by Daniel Defoe
navigationstood.
They had, indeed, drawn their two floats to the shore as well as theycould, and with pieces of wood like piles, stuck in on every side,brought them to ride easy, but had not taken the least thought aboutchange of weather, though they knew they had neither anchor or cable,nor so much as a rope large enough to fasten them with on the shore.
But they were taught more wit, to their cost, in two or three days; for,the very second night they felt a little unusual rising of the water, asthey thought, though without any wind; and the next morning they foundthe water of the lake was swelled about two feet perpendicular, and thattheir floats, by that means, lay a great way farther from the shore thanthey did at first, and the water still increasing.
This made them imagine there was a tide in the lake, and that after alittle time it would abate again, but they soon found their mistake; forafter some time, they perceived the water, which was perfectly fine andclear before, grew by degrees of a paler colour, thick and whitish, tillat last it was quite white and muddy, as is usual in land floods; andas it still continued rising, so they continued thrusting in theirfloats farther and farther towards the shore, till they had, in short,lost all the fine golden sands they were at work upon before, and foundthe lake overflowed the land so far beyond them, that, in short, theyseemed to be in the middle of the lake, for they could scarce see to theend of the water, even on that very side where, but a few hours before,their floats were fast on the sands.
It may be easily judged that this put them into great consternation, andthey might well conclude that they should be all drowned and lost; forthey were now, as it were, in the middle of the sea upon two open floatsor rafts, fenced nowhere from the least surge or swell of the water,except by a kind of waste board, about two feet high, built up on thesides, without any calking or pitching, or anything to keep out thewater.
They had neither mast or sail, anchor or cable, head or stern, no bowsto fence off the waves, or rudder to steer any course, or oars to giveany motion to their floats, whose bottoms were flat like a punt, so thatthey were obliged to thrust them along with such poles as they had, someof which were about eight or ten feet long, which gained them a littleway, though very slowly.
All the remedy they had in this case was, to set on with their polestowards the shore, and to observe, by their pocket compasses, which wayit lay; and this they laboured hard at, lest they should be lost in thenight, and not know which way to go.
Their carpenters, in the mean time, with some spare boards which theyhad, or rather made, raised their sides as well as they could, to keepoff the wash of the sea, if any wind should rise so as to make the waterrough; and thus they fenced against every danger as well as they could,though, all put together, they were but in a very sorry condition.
Now they had time to reflect upon their voracious fury, in ranging theshore to pick up gold, without considering where and in what conditionthey were, and without looking out on shore for a place of safety: nay,they might now have reflected on the madness of venturing out into alake or inland sea of that vast extent, in such pitiful bottoms as theyhad under them. Their business, doubtless, had been to have stoppedwithin the mouth of the river, and found a convenient place to landtheir goods and secure their lives; and when they had pitched their campupon any safe high ground, where they might be sure they could neitherbe overflowed nor surrounded with water, they might have searched theshores of the lake as far as they thought fit; but thus to launch intoan unknown water, and in such a condition, as to their vessels, as isdescribed above, was most unaccountably rash and inconsiderate.
Never were a crew of fifty men, all able and experienced sailors, soembarked, nor drawn into such a snare; for they were surrounded withwater for three or four miles in breadth on the nearest shore, and thisall on a sudden, the country lying low and flat for such a breadth, allwhich appeared dry land and green, like the fields, the day before; and,without question, the men were sufficiently surprised.
Now they would have given all the gold they had got, which was veryconsiderable too, to have been on shore on the wildest and most barrenpart of the country, and would have trusted to their own diligence toget food; but here, besides the imminent danger of drowning, they mightalso be in danger of starving; for had their floats grounded but uponany little hillock, they might have stuck there till they had starvedand perished for hunger. Then they were in the utmost anxiety too forfear of wetting their powder, which, if it had happened, they couldnever have made serviceable again, and without it, they could not havekilled anything for food, if they had got to the shore.
They had, in this exigence, some comforts, however, which might a littleuphold their spirits; and without which, indeed, their condition musthave been deplorable and desperate.
1. It was hot weather, so that as they had no shelter against the cold,if it had come, they had no cold to afflict them; but they rather wantedawnings to keep off the sun, than houses to keep off the cold.
2. The water of the lake was fresh and good; even when it looked whiteand thick, yet it was very sweet, wholesome, and good tasted; had itbeen salt water, and they thus in the middle of it, they must haveperished with thirst.
3. They being now floating over the drowned lands only, the water wasnot very deep, so that they could reach ground, and set along theirrafts with their poles, and this, to be sure, they failed not to do withthe utmost diligence.
They had also the satisfaction to observe, though it was not withouttoiling in an inexpressible manner, that they gained upon the shore, andthat there was a high land before them, which they were making for,though very slowly, and at a distance they hoped to overcome.
But soon after, they had another discouragement, namely, that they sawthe day declining, and night coming on apace, and, in short, that it wasimpossible they could reach the high land, which they saw by daylight,nor did they know what to do or how to go on in the night.
At length two bold fellows offered themselves to strip and go off,either to wade or swim to the shore, which they had daylight to do,being, as they judged, about three miles, though they found it abovefour, and from thence to find means to make a fire or light to guidethem to the shore in the dark.
This was, indeed, a desperate attempt, but the two fellows being goodswimmers, and willing to venture, it was not impracticable. They hadlight linen drawers on, with pockets, and open at the knees, and theirshirts; each of them took a little bottle with some gunpowder, closestopped, with other materials for kindling fire; weapons they had none,but each man a knife and a hatchet fastened round his waist in a littlebelt, and a light pole in his hands to help him when he waded, which itwas expected they must do part of the way. They had no provisions withthem, but a bottle with some good brandy in their pockets abovementioned.
When they went off, it was supposed the water to be about four feet tofive feet deep, so they chose to swim rather than wade, and it was veryseldom much deeper; they had often opportunity to stand on the firmground to rest themselves.
In this posture they went on directly towards the land, and after theyhad, by swimming and wading together, advanced about a mile, they foundthe water grew shallower, which was a signal to them that they shouldreach the hard ground in a little time; so they walked cheerfully on inabout three feet water, for near a mile more.
Their companions on board the rafts soon lost sight of them, for theybeing in white, and the water white too, and the light declining, theycould not see them at a mile distance.
After this they found the ground falling lower, so that they had deeperwater for half a mile more all the way; after which, they came to a flatground again, for near two miles more, and at length to the dry land, totheir great satisfaction, though it was then quite night.
They had been near an hour in the dark, that is to say, with only adusky light, and began to be greatly at a loss, not being able to seethe compass. They had made shift to get over the half mile of deeperwater pretty well; for, though it was too deep for the two men to wade,as above
, yet they could reach the bottom with their poles, and, at thattime, they happened to feel a little breeze of wind fair in their way,which not only refreshed them, but gave them a kind of a jog on theirway towards the shore.
At length, to their great joy, they saw a light; and it was the more totheir joy, because they saw it just before them, or, as the seamen callit, right ahead; by which they had the satisfaction to know they had notvaried their course in the dark. It seems their two men had landed upona fair rising ground, where they found some low bushes and trees, andwhere they had good hard dry standing; and they soon found means to pickout a few withered dry sticks, with which they made a blaze for thepresent, having struck fire with the tools they were furnished with, asmentioned above.
By the light of this blaze, they gave the first notice to their comradesthat they were landed; and they in return, as was agreed as before,fired two guns as a signal that they saw it, and were all safe.
By the light of this fire, the two men also gave themselves so muchlight as to find more
