REMEMBRANCE OF THINGS PAST 11 



that were under the main-yard ; they were very hard 

 on account of the sun, rain, and wind, and we left 

 them for four or five days in the sea, and then put 

 them a little on the embers, and so ate them ; also 

 the sawdust of wood, and rats." 



The good John Davis seems to have endured 

 misery quite as great as this. In the course of one 

 of his voyages the supply of water almost ran out : — 



''Our allowance of drinke, which was scant ynough 

 before, was yet more scanted ... so that now a man 

 was allowed but halfe a pinte at a meale. From halfe 

 a pinte we came to a quarter, and that lasted not 

 long neither. With this hard fare (for by reason of 

 our great want of drinke, wee durst eate but very 

 litle) wee continued for the space of a fortnight or 

 thereabouts, saving that now and then wee feasted, 

 and that was when there fell any haile or raine, the 

 hailestones wee gathered up, and did eat them more 

 pleasantly than if they had bene the sweetest Comfits 

 in the world. And that water which fell downe and 

 washed away the filth and soyling of the shippe . . . 

 was not lost, I warrant you, but watched and attended 

 carefully (yea, sometimes with strife and contention) 

 at every scupper-hole . . . notwithstanding it were 

 muddie and bitter with washing the shippe, but (with 



* This and the subsequent quotations are from T/ie Voyages 

 and Works of John Davis^ edited by Captain A. H. Markham, and 

 pubUshed by the Hakluyt Society. 



