I looked frequently at it all that day, and soon perceived that it did not move; so I presently concluded that it was a ship at anchor; and being eager, you may be sure, to be satisfied, I took my gun in my hand, and ran towards the south side of the island to the rocks where I had formerly been carried away by the current; and getting up there, the weather by this time being perfectly clear, I could plainly see, to my great sorrow, the wreck of a ship, cast away in the night upon those concealed rocks which I found when I was out in my boat; and which rocks, as they checked the violence of the stream, and made a kind of counter-stream, or eddy, were the occasion of my recovering from the most desperate, hopeless condition that ever I had been in in all my life.
Durante todo el día miré con frecuencia en aquella dirección y pronto advertí que el objeto estaba inmóvil, así que deduje que era un barco anclado, pero como me hallaba ansioso por saberlo con certeza, como puede suponerse, cogí la escopeta y corrí hacia el extremo sur de la isla, hasta las rocas a las que había sido arrastrado por la corriente. Cuando llegué hasta allí, puesto que el día estaba completamente despejado, pude ver claramente y para mi mayor desconsuelo, el naufragio de un barco, arrojado durante la noche contra las rocas sumergidas que había hallado en mi excursión con la piragua.