his men came back in a fright, swearing they had seen
a swimming house. That he laughed at their folly, and went himself in
the boat, ordering his men to take a strong cable along with them.
That the weather being calm, he rowed round me several times, observed
my windows and the wire lattices that defended them. That he
discovered two staples upon one side, which was all of boards, without
any passage for light. He then commanded his men to row up to that
side, and, fastening a cable to one of the staples, ordered them to
tow my chest (as they called it) toward the ship. When it was there,
he gave directions to fasten another cable to the ring fixed in the
cover, and to raise up my chest with pulleys, which all the sailors
were not able to do above two or three feet. He said they saw my stick
and handkerchief thrust out of the hole, and concluded that some
unhappy man must be shut up in the cavity. I asked whether he or the
crew had seen any prodigious bird in the air, about the time he first
discovered me? To which he answered that, discoursing this matter with
the sailors while I was asleep, one of them said he had observed three
eagles flying towards the north, but remarked nothing of their being
larger than the usual size; which I suppose must be imputed to the
great height they were at; and he could not guess the reason of my
question. I then asked the captain how far he reckoned we might be
from land. He said, by the best computation he could make, we were at
least an hundred leagues. I assured him that he must be mistaken by
almost half, for I had not left the country from whence I came above
two hours before I dropped into the sea. Whereupon he began again to
think that my brain was disturbed, of which he gave me a hint, and
advised me to go to bed in a cabin he had provided. I assured him I
was well refreshed with his good entertainment and company, and as
much in my senses as ever I was in my life. He then grew serious, and
desired to ask me freely, whether I were not troubled in my mind by
the consciousness of some enormous crime, for which I was punished, at
the command of some prince, by exposing me in that chest; as great
criminals, in other countries, have been forced to sea in a leaky
vessel, without provisions; for although he should be sorry to have
taken so ill a man into his ship, yet he would engage his word to set
me safe ashore, in the first port where we arrived. He added that his
suspicions wer