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patches for the ministry; accordingly we set sail for England.
Now that I could return to my native country in a creditable way, I felt excessive pleasure in finding myself out of sight of that fatal island which had been the grave of so many Europeans.
At this time, the captain being seized with a violent fit of the gout and gravel, applied to a cask of Holland gin, which was his sovereign prescription against all distempers: but whether he was at that time too sparing or took an over-dose of his cordial certain it is, he departed in the night and was found stiff next morning, to the no small satisfaction of Crampley, who succeeded to the command of the vessel.
We had been seven weeks at sea, when the gunner told the captain, that by his reckoning we must be in soundings and desired he would order the lead to be heaved. Crampley swore he did not know how to keep the ship's way. But at three o'clock next morning the ship struck and remained fast on the land bank. The masts were cut away in order to lighten her; this was performed without success. The sailors seeing things in a desperate situation, broke up the chests belonging to
