LOSS OF A JAMAICA SLOOP. 267 
again on the other side, easing ourselves down the branches 
to prevent our falling. Having wandered for several hours 
in this manner, and being in hopes we had passed the head- 
land, and withal beginning to be apprehensive we should not 
be able to get out of the woods before night, there being more 
danger of wild beasts, and much more unwholesome sleeping 
than at the sea-side ; we therefore thought it absolutely ne- 
cessary to recover it before it was dark, and having descend- 
ed between two hills into a deep narrow valley, we found a 
fine rivulet, very seasonable to quench our thirst. I concluded 
this rivulet led to the sea, and therefore followed the stream ; 
but it having many turnings and windings, we went several 
miles round before we came to it, and to our great mortifica- 
tion, found ourselves still on the same side, and not far from 
the place where we entered the w^oods. The sun being set, 
we gathered wood and made a fire ; here we continued till the 
morning, and then attempted to go over the hill, but found it 
impossible to force a way through the penguins, briars, and 
other prickly plants that grew there. We retired, after tear- 
ing our clothes and losing some of our flesh, and then took a 
very desperate resolution to climb over the cragged part of the 
rocks, very steep and high, and extremely dangerous to pass ; 
these we got over by stepping from one hole in the sides of 
the rocks to another, and from one crag to another, holding 
by the ragged part of it with one hand, and our spare clothes 
with the other, and by the assistance of Providence we all got 
over. We now went on cheerfully, believing the worst of our 
journey over ; in about an hour after, by the sea-side, I found 
a cocoa-nut ; I soon opened it, and found it full of milk, which 
I drank with great pleasure, and then divided the nut among 
the people. After we had traveled about ten miles we came 
to another point of rocks, but this we got over without much 
difficulty. Having gone about six long miles farther, it grow- 
ing night, Ave made our fire according to custom, and in the 
morning proceeded on our journey, fording over many rivers ; 
it was showery weather, and being but thinly clothed, I was 
often wet to the skin, but soon dried again by the wind and 
sun. About nine o'clock in the morning we came to a low 
flat point of land, w^iich, by the sea beating continually upon 
it, had washed away the earth from the roots of the trees 
which had grown there, and left them lying scattered very 
thick all over the point. 
" Having got over this troublesome place, we were in ex- 
pectation every moment of coming to some habitations. We 
22* 
