 die: At which Words, I thought he lifted up the Spear
that was in his Hand, to kill me.
    No one, that shall ever read this Account, will expect that I should be able
to describe the Horrors of my Soul at this terrible Vision, I mean, that even
while it was a Dream, I even dreamed of those Horrors; nor is it any more
possible to describe the Impression that remain'd upon my Mind when I awak'd and
found it was but a Dream.
    I had alas! no divine Knowledge; what I had received by the good Instruction
of my Father was then worn out by an uninterrupted Series, for 8 Years, of
Seafaring Wickedness, and a constant Conversation with nothing but such as were
like my self, wicked and prophane to the last Degree: I do not remember that I
had in all that Time one Thought that so much as tended either to looking
upwards toward God, or inwards towards a Reflection upon my own Ways: But a
certain Stupidity of Soul, without Desire of Good, or Conscience of Evil, had
entirely overwhelm'd me, and I was all that the most hardned, unthinking, wicked
Creature among our common Sailors, can be supposed to be, not having the least
Sense, either of the Fear of God in Danger, or of Thankfulness to God in
Deliverances.
    In the relating what is already past of my Story, this will be the more
easily believ'd, when I shall add, that thro' all the Variety of Miseries that
had to this Day befallen me, I never had so much as one Thought of it being the
Hand of God, or that it was a just Punishment for my Sin; my rebellious
Behaviour against my Father, or my present Sins which were great; or so much as
a Punishment for the general Course of my wicked Life. When I was on the
desperate Expedition on the desart Shores of Africa, I never had so much as one
Thought of what would become of me; or one Wish to God to direct me whither I
should go, or to keep me from the Danger which apparently surrounded me, as well
from voracious Creatures as cruel Savages: But I was meerly thoughtless of a
God, or a Providence; acted like a meer Brute from the Principles of Nature, and
by the Dictates of common Sense only, and indeed hardly that.
    When I was deliver'd and taken up at Sea by the Portugal Captain, well us'd,
and dealt justly and honourably with, as well as charitably, I had not
