Sometimes We Got Wild Honeycombs; And By Means Of These And Other Things We Relieved Our Hunger; But Nothing Could

Relieve our grief, fatigue and want of sleep, and we were so sore depressed by the dreadful situation in which

We were placed, that we were ready to die, and were reduced to extreme weakness. Having lost all hope of rejoining the ships, which we now concluded were either lost or gone homewards, we knew not how to conduct ourselves. We were in a strange and distant country, inhabited by a people whose manners and customs were entirely different from ours; and to attempt getting home in an open boat destitute of every necessary was utterly impossible. By this time we found we had passed to leeward of _Melegete_ or the grain coast, and had got to the Mina or gold coast of Guinea, as the negroes who now came on board spoke some Portuguese, and brought off their weights and scales for the purpose of trade, asking where were our ships. To this we answered, in hopes of being the better treated, that we had two ships at sea, which would be with them in a day or two.

We now consulted together how they should best proceed. If we continued at sea in our boat, exposed by day to the burning heat of the sun which sensibly consumed us by copious perspiration, and to the frequent tornadoes or hurricanes by night, accompanied with thunder, lightning and rain; which deprived us of all rest, we could not possibly long hold out.

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