to making sail, we had none; neither if we had, could we make use of
any. So that when we had rowed, or rather were driven about a league and
a half, a raging wave, like a lofty mountain, came rolling astern of us,
and took us with such fury, that at once it overset the boat. Thus being
swallowed up in a moment, we had hardly time to call upon the tremendous
name of God; much less to implore, in dying ejaculations, his infinite
mercy to receive our departing souls.

Men are generally counted insensible, when struggling in the pangs of
death; but while I was overwhelmed with water, I had the most dreadful
apprehensions imaginable. For the joys of heaven and the torments of
hell, seemed to present themselves before me in these dying agonies, and
even small space of time, as it were, between life and death. I was
going I thought I knew not whither, into a dismal gulf unknown, and as
yet unperceived, never to behold my friends, nor the light of this world
any more! Could I even have thought of annihilation, or a total
dissolution of soul as well as body, the gloomy thoughts of having no
further being, no knowledge of what we hoped for, but an eternal
_quietus_, without life or sense: even that, I say, would have been
enough to strike me with horror and confusion! I strove, however, to the
last extremity, while all my companions were overpowered and entombed in
the deep: and it was with great difficulty I kept my breath till the
wave spent itself, and retiring back, left me on the shore half dead
with the water I had taken in. As soon as I got on my feet, I ran as
fast as I could, lest another wave should pursue me, and carry me back
again. But for all the haste I made, I could not avoid it: for the sea
came after me like a high mountain, or furious enemy; so that my
business was to hold my breath, and by raising myself on the water,
preserve it by swimming. The next dreadful wave buried me at once twenty
or thirty feet deep, but at the same time carried me with a mighty force