I
gave them provisions of bread and of dried grapes, sufficient for
themselves for many days, and sufficient for all the Spaniards -
for about eight days' time; and wishing them a good voyage, I saw
them go, agreeing with them about a signal they should hang out at
their return, by which I should know them again when they came
back, at a distance, before they came on shore. They went away
with a fair gale on the day that the moon was at full, by my
account in the month of October; but as for an exact reckoning of
days, after I had once lost it I could never recover it again; nor
had I kept even the number of years so punctually as to be sure I
was right; though, as it proved when I afterwards examined my
account, I found I had kept a true reckoning of years.
It was no less than eight days I had waited for them, when a
strange and unforeseen accident intervened, of which the like has
not, perhaps, been heard of in history. I was fast asleep in my
hutch one morning, when my man Friday came running in to me, and
called aloud, "Master, master, they are come, they are come!" I
jumped up, and regardless of danger I went, as soon as I could get
my clothes on, through my little grove, which, by the way, was by
this time grown to be a very thick wood; I say, regardless of
danger I went without my arms, which was not my custom to do; but I
was surprised when, turning my eyes to the sea, I presently saw a
boat at about a league and a half distance, standing in for the
shore, with a shoulder-of-mutton sail, as they call it, and the
wind blowing pretty fair to bring them in: also I observed,
presently, that they did not come from that side which the shore
lay on, but from the southernmost end of the island.
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