that any hopes appeared, this prevailed very often upon my thoughts:  but, however, the words made a great impression upon me, and I mused upon them very often.  It now grew late; and the tobacco had, as I said, dozed my head so much, that I inclined to sleep:  so I left my lamp burning in the cave, lest I should want any thing in the night, and went to bed.  But before I lay down, I did what I never had done in all my life; I kneeled down, and prayed to God to fulfil the promise to me, that if I called upon him in the day of trouble, he would deliver me.  After my broken and imperfect prayer was over, I drank the rum in which I had steeped the tobacco; which was so strong and rank of the tobacco, that indeed I could scarce get it down:  immediately upon this I went to bed.  I found presently the rum flew up into my head violently; but I fell into a sound sleep, and waked no more till, by the sun, it must necessarily be near three o’clock in the afternoon the next day:  nay, to this hour I am partly of opinion, that I slept all the next day and night, and till almost three the day after; for otherwise, I know not how I should lose a day out of my reckoning in the days of the week, as it appeared some years after I had done; for if I had lost it by crossing and re-crossing the Line, I should have lost more than one day; but certainly I lost a day in my account, and never knew which way.  Be that, however, one way or the other, when I awaked I found myself exceedingly refreshed, and my spirits lively and cheerful:  when I got up, I was stronger than I was the day before, and my stomach better, for I was hungry; and, in short, I had no fit the next day, but continued much altered for the better.  This was the 29th.

The 30th was my well day, of course; and I went abroad with my gun, but did not care to travel too far.  I killed a sea-fowl or two, something like a brand goose, and brought them home; but was not very forward to eat them; so I ate some more of the turtle’s eggs, which were very good.  This evening I renewed the medicine, which I had supposed did me good the day before, viz. the tobacco steeped in rum; only I did not take so much as before, nor did I chew any of the leaf, or hold my head over the smoke:  however, I was not so well the next day, which was the 1st of July, as I hoped I should have been; for I had a little of the cold fit, but it was not much.

July 2. I renewed the medicine all the three ways; and dosed myself with it as at first, and doubled the quantity which I drank.

July 3. I missed the fit for good and all, though I did not recover my full strength for some weeks after.  While I was thus gathering strength, my thoughts ran exceedingly upon this scripture, “I will deliver thee;” and the impossibility of my deliverance lay much upon my mind, in bar of my ever expecting it:  but as I was discouraging myself with such thoughts, it occurred to my mind that I pored so much upon my deliverance from the main affliction,