In his own Preface, Captain Rogers says, "I was not fond to appear in print; but my friends who had read my journal prevail'd with me at last to publish it," adding, "I know 'tis generally expected, that when far distant voyages are printed, they should contain new and wonderful discoveries, with surprising accounts of people and animals; but this voyage being only design'd for cruising on the enemy, it is not reasonable to expect such accounts here as are to be met with in travels relating to history, geography, &c., while, as for stile, I have not had time, were it my talent, to polish it; nor do I think it necessary for a mariner's journal. 'Tis also," he says, "a particular misfortune, which attends voyages to the South Sea, that the buccaneers, to set off their own knight-errantry, and to make themselves pass for prodigies of courage and conduct, have given such romantic accounts of their adventures, and told such strange stories, as make the voyages of those who come after (and cannot allow themselves the same liberty), to look flat and insipid to unthinking people. Therefore I request my readers, that they be favourable in their censures when they peruse this journal which is not calculated to amuse, but barely to relate the truth, and which is all written in the language of the sea, that being more genuine and natural for a mariner than the method us'd by authors that write ashoar." I have, therefore, in the following extracts, quoted Rogers' Journal as closely as possible, adding only a short connecting note here and there, where required. ROBERT C. LESLIE. [Illustration] FOOTNOTES: [1] Though this island in the Pacific is the one usually associated with Robinson Crusoe, Defoe conceals its identity by wrecking Crusoe's ship upon an island to the north of Brasil, near the "Great River Oroonoque." [Illustration] CHAPTER I. FROM KING ROAD, BRISTOL, TO CORK IN IRELAND. [Sidenote: 1708] [Sidenote: _Setting out from King Road._]