you, I may well forget the knowledge of
you. Well said he, if you were in that ship, I pray you tell me some
remarkable token that happened in the voyage, whereupon I told him two
or three tokens; which he did know to be true. Nay then, said I, I will
tell you another which (perhaps) you have not forgotton; as our
ship and the rest of the fleet did ride at anchor at the Isle of
_Flores_ (one of the Isles of the _Azores_) there were some fourteen men
and boys of our ship, that for novelty would go ashore, and see what
fruit the island did bear, and what entertainment it would yield us; so
being landed, we went up and down and could find nothing but stones,
heath and moss, and we expected oranges, lemons, figs, musk-mellions,
and potatoes; in the mean space the wind did blow so stiff, and the sea
was so extreme rough, that our ship-boat could not come to the land to
fetch us, for fear she should be beaten in pieces against the rocks;
this continued five days, so that we were almost famished for want of
food: but at last (I squandering up and down) by the providence of God
I happened into a cave or poor habitation, where I found fifteen loaves
of bread, each of the quantity of a penny loaf in _England_, I having a
valiant stomach of the age of almost of a hundred and twenty hours
breeding, fell to, and ate two loaves and never said grace: and as I was
about to make a horse-loaf of the third loaf, I did put twelve of them
into my breeches, and my sleeves, and so went mumbling out of the cave,
leaning my back against a tree, when upon the sudden a gentleman came to
me, and said, "Friend, what are you eating?" "Bread," (quoth I,) "For
God's sake," said he, "give me some." With that, I put my hand into my
breech, (being my best pantry) and I gave him a loaf, which he received
with many thanks, and said, that if ever he could requit it, he would.
I had no sooner told this tale, but Sir _Henry Witherington_ did
acknowledge himself to be the man that I had given the loaf unto two and
twenty years before, where I found the proverb true, that men have more
privilege than mountains in meeting.
In what great measure he did requite so small a courtesy, I will relate
in this following discourse in my return through _Northumberland_: so
leaving my man at the town of _Burntisland_, I told him, I would but go
to _Stirling_, and see the Castle there, and withal to see my honourable
friends the Earl of _Mar_, and Sir _William Murray_ Kni
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