_How the brigantines lost sight of each other in a storm, and
afterwards came together at a kay._
The tempest having passed off from the beach where the brigantines
were riding, the people went on shore. With mattocks they dug holes
there, into which the water having flowed, they thence filled their
pipkins. The next day they left; and sailing two days, they entered
a basin, like a cove, which afforded shelter against a high wind
that blew from the south. There they tarried, unable to leave, until
the fourth day, when the sea subsided and they went out by rowing.
They sailed until near evening; the wind then freshened, driving
them in such manner upon the land, that they regretted having left
the harbor; for no sooner was it nightfall than the storm began to
rise on the sea, and with its approach the wind gradually increased.
The brigantines separated. The two that were farthest out entered
an arm of the sea, a couple of leagues beyond the place where the
others found themselves at dark. The five that were astern remained
from half a league to a league apart, along an exposed beach, upon
which the winds and waves were casting them, without one vessel's
knowing the fate of another. The anchors having yielded, the vessels
were dragging them: the oars, at each of which seven and eight were
pulling seaward, could not hold the vessels; the rest of the men,
leaping into the water, with the utmost diligence, after the wave had
passed that drove them to the shore, would launch the brigantine;
while those on board, before another wave could come, baled out with
bowls the water that came in upon them.
While thus engaged, in great fear of being lost, from midnight
forward they suffered the intolerable torment of a myriad of
mosquitos. The flesh is directly inflamed from their sting, as though
it had received venom. Towards morning the wind lulled, and the
sea went down; but the insects continued none the less. The sails,
which were white, appeared black with them at daylight; while the
men could not pull at the oars without assistance to drive away the
insects. Fear having passed off with the danger of the storm, the
people observing the swollen condition of each other's faces, and
the marks of the blows they had given and received to rid them of
the mosquitos, they could but laugh. The vessels came together in a
creek, where lay the two brigantines that preceded them. Finding a
scum the sea casts up, called copee, which is like pitch, and used
instead on shipping, where that is not to be had, they payed the
bottoms of their vessels with it.
After remaining two days they resumed their voyage; and having
run likewise two days, they entered an arm of the sea and landed.
Spending there a couple of days, they left; six men on the last day
having gone up the bay in a canoe without finding its head. The
brigantines went out in a head-wind blowing from the south, which
being light, and the people having a strong desire to hasten the
voyage, they pulled out by strength of arm to sea with great toil,
and making little headway for two days, they entered by an arm of
the sea behind an islet which it encircles, where followed such bad
weather, that they were not unmindful to give thanks for that good
shelter. Fish abounded there. They were taken in nets and with the
line. A man having thrown out a cord made fast to his arm, a fish
caught at the hook and drew him into the water up to the neck, when,
remembering a knife that he had providentially kept, he cut himself
loose.
At the close of the fourteenth day of their stay, the Almighty having
thought proper to send fair weather, the Christians very devoutly
formed a procession for the return of thanks, in which, moving along
the beach, they supplicated Him that He would take them to a land in
which they might better do Him service.