Lays in great store of provisions--Resolves to traverse the
rock--Sails for three weeks, still seeing it only--Is sucked
under the rock, and hurried down a cataract--Continues there
five weeks--His description of the cavern--His thoughts and
difficulties--His arrival at a great lake--And his landing
in the beautiful country of Graundevolet
I had for a long time wanted to see the other side of the rock, and
at last resolved to try if I could not coast it quite round; for, as
I reasoned with myself, I might possibly find some landing-places, and
perhaps a convenient habitation on shore. But as I was very uncertain
what time that might take up, I determined on having provisions,
instruments of divers kinds, and necessary utensils in plenty, to guard
against accidents as well as I could. I therefore took another sea-chest
out of the hold of the ship, and letting it into my boat, replenished it
with a stock of wine, brandy, oil, bread, and the like, sufficient for
a considerable voyage. I also filled a large cask with water, and took
a good quantity of salt to cure what fish I should take by the way. I
carried two guns, two brace of pistols, and other arms, with ammunition
proportionable; also an axe or two, a saw to cut wood if I should see
any, and a few other tools, which might be highly serviceable if I could
land. To all these I added an old sail, to make a covering for my goods
and artillery against the weather. Thus furnished and equipped, having
secured my hatches on board, and everything that might spoil by wet, I
set out, with a God's speed, on my expedition, committing myself once
more to Providence and the main ocean, and proceeding the same way I
went the first time.
I did not sail extraordinary fast, but frequently fished in proper
places, and caught a great deal, salting and drying the best of what I
took. For three weeks' time and more, I saw no entrance into the island,
as I call it, nor anything but the same unscalable rock. This uniform
prospect gave me so little hopes of landing, that I was almost of a mind
to have returned again. But, on mature deliberation, resolving to go
forward a day or two more, I had not proceeded twenty-four hours, when,
just as it was becoming dark, I heard a great noise, as of a fall of
water, whereupon I proposed to lie by and wait for day, to see what it
was; but the stream insensibly drawing me on, I soon found myself in an
eddy; and the boat drawing forward beyond all my power to resist it, I
was quickly sucked under a low arch, where, if I had not fallen flat in
my boat, having barely light enough to see my danger, I had undoubtedly
been crushed to pieces or driven overboard. I could perceive the boat
to fall with incredible violence, as I thought, down a precipice, and
suddenly whirled round and round with me, the water roaring on all
sides, and dashing against the rock with a most amazing noise.
I expected every moment my poor little vessel would be staved against
the rock, and I overwhelmed with waters; and for that reason never once
attempted to rise up, or look upon my peril, till after the commotion
had in some measure ceased. At length, finding the perturbation of the
water abate, and as if by degrees I came into a smoother stream, I took
courage just to lift up my affrighted head; but guess, if you can, the
horror which seized me, on finding myself in the blackest of darkness,
unable to perceive the smallest glimmer of light.
However, as my boat seemed to glide easily, I roused myself and struck a
light; but if I had my terrors before, what must I have now! I was quite
stupefied at the tremendous view of an immense arch over my head, to
which I could see no bounds; the stream itself, as I judged, was about
thirty yards broad, but in some places wider, in some narrower. It was
well for me I happened to have a tinder-box, or, though I had escaped
hitherto, I must have at lust perished; for in the narrower parts of the
stream, where it ran swiftest, there were frequently such crags stood
out from the rock, by reason of the turnings and windings, and such
sets of the current against them, as, could I not have seen to manage my
boat, which I took great care to keep in the middle of the stream, must
have thrown me on them, to my inevitable destruction.
Happy it was for me, also, I was so well victualled, and that I had
taken with me two bottles of oil (as I supposed, for I did not imagine
I had any more), or I had certainly been lost, not only through hunger,
for I was, to my guess, five weeks in the vault or cavern, but for
want of light, which the oil furnished, and without which all other
conveniences could have been of no avail to me. I was forced to keep my
lamp always burning; so, not knowing how long my residence was to be in
that place, or when I should get my discharge from it, if ever, I was
obliged to husband my oil with the utmost frugality; and notwithstanding
all my caution, it grew low, and was just spent, in little above half
the time I stayed there.
I had now cut a piece of my shirt for a wick to my last drop of oil,
which I twisted and lighted. I burnt the oil in my brass tobacco-box,
which I had fitted pretty well to answer the purpose Sitting down, I had
many black thoughts of what must follow the loss of my light, which I
considered as near expiring, and that, I feared, for ever. I am here,
thought I, like a poor condemned criminal, who knows his execution
is fixed for such a day, nay, such an hour, and dies over and over in
imagination, and by the torture of his mind, till that hour comes: that
hour, which he so much dreads! and yet that very hour which releases him
from all farther dread! Thus do I--my last wick is kindled--my last drop
of fuel is consuming!--and I am every moment apprehending the shocks of
the rock, the suffocation of the water; and, in short, thinking over my
dying thoughts, till the snuff of my lamp throws up its last curling,
expiring flame, and then my quietus will be presently signed, and I
released from my tormenting anxiety! Happy minute! Come then; I only
wait for thee! My spirits grew so low and feeble upon this, that I had
recourse to my brandy bottle to raise them; but, as I was just going to
take a sip, I reflected that would only increase thirst, and, therefore,
it were better to take a little of my white Madeira; so, putting
my dram-bottle again into the chest, I held up one of Madeira, as I
fancied, to the lamp, and seeing it was white (for I had red too) I
clapped it eagerly to my mouth, when the first gulp gave me a greater
refreshment, and more cheered my heart, than all the other liquors I had
put together could have done; insomuch, as I had almost leaped over the
boat's side for joy. "It is oil!" cried I aloud, "it is oil!" I set it
down carefully, with inexpressible pleasure; and examining the rest of
the bottles I had taken for white Madeira, I found two more of those
to be filled with oil. "Now," says I, "here is the counterpart of my
condemned prisoner! For let but a pardon come, though at the gallows,
how soon does he forget he has been an unhappy villain! And I, too, have
scarce a notion now, how a man, in my case, could feel such sorrow as I
have for want of a little oil."
After my first transport, I found myself grow serious, reflecting upon
the vigilance of Providence over us poor creatures, and the various
instances wherein it interposes to save or relieve us in cases of
the deepest distress, where our own foresight, wisdom, and power have
utterly failed, and when, looking all around, we could discover no
means of deliverance. And I saw a train of circumstances leading to
the incident I have just mentioned, which obliged me to acknowledge the
superintendence of Heaven over even my affairs; and as the goodness
of God had cared for me thus far, and manifested itself to me now, in
rescuing me, as it were, from being swallowed up in darkness, I had
ground to hope He intended a complete deliverance of me out of
that dismal abyss, and would cause me yet to praise Him in the full
brightness of day.
A series of these meditations brought me (at the end of five weeks, as
nearly as I could compute it by my lamp) to a prodigious lake of water,
bordered with a grassy down, about half a mile wide, of the finest
verdure I had ever seen: this again was flanked with a wood or grove,
rising like an amphitheatre, of about the same breadth; and behind, and
above all, appeared the naked rock to an immense height.