 be thankful for; and may see others in worse Circumstances than our
own.
    Such certainly was the Case of these Men, of whom I could not so much as see
room to suppose any of them were sav'd; nothing could make it rational, so much
as to wish, or expect that they did not all perish there; except the Possibility
only of their being taken up by another Ship in Company, and this was but meer
Possibility indeed; for I saw not the least Signal or Appearance of any such
Thing.
    I cannot explain by any possible Energy of Words what a strange longing or
hankering of Desires I felt in my Soul upon this Sight; breaking out sometimes
thus; O that there had been but one or two; nay, or but one Soul sav'd out of
this Ship, to have escap'd to me, that I might but have had one Companion, one
Fellow-Creature to have spoken to me, and to have convers'd with! In all the
Time of my solitary Life, I never felt so earnest, so strong a Desire after the
Society of my Fellow-Creatures, or so deep a Regret at the want of it.
    There are some secret moving Springs in the Affections, which when they are
set a going by some Object in view; or be it some Object, though not in view,
yet rendred present to the Mind by the Power of Imagination, that Motion carries
out the Soul by its Impetuosity to such violent eager embracings of the Object,
that the Absence of it is insupportable.
    Such were these earnest Wishings, That but one Man had been sav'd! O that it
had been but One! I believe I repeated the Words, O that it had been but One! a
thousand Times; and the Desires were so mov'd by it, that when I spoke the
Words, my Hands would clinch together, and my Fingers press the Palms of my
Hands, that if I had had any soft Thing in my Hand, it would have crusht it
involuntarily; and my Teeth in my Head wou'd strike together, and set against
one another so strong, that for some time I cou'd not part them again.
    Let the Naturalists explain these Things, and the Reason and Manner of them;
all I can say to them, is, to describe the Fact, which was even surprising to me
when I found it; though I knew not from what it should proceed; it was doubtless
the effect of ardent Wishes, and of strong Ideas form'd in
