's skin dried, which I drew together with
two thongs of the same, instead of buckles; and in a kind of a frog on
either side of this, instead of a sword and dagger, hung a little saw
and a hatchet; one on one side, one on the other: I had another belt not
so broad, and fastened in the same manner, which hung over my shoulder;
and at the end of it, under my left arm, hung two pouches, both made of
goat's skin too; in one of which hung my powder, in the other my shot:
at my back I carried my basket, on my shoulder my gun, and over my head
a great clumsy ugly goat's skin umbrella; but which, after all, was the
most necessary thing I had about me, next to my gun. As for my face, the
colour of it was really not so Mulatto-like as one might expect from a
man not at all careful of it, and living within nine or ten degrees of
the equinox. My beard I had once suffered to grow till it was about a
quarter of a yard long; but as I had both scissars and razors
sufficient, I had cut it pretty short, except what grew on my upper lip,
which I had trimmed into a large pair of Mahometan whiskers, such as I
had seen worn by some Turks whom I saw at Sallee; for the Moors did not
wear such, though the Turks did: of these mustachios, or whiskers, I
will not say they were long enough to hang my hat upon them; but they
were of length and shape monstrous enough, and such as in England would
have passed for frightful.

But all this is by the by; for as to my figure, I had so few to observe
me, that it was of no manner of consequence; so I say no more to that
part. In this kind of figure I went my new journey, and was out five or
six days. I travelled first along the sea shore, directly to the place
where I first brought my boat to an anchor, to get up upon the rocks;
and, having no boat now to take care of, I went over the land a nearer
way, to the same height that I was upon before; when looking forward to
the point of the rock which lay out, and which I was to double with my
boat, as I said above, I was surprised to see the sea all smooth and
quiet; no rippling, no motion, no current, any more there than in
other places.

I was at a strange loss to understand this, and resolved to spend some
time in the observing of it, to see if nothing from the sets of the tide
had occasioned it: but I was presently convinced how it was; viz. that
the tide of ebb setting from the west, and joining with the current of
waters from some great river on the shor