Having Sent Ten Men On Shore In The Boat, They Found
This Man In The Chapel, Into Which He Had
Gone to avoid the heat; and
hearing some one sing in the chapel, whom our people supposed to have
been
A Portuguese, they thrust open the door, and went in upon him: but
the poor man, on seeing so many men of a sudden, and believing them to
be Portuguese, was at first in great fear, not having seen a human being
for fourteen months, and afterwards knowing them to be English, and
some of them his acquaintance, he became exceeding joyful, insomuch
that between sudden and excessive fear and joy, he became distracted in
his wits, to our great sorrow. We here found the carcasses of forty
goats, which he had dried. The party which left him had made for him two
suits of goats'-skins, with the hairy side outmost, like the dresses
worn by the savages of Canada. This man lived till we came to the West
Indies, and then died.
We remained at St Helena all the month of April, and arrived at the
island of Trinidada, in the West Indies, in June, 1593, hoping to
procure some refreshments there, but could not, as the Spaniards had
taken possession. We got here embayed between the island and the main;
and, for want of victuals, our company would have forsaken the ship, on
which our captain had to swear every man not to forsake her till the
most urgent necessity. It pleased God to deliver us from this bay,
called Boca del Dragone, from whence we directed our course for the
island of San Juan de Puerto Rico, but fell in with the small island
of Mona, between Porto Rico and Hispaniola, where we remained about
fifteen days, procuring some small refreshment. There arrived here a
ship of Caen, in Normandy, of which Monsieur Charles de la Barbotiere
was captain, who greatly comforted us by a supply of bread and other
provisions, of which we were greatly in need, after which we parted.
Having foul weather at Mona, we weighed anchor and set sail, directing
our course for Cape Tiberoon, at the west end of Hispaniola; and, in
doubling that cape, we had so violent a gust of wind from the shore,
that it carried away all our sails from the yards, leaving us only one
new fore-course, the canvass of which we had procured from the
Frenchman. Having doubled the cape in that distress, the
before-mentioned Captain de la Barbotiere gave us chase with his
pinnace; and when come near, I went on board to inform him of our
distress; and he now said, there was nothing in his ship but what he
would spare for our assistance; so we agreed with him for some canvass.
He said likewise, if we would accompany him to a harbour called
Gonnavy,[26] to the northward of Tiberoon, that he would procure us
plenty of fresh provisions.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 31 of 424
Words from 15818 to 16317
of 221842
