16G CHAKITABLE ASSISTANCE. [1694: 



Grievances redress'd/ and, moreover, assur'd us it was no 

 fault of tlieirs if they did not receive us on board ; but that 

 they could not do it openly, without the Consent of the Eas- 

 cally Governor, who, they could plainly perceive, was highly 

 averse to it. However, they told us if we could so contrive 

 as to get on board them, without any manner of Assistance 

 of theirs, then they said they both could and would receive 

 us, and we should be transported whither we pleas'd. Some 

 few Days after they sent us out of Charity three hundred 

 Weight of Eice, some white Biscuit and a few Bottles of 

 Aqica Vitx and Sjmnish Wine.^ All this was highly useful 

 to us afterwards, especially the Eice, which we sometimes 

 stood in great want of. These Provisions we took a great 

 deal of care to conceal in tlie Holes of the Eock, lest they 

 ghould come to be seen by the Seamen that brought us our 

 Prog, or lest that malicious Devil Diodati should order them 

 to be taken from us, Now as our good Friends the Officers 

 had promis'd to take us on board, in case we could get to 

 their Ship without their Help, we, like drowning Men that 

 catch at any thing, made two Attempts for that purpose. La 

 Case, who was a good Swimmer, us'd his Endeavours to get 

 to them that way, which was yet not a little dangerous to 

 do, by reason the Passage to the Ship was a good half 

 League, and that Sea exceeding full of Sharks, which are 



1 In orig, : " qu'ils nous protesterent qu'ils mettroieut tout en oeuvre 

 pour tacher de nous soulager." 



2 Mr. Francis Willoughby, whose ornithology has been before quoted 

 by MissoQ {vide supra, p. 15), mentions the Spanish wine he found at 

 Huesca in 1G64, as a yellowish white wine like sack. The Spaniards, he 

 said, made great vessels of goatskin to put wine in, and lesser bottles 

 which were called Boios. They seldom mingled water with their wine, 

 it being a common saying among them, " Vino poco S,- puro," though 

 all over Spain the wine was very hot and strong. {Vide Francis Wil- 

 loughby's Vo!/a;ie through Spain; Harris's Voya(jct<,\o\. ii, pp. 595, 697.) 



The Aqua Vitie of the translator is eau-de-vie in the original ; in this 

 case probably the spirit made by the Dutch and called llulldiids, or 

 corn brandy. 



