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that the tide was carrying me rapidly to land ⟨from⟩ the veſſel, and that I ſhould ſoon once more touch terra firma
"This expectation was a cordial that revived my exhauſted spirits: I took courage, and left myſelf ſtill to the ſame all-directing Power that had hitherto preſerved me, ſcarcely doubting that I ſhould ſoon reach the land. Nor was I miſtaken; for, in a ſhort time more, without effort or exertion, and without once turning from off my back, I found myſelf ſtrike againſt the ſandy beach. Overjoyed to the higheſt pitch of tranſport at my providential deliverance, I made a convulſive ſpring, and ran up a little distance on the ſhore; but was ſo weary and worn down by fatigue, and ſo unable to clear my ſtomach of the ſalt water with which it was loaded, that I ſuddenly grew deadly ſick, and apprehended that I had only exchange one death for another, and in a minute or two fainted away."
India, Page 159-176.
Narrative of the Loſs of the Half well Eaſt Indiaman, on the coaſt of Dorſetſhire, January 1786.
THE Halſewell Eaſt-Indiamen, of 758 tons burthen, commanded by Richard Pierce Eſq; ſailed through the Downs on Sunday the 1ſt of January, 1786, and the next morning being a breaſt of Dunnoſe, it fell calm.
Monday the 2d of January. at three in the afternoon, a breeze ſprung up from the South, when they ran in ſhore to land the pilot, but very thick weather coming on in the evening, and the wind baffling, at nine in the evening they were obliged to anchor in eighteen fathom water, furled their topſails, but could not furl their courſes, the ſnow falling thick, and freezing as it fell.
