I lay there, however, two days; because the wind blowing pretty fresh (at east-south-east, and that being just contrary to the said current), made a great breach of the sea upon the point; so that it was not safe for me to keep too close to the shore for the breach, nor to go too far off because of the stream.
The third day, in the morning, the wind having abated overnight, the sea was calm, and I ventured; but I am a warning-piece again to all rash and ignorant pilots; for no sooner was I come to the point, when I was not my boat’s length from the shore, but I found myself in a great depth of water and a current like the sluice of a mill. It carried my boat along with it with such a violence, that all I could do could not keep her so much as on the edge of it: but I found it hurried me farther and farther out from the eddy, which was on the left hand. There was no wind stirring to help me, and all that I could do with my paddles signified nothing; and now I began to give myself over for lost; for as the current was on both sides of the island, I knew in a few leagues’ distance they must join again, and then I was irrecoverably gone—nor did I see any possibility of avoiding it; so that I had no prospect before me but of perishing—not by the sea, for that was calm enough, but of starving for hunger. I had, indeed, found a tortoise on the shore, as big almost as I could lift, and had tossed it into the boat; and I had a great jar of fresh water, that is to say, one of my earthen pots; but what was all this to be driven into the vast ocean, where, to be sure, there was no shore, no mainland or island, for a thousand leagues at least?
And now I saw how easy it was for the providence of God to make the most miserable condition that mankind could be in worse. Now, I looked back upon my desolate solitary island as the most pleasant place in the world, and all the happiness my heart could wish for was to be there again; I stretched out my hands to it with eager wishes. “Oh happy desert!” said I, “I shall never see thee more! Oh miserable creature!” said I, “whither am I going?” Then I reproached myself with my unthankful temper, and how I had repined at my solitary condition; and now what would I give to be on shore there again? Thus we never see the true state of our condition, till it is illustrated to us by its contraries; nor know how to value what we enjoy, but by the want of it. It is scarce possible to imagine the consternation I was in, being driven from my beloved island (for so it appeared to me now to be) into the wide ocean, almost two leagues, and in the utmost despair of ever recovering it again; however, I worked hard, till indeed my strength was almost exhausted, and kept my boat as much to the northward, that is, towards the side of the current which the eddy lay on, as possibly I could; when about noon, as the sun passed the meridian, I thought I felt a little breeze of wind in my face, springing up from the south-south-east. This cheered my heart a little, and especially when, in about half an hour more, it blew a pretty small gentle gale. By this time I was gotten at a frightful distance from the island; and, had the least cloud or hazy weather intervened, I had been undone another way, too; for I had no compass on board, and should never have known how to have steered towards the island, if I had but once lost sight of it; but the weather continuing clear, I applied myself to get up my mast again, and spread my sail, standing away to the north as much as possible, to get out of the current.