our ships to finde againe, And here our liues do shorten fast in miserie and paine: For why the raging heat of Sunne, being so extreme, Consumes our flesh away in sweat, as dayly it is seene. The Ternados againe so often in a weeke, With great lightnings, thunder and raine with such abundance eke, Doe so beat vs by night, that we sleepe not at all, Whereby our strength is vaded quite. no man an ore can hale. How hard liue we, alas? three whole dayes oft be past, Ere we poore men (a heauie case) of any thing doe tast. These twentie dayes ye see, we haue sit still ech one, Which we doe of necessitie, for place to walke is none. Our legs now vs deceiue, swolne euery ioint withall, With this disease, which, by your leaue, the Scuruie men doe call. We cannot long endure in this case as we be, To leaue our boat I am right sure, compeld we must agree. Three wayes for vs there is, and this is my request, That we may of these three deuise, to choose thereof the best. The Castle of the Mine is not farre hence, we know, To morrow morne we there may be, if thither you will goe. There Portingals do lie, are christened men they be: If we dare trust their curtesie, the worst is hanging glee. Our miserie may make them pitie vs the more, Nine such yong men great pains would take for life to hale an ore. Their Gallies may perhaps lacke such yong men as we, And thus it may fall in our laps, all Galeyslaues to be, During our life, and this, we shall be sure to haue, Although we row, such meate as is the allowance of a slaue. But here we rowe and sterue, our misery is so sore: The slaue with meat inough they serue, that he may teare his ore. If this you will not like. the next way is to goe: Vnto the Negros, and to seeke what friendship they will shew. But what fauour would ye of these men looke to haue: Who beastly sauage people be, farre worse then any slaue? If Cannibals they be in kind, we doe not know, But if they be, then welcome we, to pot straightway we goe. They naked goe likewise, for shame we cannot so: We cannot liue after their guise, thus naked for to go. By rootes and leaues they liue, as beasts doe in the wood: Among these heathen who can thriue, with this so wilde a food? The piercing heate againe, that, scorcheth with such strength, Piercing our naked flesh, with paine, will vs consume at length. The third and last is this, (if those two you refuse) To die in miserable wise, here in the boate you chuse. And this iudge by the way, more trust is to be giuen, Vnto the Portingals alway, sith they be christned men, Then to these brutish sort, which beastly are ye see: Who of our death will make a sport, if Canibals they be. We all with one consent,