Now they would have given all the gold they had got, which was very considerable too, to have been on shore on the wildest and most barren part of the country, and would have trusted to their own diligence to get food; but here, besides the imminent danger of drowning, they might also be in danger of starving; for had their floats grounded but upon any little hillock, they might have stuck there till they had starved and perished for hunger. Then they were in the utmost anxiety too for fear of wetting their powder, which, if it had happened, they could never have made serviceable again, and without it, they could not have killed anything for food, if they had got to the shore. They had, in this exigence, some comforts, however, which might a little uphold their spirits; and without which, indeed, their condition must have been deplorable and desperate. 1. It was hot weather, so that as they had no shelter against the cold, if it had come, they had no cold to afflict them; but they rather wanted awnings to keep off the sun, than houses to keep off the cold. 2. The water of the lake was fresh and good; even when it looked white and thick, yet it was very sweet, wholesome, and good tasted; had it been salt water, and they thus in the middle of it, they must have perished with thirst. 3. They being now floating over the drowned lands only, the water was not very deep, so that they could reach ground, and set along their rafts with their poles, and this, to be sure, they failed not to do with the utmost diligence. They had also the satisfaction to observe, though it was not without toiling in an inexpressible manner, that they gained upon the shore, and that there was a high land before them, which they were making for, though very slowly, and at a distance they hoped to overcome. But soon after, they had another discouragement, namely, that they saw the day declining, and night coming on apace, and, in short, that it was impossible they could reach the high land, which they saw by daylight, nor did they know what to do or how to go on in the night. At length two bold fellows offered themselves to strip and go off, either to wade or swim to the shore, which they had daylight to do, being, as they judged, about three miles, though they found it above four, and from thence to find means to make a fire or light to guide them to the shore in the dark.