Having set to sea, we were overtaken by a storm, and were drove on shore on an island of which the captain said he knew nothing more than that it must certainly be one of the Arches. This made us cautious of going up into the land, without being armed. CHAP. XII. _Discovery of a new Island not to be found in our Maps._ Therefore forty of us (among which I was one) declared our inclination of reconnoit’ring this island: It was rocky, sandy, and therefore desart, which we supposed to be the reason of it’s being never noticed by seamen; for as the Arches are a kind of a serpentine walk on the sea, a Dedalean labyrinth, it is more than possible, it is morally probable, that one thousand mariners in one thousand years, might never be obliged by storm, course, chance, or accident to have entered into the narrow ferry, or ferries, dividing it from forty others, insignificant as itself, which surround it. So that we were not surprized that after searching all the maps, charts, gazetteers, and even the great geographical dictionary for this island, we found all our attempts to find it entirely fruitless and abortive; on the hazard of reconnoit’ring the island, which was not seemingly more than two leagues in length and one in breadth, we took four rounds of cartridge, that in case of an attack, we might be able to facilitate our retreat to the boats; we went up about half a mile into the country, when we could plainly espy without glasses, a great number of the inhabitants on a hill who seemed flocking together to observe our motions, not without seeming apprehension of an invasion, which notwithstand from their numbers compared to ours, they must have laughed at; however, we made friendly signals of distress to invite them down, which they seemed, either not to understand, or to disregard; we then took courage, thinking that they could be no more than a parcel of peasants, or at best a raw militia, so we proceeded to the foot of the hill, but on our advancing so far, and looking forward, instead of having the least retrospect towards the ground we had passed, our small corps was quite surrounded, and made prisoners of war. They took from us our arms, without entering into any discourse with us, and taking the barrels out of the stocks with more dexterity than a gun-smith, they planted them on a rising ground, and returning us the empty stocks, pointed to the artillery they had just planted, with the greatest solemnity and presence of mind, and then making signs that we should depart, dismissed us, still pointing to our gun-barrels, significantly expressing by their silence, (for they said not a word) that our own arms should be pointed against us, if we dared come there again; we were very well satisfied with this discharge, since as there appeared several thousand of them against us poor forty, we prudently did not discharge one piece at them, which might have irritated them to such