We now went merrily before the wind with all the sails we could carry, insomuch that between the noons of Friday and Saturday, or in 24 hours, we sailed near 47 leagues, or 141 English miles, although our ship was very foul, and much grown with sea grass, owing to our having been long at sea.  This quick sailing made some of our company expect to be present at the tilting on the queens birth-day at Whitehall, while others were flattering themselves with keeping a jolly Christmas in England from their shares in the prizes.  But it was our lot to keep a cold Christmas with the Bishop and his Clerks, rocks to the westwards of Scilly; for soon after the wind came about to the east, the very worst wind for us which could blow from the heavens, so that we could not fetch any part of England.  Upon this our allowance of drink, before sufficiently scanty, was now still farther curtailed, owing to the scarcity in our ship, each man being confined to half a pint of cold water at a meal, and that not sweet.  Yet this was an ample allowance in comparison, as our half pint was soon reduced to a quarter, and even at this reduced rate our store was rapidly disappearing, insomuch that it was deemed necessary for our preservation to put into some port in Ireland to procure water.  We accordingly endeavoured to do this, being obliged, when near that coast, to lie to all night, waiting for day light; but when it appeared we had drifted so far to leeward in the night that we could fetch no part of Ireland, we were therefore constrained to return again, with heavy hearts, and to wait in anxious expectation till it should please God to send us a fair wind either for England or Ireland.

In the mean time we were allowed for each man two or three spoonfuls of vinegar at each meal, having now no other drink, except that for two or three meals we had about as much wine, which was wrung out of the remaining lees.  Under this hard fare we continued near a fortnight, being only able to eat a very little in all that time, by reason of our great want of drink.  Saving that now and then we enjoyed as it were a feast, when rain or hail chanced to fall, on which occasions we gathered up the hail-stones with the most anxious care, devouring them more eagerly than if they had been the finest comfits.  The rain-drops also were caught and saved with the utmost careful attention; for which purpose some hung up sheets tied by the four corners, having a weight in the middle, to make the rain run down there as in a funnel into some vessel placed underneath.  Those who had no sheets hung up napkins or other clouts, which when thoroughly wet they wrung or sucked to get the water they had imbibed.  Even the water which fell on the deck under foot, and washed away the filth and soil of the ship, though as dirty as the kennel is in towns during rain, was carefully watched and collected at every scupper-hole, nay, often with strife and contention, and caught in dishes, pots, cans, and jars, of which