and
then, which scared them from coming nearer. On coming to the town, Mr
Herniman was gone by land to our ship. I offered money to the governor
to help to save the bark, when he said he would raise the country in two
or three days for that purpose; but I told him, if it came to blow she
would be lost in an hour.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 297 of 424
Words from 154911 to 155452
of 221842
