Page:Unparalleled sufferings and surprising adventures of Philip Quarle.pdf/6

 it may prove ominous; so driven by necessity, and led by curiosity, he went, to the same side of the rock he had been cast upon, where having stood several hours without seeing shipping, or aught that might answer his dream, the air coming from the sea being pretty sharp, and he faint, having taken no manner of food for near three days, he gave over all hopes of relief. Thus submitting himself to the will of heaven, which he supposed decreed a lingering death to punish him for his past sins, he resolves to return where he lay the night before, and there wait for his doom; but being stopped by a sudden noise which issued from a creek in the rock, not far from where he stood, he had the curiosity to go and see what occasioned it.

Being come to the place he heard the noise proceed from, he sees a fine large cod-fish, near six feet long, dabbling in a hole in the rock, where the late storm had cast it.

One under condemnation of death, and just arrived at the place of execution, could not be more rejoiced at the coming of a reprieve, than he was at the sight of the fish, having felt several sick qualms, forerunners of the death he thought he was doomed to. Heaven be praised! said he, here is my dream right; where Providence rescued my life from the grim jaws of death, there it has provided me wherewithal to support it.

So having taken off both his garters, he gets into the hole where the fish lay; and having run them through his gills, he hauls it out, and drags it after him, it being heavy, and he very weak. Going along, he finds several oysters, muscles,