The Novels of Daniel Defoe - 1810 Author:Daniel Defoe Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAP. III. Make for the Southward in hopes of meeting with some European Vessel—See Sarages along shore- Shoot a large Leopard—Am taken tip by a Merchantman—A... more »rrive at the Brazils, and buy a Settlement there—Cannot be quiet, but sail on a voyage of adventure to Guinea—Ship strikes on a Sand-hank in unknown Land—All lost but myself, who am driven ashore, half dead. After this stop, we made on to the southward continually for ten or twelve days, living very sparing on our provisions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener into the shore than we were obliged to for fresh water: my design in this was, to make the river Gambia or Senegal, that is to say, any where about the Cape de Verd, where I was in hopes to meet with some European ship; anil if I did not, I knew not what course I had to take, but to seek for the islands, or perish there among the Negroes. I knew that all the shipsfrom Europe, which sailed either to the coast of Guinea or to Brazil, or to the East Indies, made this Cape, or those islands; and, in a word, I put the whole of my fortune upon this single point, either that I must meet with some ship, or must perish. When I had pursued this resolution about ten days longer, as I have said, I began to see that the land was inhabited ; and in two or three places, as we sailed by, we saw people stand upon the shore to look at us; we could also perceive they were quite black, and stark naked. I was once inclined to have gone on shore to them; butXury was my better counsellor, and said to me, " No go, no go." However, I hauled in nearer the shore that 1 might talk to them, and I found they run along the shore by me a good way : I observed they had no wea. pens in their hands, except one, who had a long slender stick, which Xury said was a lance, and that...« less