me back again with it when it gave back towards the sea.

The wave that came upon me again, buried me at once twenty or thirty
feet deep in its own body; and I could feel myself carried with a mighty
force and swiftness towards the shore a very great way; but I held my
breath, and assisted myself to swim still forward with all my might. I
was ready to burst with holding my breath, when, as I felt myself rising
up, so, to my immediate relief, I found my head and hands shoot out
above the surface of the water; and though it was not two seconds of
time that I could keep myself so, yet it relieved me greatly, gave me
breath, and new courage. I was covered again with water a good while,
but not so long but I held it out; and finding the water had spent
itself, and began to return, I struck forward against the return of the
waves, and felt ground again with my feet. I stood still a few moments,
to recover breath, and till the water went from me, and then took to my
heels, and ran with what strength I had farther towards the shore. But
neither would this deliver me from the fury of the sea, which came
pouring in after me again; and twice more I was lifted up by the waves
and carried forwards as before, the shore being very flat.

The last time of these two had well nigh been fatal to me; for the sea
having hurried me along, as before, landed me, or rather dashed me,
against a piece of a rock, and that with such force, that it left me
senseless, and indeed helpless, as to my own deliverance; for the blow
taking my side and breast, beat the breath, as it were, quite out of my
body; and had it returned again immediately, I must have been strangled
in the water: but I recovered a little before the return of the waves,
and seeing I should again be covered with the water, I resolved to hold
fast by a piece of the rock, and so to hold my breath, if possible, till
the wave went back. Now as the waves were not so high as the first,