ROBINSON CRUSOE. 45
sooner run out of the cabin to look out, in hopes of seeing where-
abouts in the world we were, than 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 that 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 con-
dition 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 ; 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 into pieces, unless the winds, by a kind of miracle,
should turn immediately about. Ina word, we sat looking upex
one another, and expecting death every moment, and every
man, accordingly, preparing for another world ; for there was
little or nothing more for us to do in this ; that which was our
present comfort, 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 time to debate, for we fancied the ship would break in
pieces every minute, and some told us she was actually broken
already, .

In this distress, the mate of our vessel laid hold of the boat,
and with the help of the rest of the men, got her slung over the
ship’s side ; and getting all into her, let go, and committed
ourselves, being eleven in number, to God’s mercy and the wild
sea: for though the storm was abated considerably, yet the
sea ran dreadfully high upon the shore, and might be well called
aden wild zee, as the Dutch call the sea in a storm. :

And now our case was very dismal indeed ; for we all saw
plainly, that the sea went so high, that the boat could not live,