The wind continued fresh easterly, but the weather pretty good; and as it had blowed continually in the points between N.E. and S.E. a long time, we missed several opportunities of sending them to France; for we met several ships bound to Europe, whereof two were French, from St. Christopher’s; but they had been so long beating up against the wind, that they durst take in no passengers for fear of wanting provisions for the voyage, as well for themselves as for those they should take in; so we were obliged to go on.  It was about a week after this, that we made the banks of Newfoundland, where, to shorten my story, we put all our French people on board a bark, which they hired at sea there, to put them on shore, and afterwards to carry them to France, if they could get provisions to victual themselves with:  when, I say, all the French went on shore, I should remember that the young priest I spoke of, hearing we were bound to the East Indies, desired to go the voyage with us, and to be set on shore on the coast of Coromandel:  I readily agreed to that; for I wonderfully liked the man, and had very good reason, as will appear afterwards; also four of the seamen entered themselves in our ship, and proved very useful fellows.

From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes little or no wind at all, when we met with another subject for our humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.

It was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N. and the 19th day of March 1684—­5, when we espied a sail, our course S.E. and by S. We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to us; but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast, fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fires a gun as a signal of distress.  The weather was pretty good, wind at N.N.W. a fresh gale, and we soon came to speak with her.

We found her a ship of Bristol bound home from Barbadoes, but had been blown out of the road at Barbadoes, a few days before she was ready to sail, by a terrible hurricane, while the captain and chief mate were both gone on shore; so that beside the terror of the storm, they were but in an indifferent case for good artists to bring the ship home; they had been already nine weeks at sea, and had met with another terrible storm after the hurricane was over, which had blown them quite out of their knowledge to the westward, and in which they had lost their masts, as above; they told us, they expected to have seen the Bahama Islands, but were then driven away again to the south-east by a strong gale of wind at N.N.W. the same that blew now, and having no sails to work the ship with, but a main-course, and a kind of square sail upon a jury-foremast, which they had set up, they could not lie near the wind, but were endeavouring to stand away for the Canaries.