Our vessel was laden with
corn; some of this I purchased, to the amount of some hundreds of Dutch
florins, and distributed wherever I went. I also gave one of their
ministers a hundred florins for his poor congregation, who was himself in
want of bread, and whose annual stipend amounted to one hundred and fifty
florins.

Here in the sweet pleasure of doing good, I left behind me much of that
money I had so easily acquired in Russia; and perhaps had we stayed much
longer should myself have left the place in poverty. A thousand
blessings followed me, and the storm-driven Trenck was long remembered
and talked of at Gottenburg.

In this worthy employment, however, I had nearly lost my life. Returning
from carrying corn, the wind rose, and drove the boat to sea. I not
understanding the management of the helm, and the servants awkwardly
handling the sails, the boat in tacking was overset. The benefit of
learning to swim, I again experienced, and my faithful servant, who had
gained the rock, aided me when almost spent. The good people who had
seen the shallop overset, came off in their boats to my assistance. An
honest Calmuc, whom I had brought from Russia, and another of my servants
perished. I saw the first sink after I had reached the shore.

The kind Swedes brought me on board, and also righted and returned with
the shallop. For some days I was sea-sick. We weighed anchor, and
sailed for the Texel, the mouth of which we saw, and the pilots coming
off, when another storm arose, and drove us to the port of Bahus, in
Norway, into which we ran, without farther damage. In some few days we
again set sail, with a fair wind, and at length reached Amsterdam.

Here I made no long stay; for the day after my arrival, an extraordinary
adventure happened, in which I was engaged chiefly by my own rashness.

I was a spectator while the harpooners belonging to the whale fishery
were exercising themselves in darting their harpoons, most of whom were
drunk. One of them, Herman Rogaar by name, a hero among these people,
for his dexterity with his snickasnee, came up, and passed some of his
coarse jests upon my Turkish sabre, and offered to fillip me on the nose.
I pushed him from me, and the fellow threw down his cap, drew his
snickasnee, challenged me, called me monkey-tail, and asked whether I
chose a straight, a circular, or a cross cut.

Thus here was I, in this excellent company, with no choice but that of
either fig