A.D. THE ENGLISH VOYAGES 



1556. 



during 10. dayes with great might, boisterous winds, 

 fogs & raine : our ship being old and weake was so 

 tossed, that she opened at the sterne a fadome under 

 water, and the best remedy we had was to stop it 

 with beds and pilobiers, and for feare of sinking we 

 threw and lightned into the sea all the goods we had 

 or could come by : but that would not serve. Then 

 we cut our maine mast and threw all our Ordinance 

 into the sea saving one piece, which early in a morning 

 when wee thought wee should have sunke, we shot off, 

 and as pleased God there was one of the ships of our 

 company neere unto us, which we saw not by meanes 

 of the great fogge, which hearing the sound of the piece, 

 & understanding some of the company to be in great 

 extremitie, began to make towards us, and when they 

 came within hearing of us, we desired them for the love 

 of God to helpe to save us, for that we were all like 

 to perish. They willed us to hoise our foresaile as 

 much as we could & make towards them, for they would 

 do their best to save us, and so we did : And we had 

 no sooner hoised our foresaile, but there came a gale 

 of winde & a piece of a sea, strooke in the foresaile, 

 and caried saile & maste all overboord, so that then we 

 thought there was no hope of life. And then we began 

 to imbrace one another, every man his friend, every 

 wife her husband, and the children their fathers and 

 mothers, committing our soules to Almighty God, think- 

 ing never to escape alive: yet it pleased God in the time 

 of most need when all hope was past, to aide us with 

 his helping hand, and caused the winde a little to cease, 

 so that within two houres after, the other ship was able 

 to come aboord us, & tooke into her with her boat man, 

 woman and child, naked without hose or shoe upon 

 many of our feete. I do remember that the last person 

 that came out of the ship into the boat, was a woman 

 blacke Moore, who leaping out of the ship into the 

 boat with a yong sucking child in her armes, lept too 

 short and fell into the sea, and was a good while under 



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