The wave that came upon me again buried me at once twenty or thirty feet deep in
its own body, and I could feel myself carried with a mighty force and swiftness
towards the shore—a very great way; but I held my breath, and assisted myself to
swim still forward with all my might. I was ready to burst with holding my
breath, when, as I felt myself rising up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my
head and hands shoot out above the surface of the water; and though it was not
two seconds of time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly,
gave me breath, and new courage. I was covered again with water a good while,
but not so long but I held it out; and finding the water had spent itself, and
began to return, I struck forward against the return of the waves, and felt
ground again with my feet. I stood still a few moments to recover breath, and
till the waters went from me, and then took to my heels and ran with what
strength I had further towards the shore. But neither would this deliver me from
the fury of the sea, which came pouring in after me again; and twice more I was
lifted up by the wave sand carried forward as before, the shore being very
flat.
The last time of these two had well-nigh been fatal to me, for the sea
having hurried me along as before, landed me, or rather dashed me, against a
piece of rock, and that with such force, that it left me senseless, and indeed
helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow taking my side and breast, beat
the breath as it were quite out of my body; and had it returned again
immediately, I must have been strangled in the water; but I recovered a little
before the return of the waves, and seeing I should be covered again with the
water, I resolved to hold fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath,
if possible, till the wave went back. Now, as the waves were not so high as at
first, being nearer land, I held my hold till the wave abated, and then fetched
another run, which brought me so near the shore that the next wave, though it
went over me, yet did not so swallow me up as to carry me away; and the next run
I took, I got to the mainland, where, to my great comfort, I clambered up the
cliffs of the shore and sat me down upon the grass, free from danger and quite
out of the reach of the water.
I was now landed and safe on shore, and began
to look up and thank God that my life was saved, in a case wherein there was
some minutes before scarce any room to hope. I believe it is impossible to
express, to the life, what the ecstasies and transports of the soul are, when it
is so saved, as I may say, out of the very grave: and I do not wonder now at the
custom, when a malefactor, who has the halter about his neck, is tied up, and
just going to be turned off, and has a reprieve brought to him—I say, I do not
wonder that they bring a surgeon with it, to let him blood that very moment they
tell him of it, that the surprise may not drive the animal spirits from the
heart and overwhelm him.
“For sudden joys, like griefs, confound at
first.”
I walked about on the shore lifting up my hands, and my whole being,
as I may say, wrapped up in a contemplation of my deliverance; making a thousand
gestures and motions, which I cannot describe; reflecting upon all my comrades
that were drowned, and that there should not be one soul saved but myself; for,
as for them, I never saw them afterwards, or any sign of them, except three of
their hats, one cap, and two shoes that were not fellows.
I cast my eye to
the stranded vessel, when, the breach and froth of the sea being so big, I could
hardly see it, it lay so far of; and considered, Lord! how was it possible I
could get on shore?
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