I removed from the Old Jewry to Fetter Lane, and from thence to
Wapping, hoping to get business among the sailors; but it would not
turn to account. After three years expectation that things would
mend, I accepted an advantageous offer from Captain William
Prichard, master of the Antelope, who was making a voyage to the
South Sea. We set sail from Bristol, May 4, 1699, and our voyage
was at first very prosperous.

It would not be proper, for some reasons, to trouble the reader
with the particulars of our adventures in those seas; let it
suffice to inform him, that in our passage from thence to the East
Indies, we were driven by a violent storm to the north-west of Van
Diemen's Land. By an observation, we found ourselves in the
latitude of 30 degrees 2 minutes south. Twelve of our crew were
dead by immoderate labour and ill food; the rest were in a very
weak condition. On the 5th of November, which was the beginning of
summer in those parts, the weather being very hazy, the seamen
spied a rock within half a cable's length of the ship; but the wind
was so strong, that we were driven directly upon it, and
immediately split. Six of the crew, of whom I was one, having let
down the boat into the sea, made a shift to get clear of the ship
and the rock. We rowed, by my computation, about three leagues,
till we were able to work no longer, being already spent with
labour while we were in the ship. We therefore trusted ourselves
to the mercy of the waves, and in about half an hour the boat was
overset by a sudden flurry from the north. What became of my
companions in the boat, as well as of those who escaped on the
rock, or were left in the vessel, I cannot tell; but conclude they
were all lost. For my own part, I swam as fortune directed me, and
was pushed forward by wind and tide. I often let my legs drop, and