When We Had Passed As Far As Cape
Corientes, On The East Coast Of Africa, At The Entry Into The
Channel of
Mozambique, we encountered a dreadful storm, with excessive gusts of
wind, during which we lost sight of our
Admiral, and could never hear of
him nor his ship more, though we used our best endeavours to seek him,
by plying up and down a long while, and afterwards staid for him several
days at the island of Comoro, which we had appointed our rendezvous in
case of separation. Four days after this unfortunate separation, we had
a tremendous clap of thunder at ten o'clock one morning, which slew four
of our men outright, without speaking one word, their necks being wrung
asunder. Of 94 other men, not one remained untouched, some being struck
blind, some bruised in their arms and legs, others in their breasts, so
that they voided blood for two days: some were as it were drawn out in
length, as if racked. But, God be praised, they all recovered, except
the four men who were struck dead. With the same flash of lightning our
mainmast was terribly split from the head to the deck, some of the
spikes that went ten inches into the wood being melted by the fervent
heat.
From thence[13] we shaped our course north-east, and not long afterwards
fell in with the north-west point[14] of the island of St Lawrence, or
Madagascar, which, by God's blessing, one of our men espied late in the
evening by moonlight.
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