44 ROBINSON CRUSOE.

northern latitude, when a violent tornado, or hurricane, took us
quite out of our knowledge. It began from the south-east,
came about to the north-west, and then settled in the north-
east ; from whence it blew in such a terribie manner, that for
twelve days together we could do nothing but drive, and
scudding away before it, let it carry us whither ever fate and
the fury of the winds directed ; and during these twelve days, I
need not say that I expected every day to be swallowed up;
nor, indeed, did any in the ship expect to save their lives,

In this distress we had, besides the terror of the storm, one
of our men die of the calenture, and one man and the boy
washed overboard. About the twelfth day, the weather abating
a little, the master made an observation as well as he could,
and found that he was in about eleven degrees north latitude,
but that he was twenty-two degrees of longitude difference
west from Cape St Augustino; so that he found he was upon
the coast of Guiana, or the north part of Brazil, beyond the
River Amazons, towards that of the River Oroonoque, com-
monly called the Great River; and began to consult with me
what course he should take, for the ship was leaky, and very
much disabled, and he was going directly back to the coast of
Brazil.

I was positively against that ; and looking over the charts
of the sea-coast of America with him, we concluded there was
no inhabited country for us to have recourse to, till we came
within the circle of the Caribbee Islands, and therefore
tesolved to stand away for Barbadoes ; which, by keeping off
at sea, to avoid the indraft of the Bay or Gulf of Mexico, we
might easily perform, as we hoped, in about fifteen days’
sail ; whereas we could not possibly make our voyage to the
coast of Africa without some assistance both to our ship and to
ourselves,

Vith this design, we changed our course, and steered away
N. W. by W., in order to reach some of our English islands,
where I hoped for relief; but our voyage was otherwise
determined ; for, being in the latitude of twelve degrees
eighteen minutes, a second storm came upon us, which carried
us away with the same impetuosity westward, and drove us
so out of the way of all human commerce, that had all our
lives been saved as to the sea, we were rather in danger of
being devoured by savages, than ever returning to our own
country.

In this distress, the wind still blowing very hard, one of our
men early in the morning cried out, “Land!” and we had no -