I endeavoured to change my course but quickly found that if I again made the attempt the boat would be instantly filled with water.

Thus situated, my only resource was to drive before the wind.

I confess that I felt a few sensations of terror.

I had no compass with me and was so slenderly acquainted with the geography of this part of the world that the sun was of little benefit to me.

I might be driven into the wide Atlantic and feel all the tortures of starvation or be swallowed up in the immeasurable waters that roared and buffeted around me.