the rocks
being wholly under water, had been driven upon them in the night, the
wind blowing hard at ENE. Had they seen the island, as I must
necessarily suppose they did not, they must, as I thought, have
endeavoured to have saved themselves on shore by the help of their boat;
but their firing off guns for help, especially when they saw, as I
imagined, my fire, filled me with many thoughts. First, I imagined that
upon seeing my light they might have put themselves into their boat, and
endeavoured to make the shore: but that the sea running very high, they
might have been cast away. Other times I imagined that they might have
lost their boat before, as might be the case many ways; particularly by
the breaking of the sea upon their ship, which many times obliged men to
stave, or take in pieces, their boat, and sometimes to throw it overboard
with their own hands. Other times I imagined they had some other ship or
ships in company, who, upon the signals of distress they made, had taken
them up, and carried them off. Other times I fancied they were all gone
off to sea in their boat, and being hurried away by the current that I
had been formerly in, were carried out into the great ocean, where there
was nothing but misery and perishing: and that, perhaps, they might by
this time think of starving, and of being in a condition to eat one
another.

As all these were but conjectures at best, so, in the condition I was in,
I could do no more than look on upon the misery of the poor men, and pity
them; which had still this good effect upon my side, that it gave me more
and more cause to give thanks to God, who had so happily and comfortably
provided for me in my desolate condition; and that of two ships'
companies, who were now cast away upon this part of the world, not one
life should be spared but mine. I learned here again to observe, that it
is very rare that the providence of God casts us into any condition so
low, or any misery so great, but we may see something or other to be
thankful for, and may see others in worse circumstances than our own.
Such certainly was the case of these men, of whom I could not so much as
see room to suppose any were saved; nothing could make it rational so
much as to wish or expect that they did not all perish there, except the
possibility only of their being taken up by another ship in company; and
this was but mere possibility indeed, for I saw not the least sign or
appearance of any s