OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 69

 

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our men,
early in the morning, cried out, “‘Land!’’ and we had no sooner run
out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing whereabouts in the
world we were, but the ship struck upon a sand, and, in a moment,
her motion being so stopped, the sea broke over her in such a manner
that we expected we should all have perished immediately; and we
were immediately driven into our close quarters, to shelter us from the
very foam and spray ‘of the sea.
It is not easy for any one, who has not been in the like condition,
to describe or conceive the consternation of men in such circumstances:
we knew nothing where we were, or upon what land it was we were
driven—whether an island or the main, whether inhabited or not
inhabited ; and as the rage of the wind was still great, though rather
less than at first, we could not so much as hope to have the ship hold
many minutes without breaking in pieces, unless the winds, by a kind
of miracle, should turn immediately about. In a word, we sat looking
one upon another, and expecting death every moment, and every man
acting accordingly, as preparing for another world: for there was little
or nothing more for us to do in this: that which was our present com-
fort, and all the comfort we had, was, that, contrary to our expectation,
the ship did not break yet, and that the master said the wind began to
abate.
Now, though we thought that the wind did a little abate, yet the
ship having thus struck upon the sand, and sticking too fast for us to
expect her getting off, we were in a dreadful condition indeed, and had
nothing to do but to think of saving our lives as well as we could. We
had a boat at our stern just before the storm; but she was first staved
by dashing against the ship’s rudder, and, in the next place, she broke
away, and either sunk or was driven off to sea; so there was no hope
from her. We had another boat on board, but how to get her off into
the sea was a doubtful thing; however, there was no room to debate,
for we fancied the ship would break in pieces every minute, and some
told us she was actually broken already. ae
In this distress, the mate of our vessel lays hold of the boat, and
with the help of the rest of the men they got her slung over the ship’s
side, an, getting all into her, let go, and committed ourselves, . being
eleven in number, to God’s mercy and the wild sea; for though :the; i
storm was abated considerably, yet the sea went dreadful high upon’
the shore, and might well be called den wild zee, as the Dutch call the’
sea in a storm.
And now our case was very dismal indeed; for we ali-saw ‘plainly,
tha* the sea went so high that the boat eanld not live, wad. th