hands to any thing, unless the ship’s course was directed for England; so that he was obliged to follow their humour, henceforwards directing our course towards our own country, which we continued to do till we came to lat. 8 deg.  N. between the equator and which latitude we spent about six weeks, with perpetual calms or contrary winds from the north, sometimes north-east and north-west; owing to which loss of time, and our small store of provisions, we were very doubtful of being able to keep our course.  At this time some of our men became very mutinous, threatening to break up other people’s chests, to the entire consumption of our provisions and ourselves; for every man had now his share of provisions in his own custody, that they might know what they had to trust to, and husband that the more thriftily.

Anxious to prevent the occurrence of absolute famine, and being informed by one of the ship’s company who had been at the island of Trinidada, in a voyage with Mr Chudlei, and that we might be sure of having provisions there, our captain directed the course for that island; but not knowing the currents, we overshot it in the night, getting into the gulf of Paria, in which we were for eight days, unable to get out again, as the current constantly set in, and our ship was often in three fathoms water.  At length the current put us over to the western side of the gully under the main-land, so that by keeping close in shore, and having the wind off the land in the night, we got out to the northward.  Being now clear, we came in four or five days to the isle of Mona, where we anchored and remained about eighteen days, during which time the Indians of Mona gave us some victuals.  In the mean time there arrived a French ship of Caen, in Normandy, of which one Monsieur de Barbaterre was captain, from whom we bought two butts of wine, with some bread, and other provisions.  We then watered and repaired our ship, stopping a great leak that sprung upon us while beating out of the gulf of Paria; and being thus in readiness for sea, we determined upon going to the island of Newfoundland:  but, before we could put this in execution, there arose a great storm from the north, which drove us from our anchor, and forced us to the southwards of San Domingo.  We were that night in great danger of shipwreck upon an island called Savona, which is environed with flats for four or five miles all round; yet it pleased God to enable us to clear them, when we directed our course westwards, along the southern shore of St Domingo, and having doubled Cape Tiberoon, we passed through the old channel between St Domingo and Cuba, shaping our course for Cape Florida.