nd, and certifying
the captain that the ship was out of all danger, they demanded and
received their _wine of height_.[28] After having their wine, it would
seem that they became careless of their charge, so that through their
drunkenness and negligence a number of good men were cast away. It
pleased God that I, a stranger among above fifty Frenchmen and others,
was among those who were saved: I trust to his service and glory. At
first we comforted ourselves in the hope that we were wrecked hard by
the shore of the island, being high cliffs; but we found ourselves seven
leagues off. By means of our boat, and a raft which we made, about
twenty-six of us were saved, among whom I was the only Englishman. Being
among so many strangers, and seeing there was not room for half the
people, I durst neither press to get into the boat or upon the raft,
lest they should have thrown me overboard or killed me; so I remained in
the ship, which, was almost full of water, till the captain called me
into the boat, in which he was; so I presently entered, leaving the
better half of our company to the mercy of the sea.

[Footnote 28: Probably alluding to some customary perquisite on getting
safely through the dangerous navigation of the Bahama Islands.--E.]

We rowed all day, and an hour or two of the night, towing the raft after
us, before we got to land: and, being all that day without drink, every
man dispersed in search of water, but it was long before any was found.
At length one of the pilots, by digging among a tuft of weeds, found
water, to our great comfort. As there are many fine bays in this island,
I think abundance of fresh water might be got by digging for it. Bermuda
is all divided into broken islets; the largest, upon which I was, might
be about four or five miles long, by two and a half miles over, all
covered with wood, as cedar and other kinds, but cedar is the most
abundant.

It pleased God, before our ship broke to pieces, that we saved our
carpenter's tools, otherwise we must have remained on the island. With
these tools we went immediately to work, cutting down trees, of which we
built a small bark of about eighteen tons, almost entirely fastened with
trunnels, having very few nails. As for tackle, we made a trip to our
ship in the boat, before she split, cutting down her shrouds, and some
of her sails and other tackle, by which means we rigged our bark.
Instead of pitch, we made some lime, which we mixed with oil