of woe, nobody minded me, excepting to thruſt me aſide with their feet, thinking me dead, and it was a great while before I recovered.
Happy it was for us, when upon the ſignal given, they ventured out their boats to ſave our lives. All our pumping had been in vain, and vain had all our attempts been, had they not come to our ſhip's ſide, and our men caſt them a rope over the ſtern wiih a buoy to it, which after great labour they got hold of, and we hauling them up to us, got into their boat, and left our ſhip, which we perceived ſink within leſs than a quarter of an hour; and thus I learned what was meant by foundering at ſea. And now the men inceſſantly laboured to recover their own ſhip but the ſea ran ſo high, and the wind blew ſo hard, that they thought it convenient to hale within ſhore; which, with. great difficulty and danger, at laſt we happily effected, landing at a place called Cromer, not far from Winterton light-houſe; from whence we all walked to Yarmouth, where as objects of pity, many good people furniſhed us with neceſſaries to carry us either to Hull or London.
Strange, after all this, like the prodigal ſon, I did not return to my father; who hearing of the ſhip's calamity, for a long time thought me entombed in the deep. No doubt but I would have ſhared on his fatted calf, as the Scripture expreſſeth it; but my ill fate ſtill puſhed me on, in ſpite of the powerful convictions of reaſon and conſcience.
When we had been at Yarmouth three days, I met my old companion, who had given me the invitation to go on board along with his father. His behaviour and ſpeech were altered, and in a melancholy manner aſked me how I did, telling his father who I was, and how I had made this voyage, only for a trial to proceed further abroad. Upon which the old gentleman turning to me gravely, ſaid, "Young man, you ought never to go to ſea any more, but to take this for a certain ſign that you never will proſper in a ſeafaring condition." "Sir," anſwered I, "will you take the ſame reſolution?" "It is a different caſe," ſaid he; "it is my calling, and conſequently my duty; but as you have made this voyage for a trial, you ſee what ill ſucceſs Heaven has ſet before your eyes; and perhaps our miſeries have been on your account, like Jonah in the ſhip of Tarſhiſh. But pray what are you? and on what account did you go to ſea?" Upon which I very freely declared my whole ſtory: at the end of which he made this
