3 风暴与海难

Chapter 3 The storm and the shipwreck

I stayed in Brazil and worked hard for some years. By then I was rich… but also bored.

One day some friends came to me and said, 'We're going to Africa to do business. Why don't you come with us?

We'll all be rich after this journey! ' How stupid I was!

I had an easy, comfortable life in Brazil, but, of course, I agreed. And so, in 1659, I went to sea again.

At first, all went well, but then there was a terrible storm. For twelve days the wind and the rain didn't stop.

We lost three men in the sea, and soon the ship had holes in its sides. 'We're all going to die this time, ' I said to myself.

Then one morning one of the sailors saw land, but the next minute our ship hit some sand just under the sea. The ship could not move and we were really in danger now.

The sea was trying to break the ship into pieces, and we had very little time. Quickly, we put a boat into the sea and got off the ship.

But the sea was very rough and our little boat could not live for long in that wild water. Half an hour later the angry sea turned our boat over and we were all in the water.