"The evening of this 18th day was very dismal. The sky looked very black, being covered with dark clouds; the wind blew hard, and the seas ran high. The sea was already roaring in a white foam about us; a dark night coming on, and no land in sight to shelter us, and our little ark in danger to be swallowed by every wave; and what was worst of all, none of us thought ourselves prepared for another world. The reader may better guess than I can express, the confusion that we were all in. I had been in many eminent dangers before now, some of which I have already related, but the worst of them all was a play-game in comparison with this. I must confess I was in great conflicts of mind at this time. Other dangers came not upon me with such a leisurely and dreadful solemnity. A sudden skirmish or engagement or so was nothing when one's blood was up, and pushed forward with eager expectations. But here I had a lingering view of approaching death, and little or no hopes of escaping it; and I must confess that my courage, which I had hitherto kept up, failed me here; and I made very sad reflections of my former life, and looked back with horror and detestation on actions which before I disliked, and I now trembled at the remembrance of. I had long before this repented me of that roving course of life, but never with such concern as now. I did also call to mind many miraculous acts of God's providence towards me in the whole course of my life, of which kind I believe few men have met with the like. For all these I returned thanks in a peculiar manner, and this once more desired God's assistance, and composed my mind as well as I could in the hopes of it; and, as the event showed, I was not disappointed of my hopes. "Submitting ourselves, therefore, to God's good providence, and taking all care we could to preserve our lives, Mr Hall and I took turns to steer, and the rest took turns to heave out the water, and thus we provided to spend the most doleful night I ever was in. About ten o'clock it began to thunder, lighten, and rain; but the rain was very welcome to us, having drank up all the water we brought from the island. "The wind at first blew harder than before, but within half an hour it abated and become more moderate, and the sea also assuaged of its fury; and then by a lighted match, of which we kept a piece burning on purpose, we looked on our compass to see how we steered, and found our course to be still east. We had no occasion to look on the compass before, for we steered right before the wind, which if it shifted we had been obliged to have altered our course accordingly. But now it being abated, we found our vessel lively enough, with that small sail which was then aboard, to hale our former course S.S.E., which accordingly we did, being now in hopes again to get to the island Sumatra.