But I,that was born to be my own destroyer,could no more resist the offer than I could restrain my first rambling designs,when my father's good counsel was lost upon me.In a word,I told them I would go with all my heart,if they would undertake to look after my plantation in my absence,and would dispose of it to such as I should direct if I miscarried.This they all engaged to do,and entered into writings or covenants to do so;and I made a formal will,disposing of my plantation and effects,in case of my death;making the captain of the ship that had saved my life,as before,my universal heir,but obliging him to dispose of my effects as I had directed in my will;one half of the produce being to himself,and the other to be shipped to England.
In short,I took all possible caution to preserve my effects,and keep up my plantation.Had I used half as much prudence to have looked into my own interest,and have made a judgment of what I ought to have done and not to have done,I had certainly never gone away from so prosperous an undertaking,leaving all the probable views of a thriving circumstance,and gone upon a voyage to sea,attended with all its common hazards,to say nothing of the reasons I had to expect particular misfortunes to myself.
But I was hurried on,and obeyed blindly the dictates of my fancy rather than my reason.And accordingly,the ship being fitted out,and the cargo furnished,and all things done as by agreement by my partners in the voyage,I went on board in an evil hour,the [first]of [September 1659］,being the same day eight year that I went from my father and mother at Hull,in order to act the rebel to their authority,and the fool to my own interest.
Our ship was about 120tons burthen,carried six guns and fourteen men,besides the master,his boy,and myself.We had on board no large cargo of goods,except of such toys as were fit for our trade with the negroes-such as beads,bits of glass,shells,and odd trifles,especially little looking glasses,knives,scissors,hatchets,and the like.
The same day I went on board we set sail,standing away to the northward upon our own coast,with design to stretch over for the African coast,when they came about 10or 12degrees of northern latitude,which,it seems,was the manner of their course in those days.We had very good weather,only excessive hot,all the way upon our own coast,till we came the height of Cape St Augustino,from whence,keeping farther off at sea,we lost sight of land,and steered as if we were bound for the Isle Fernando de Noronha,holding our course N.E.by N.,and leaving those isles on the east.In this course we passed the line in about twelve days'time,and were,by our last observation,in 7degrees 22minutes northern latitude,when a violent tornado,or hurricane,took us quite out of our knowledge.It began from the south east,came about to the north west,and then settled into the north east,from whence it blew in such a terrible manner,that for twelve days together we could do nothing but drive,and,scudding away before it,let it carry us wherever fate and the fury of the winds directed;and during these twelve days,I need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up,nor,indeed,did any in the ship expect to save their lives.
In this distress we had,besides the terror of the storm,one of our men died of the calenture,and one man and the boy washed overboard.About the twelfth day,the weather abating a little,the master made an observation as well as he could,and found that he was in about 11degrees north latitude,but that he was 22degrees of longitude difference west from Cape St Augustino;so that he found he was gotten upon the coast of Guiana,or the north part of Brazil,beyond the river Amazon,toward that of the river Orinoco,commonly called the Great River,and began to consult with me what course he should take,for the ship was leaky and very much disabled,and he was going directly back to the coast of Brazil.
I was positively against that;and looking over the charts of the sea coast of America with him,we concluded there was no inhabited country for us to have recourse to till we came within the circle of the Carribbee Islands,and therefore resolved to stand away for Barbadoes,which by keeping off at sea,to avoid the indraft of the Bay or Gulf of Mexico,we might easily perform,as we hoped,in about fifteen days'sail;whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the coast of Africa without some assistance,both to our ship and to ourselves.
With this design we changed our course,and steered away N.W.by W.in order to reach some of our English islands,where I hoped for relief;but our voyage was otherwise determined;for being in the latitude of 12degrees 18minutes,a second storm came upon us,which carried us away with the same impetuosity westward,and drove us so out of the very way of all human commerce,that had all our lives been saved,as to the sea,we were rather in danger of being devoured by savages than ever returning to our own country.
In this distress,the wind still blowing very hard,one of our men early in the morning cried out,‘Land!’and we had no sooner ran out of the cabin to look out,in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the world we were,but the ship struck upon a sand,and in a moment,her motion being so stopped,the sea broke over her in such a manner,that we expected we should all have perished immediately;and we were immediately driven into our close quarters,to shelter us from the very foam and spray of the sea.