Page:Travels and adventures of Willm. Lithgow, in Europe, Asia, and Africa.pdf/13

13 custom still continues of never suffering men to die, or children to be born in it; but when the men are sick and the woman big-bellied they are sent to Rhena, two miles distant, Zea, Tino, and Palmosa, once Patmos, where St. John wrote his Revilation, were the next islands which he visited; and thence sailing to Nicaria, his vessel, in sight of it was chaced by two Turkish galliots into a bay, where, leaving the loaded boat, he and eight more fled to the rocks, from whence they annoyed the Turks with huge stones. The master and two other old men were taken and made slaves, and the boat and goods seized. In his way from Nicaria to Sio, they were driven by a storm into a creek between two rocks, where the shore being shelfy, and the anchors coming home a great lake was made, and seven of the crew drowned: The other eleven just before the boat sunk by hasty rowing reached a cave within the mountain; Lithgow disembarked the last, as the rest had sworn if he pressed to escape before they were all in safety, they would throw him into the sea. Nothing was saved but his coffer made of reeds in which he carried his papers and linen, and held it always in his arms. In this cave, which