lad," says he, "thou art born to do a world of mischief; thou hast
commenced pirate very young; but have a care of the gallows, young man;
have a care, I say, for thou wilt be an eminent thief."

I laughed at him, and told him I did not know what I might come to
hereafter, but as our case was now, I should make no scruple to take the
first ship I came at to get our liberty; I only wished we could see one,
and come at her. Just while we were talking, one of our men that was at the
door of our hut, told us that the carpenter, who it seems was upon a hill
at a distance, cried out, "A sail! a sail!"

We all turned out immediately; but, though it was very clear weather, we
could see nothing; but the carpenter continuing to halloo to us, "A sail! a
sail!" away we run up the hill, and there we saw a ship plainly; but it was
at a very great distance, too far for us to make any signal to her.
However, we made a fire upon the hill, with all the wood we could get
together, and made as much smoke as possible. The wind was down, and it was
almost calm; but as we thought, by a perspective glass which the gunner had
in his pocket, her sails were full, and she stood away large with the wind
at E.N.E., taking no notice of our signal, but making for the Cape de Bona
Speranza; so we had no comfort from her.

We went, therefore, immediately to work about our intended canoe; and,
having singled out a very large tree to our minds, we fell to work with
her; and having three good axes among us, we got it down, but it was four
days' time first, though we worked very hard too. I do not remember what
wood it was, or exactly what dimensions, but I remember that it was a very
large one, and we were as much encouraged when we launched it, and found it
swam upright and steady, as we would have been at another time if we had
had a good man-of-war at our command.