I then
fastened my handkerchief to a stick I usually carried, and thrusting it
up the hole, waved it several times in the air, that if any boat or ship
were near, the seamen might conjecture some unhappy mortal to be shut up
in the box.
I found no effect from all I could do, but plainly perceived my closet
to be moved along; and in the space of an hour or better, that side of
the box where the staples were and had no window struck against
something that was hard. I apprehended it to be a rock, and found myself
tossed more than ever. I plainly heard a noise upon the cover of my
closet like that of a cable, and the grating of it as it passed through
the ring. I then found myself hoisted up by degrees, at least three feet
higher than I was before. Whereupon I again thrust up my stick and
handkerchief, calling for help till I was almost hoarse. In return to
which I heard a great shout repeated three times, giving me such
transports of joy as are not to be conceived but by those who feel them.
I now heard a trampling over my head, and somebody calling through the
hole with a loud voice in the English tongue. "If there be anybody
below, let them speak." I answered I was an Englishman, drawn by ill
fortune into the greatest calamity that ever any creature underwent, and
begged by all that was moving to be delivered out of the dungeon I was
in.
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