sail, and had a good voyage till we passed the Straits of
Madagascar;[41] but having got northward of that island, and to about
five degrees south latitude, the winds, which in those seas are observed
to blow a constant equal gale, between the north and west, from the
beginning of December to the beginning of May, on the nineteenth of
April began to blow with much greater violence and more westerly than
usual, continuing so for twenty days together, during which time we were
driven a little to the east of the Molucca Islands, and about three
degrees northward of the line,[42] as our captain found by an
observation he took the second of May, at which time the wind ceased and
it was a perfect calm; whereat I was not a little rejoiced. But, he,
being a man well experienced in the navigation of those seas, bid us all
prepare against a storm, which accordingly happened the day following:
for the southern wind, called the southern monsoon, began to set in, and
soon it was a fierce storm.

Finding it was like to overblow, we took in our sprit-sail, and stood by
to hand the foresail; but making foul weather, we looked the guns were
all fast, and handed the mizzen.

[Illustration]

The ship lay very broad off, so we thought it better spooning before
the sea, than trying, or hulling. We reefed the foresail and set him, we
hauled aft the foresheet: the helm was hard-a-weather. The ship wore
bravely. We belayed the fore down-haul; but the sail was split, and we
hauled down the yard, and got the sail into the ship, and unbound all
the things clear of it. It was a very fierce storm; the sea broke
strange and dangerous. We hauled off the laniard of the whipstaff, and
helped the man at the helm. We could not get down our topmast, but let