AND THE THOUGHTS IT SUGGESTED. 805

[ wished heartily now for my Spaniard, and the savage that was
gone with him, or that T had any way to have come undiscovered
within shot of them, that [ might have rescued the three men, for
L saw no firearms they had among them; but it fell out to my
mind another way.

Alter [had observed the outrageous usage of the three men by
the insolent seamen, L observed the fellows run scattering about
the land, as if they wanted to see the country. I observed that
the three other men had liberty to go also where they pleased ;
but they sat down all three upon the ground, very pensive, and
looked like men in despair,

This put me in mind of the first time when I came on shore
and began to look about me; how L gave myself over for lost;
how wildly L looked round me; what dreadful apprehensions [
had; and how [lodged in the tree all night for fear of being
devoured by wild beasts.

As T knew nothing that night of the supply L was to receive by
the providential driving of the ship nearer the land by the storms
and tide, by which L have since been so long nourished and sup-
ported; so these three poor desolate men knew nothing how
certain of deliverance and supply they were, how near it was to
them, and how effectually and really they were in a condition of
safety, at the same time that they thought themselves lost, and
their case desperate.

So little do wo see before us in the world, and so much reason
have we to depend cheerfully upon the great Maker of the world,
that he does not leave his creatures so absolutely destitute, but that
in the worst circumstances they have always something to be
thankful for, and sometimes are nearer their deliverance than they
imagine ; nay, are even brought to their deliverance by the means
by which they seem to be brought to their destruction.

It was just at the top of high-water when these people came on
shore, and while partly they stood parleying with the prisoners they
brought, and partly while they rambled about to see what kind
of a place they were in, they had carelessly stayed till the tide was
spent, and the water was ebbed considerably away, leaving their
boat aground.