d I went presently out in my
shalope and sent Captaine Axe out in his shalope to make a discoverye
upon her; she proved to be another smale man of warre of Holland
which had bin long upon the coast of the terra firma;[7] and hadd
gotten nothinge; towards the eveninge she came to an Anchor in our
Harbour. This vessell comeinge to the Ronchadores (it being only a
desolate barren rocky sande twentie leagues to the eastwards of
Providence, which is the nearest land unto itt)[8] found ther an
Englishman the which with some others being in a smale frigate wer
shypwracked upon itt, some of them gott awaye upon two rafts of which
the one of them was never hearde off; Thoes upon the other raft wer
driven upon the maine-land of the West-Indies, and soe att last gott
home. This man with some others remained upon the sande and rocks;
wher att last all of them died save this man only; who after he hadd
remained ther two yeares and a halfe of which for ten monethes space,
after the deathe of all the rest, he lived solitarily and all alone,
being only fedd with such sea foules as resorted to the place, and
sometimes some fish, he was thus taken and brought home unto us in
good healthe and very lusty.

[Footnote 6: Warwick Fort overlooked the harbor from its north side.
Capt. Samuel Axe, mentioned below, a soldier of the Dutch wars, had
made the fortifications of the island.]

[Footnote 7: Tierra Firma, the Spanish Main, or north coast of South
America.]

[Footnote 8: Roncador means snorer; the cay is still called by that
name. The story of this man's shipwreck and preservation figures in
Increase Mather's _Essay for the Recording of Illustrious Providences_
(London, 1684), ch. II. The famous U.S.S. _Kearsarge_ was wrecked on
the Roncadores in 1894.]

16. I went very early this mornenige to the greate Baye, wher my
worcks went forwards well and almost to my wish. In the afternoone
being returned home, I spent some houres in the hearinge of divers
controversies amongst the Inhabitants. Towards night the Commander of
the Dutche Vessel that came into our Harbour the daye before presented
himself unto me and shewed me his Commission signed by the Prince of
Aurenge:[9] His errand hither was to find and stoppe a leake; haveinge
bin foure or five monethes upon the coast, and gotten noethinge. This
morneing also, another of the new Companyes was in their Armes, upon
the great Baye; and exercised by Captain Carter[10] in my presence,
and