Looking at my watch, I found it six o'clock. I was still
rapidly ascending, and my barometer gave a present altitude of three
and three-quarter miles. Immediately beneath me in the ocean, lay a
small black object, slightly oblong in shape, seemingly about the
size, and in every way bearing a great resemblance to one of those
childish toys called a domino. Bringing my telescope to bear upon
it, I plainly discerned it to be a British ninety four-gun ship,
close-hauled, and pitching heavily in the sea with her head to the
W.S.W. Besides this ship, I saw nothing but the ocean and the sky, and
the sun, which had long arisen.
It is now high time that I should explain to your Excellencies the
object of my perilous voyage. Your Excellencies will bear in mind that
distressed circumstances in Rotterdam had at length driven me to the
resolution of committing suicide. It was not, however, that to life
itself I had any, positive disgust, but that I was harassed beyond
endurance by the adventitious miseries attending my situation.
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