Page 17
An. 1681
A Journey over the Isthmus of America.
not. Then we contrived to swim over; those that could not swim, we were resolved to help o- ver as well as we could: But this was not so seiza- ble: for we should not be able to get all our things over. At length we concluded to send one man over with a Line, who should hale over all our things first, and then get the men over. This be- ing agreed on, one George Gayny took the end of a Line, and made it fast about his Neck, and left the other end ashore, and one man stood by the Line, to clear it away to him. But when Gayny was in the midst of the water, the Line in drawing after him chanc'd to kink, or grow entangled; and he that stood by to clear it away, stopt the Line, which turned Gayny on his back, and he that had the Line in his hand threw it all into the River after him, thinking he might recover himself; but the stream running very swift, and the man having three hun- dred Dollars at his back, was carried down, and never seen more by us. Those two men whom we left behind the day before, told us afterwards that they found him lying dead in a Creek, where the Eddy had driven him ashore, and the Money on his back ; but they meddled not with any of it; being only in care how to work their way through a wild unknown Country. This put a period to that contrivance. This was the fourth man that we lost in this Land-Journey; for those two men that we left the day before did not come to us till we were in the North Seas, so we yielded them also for lost. Being frustrated of getting over the River this way, we lookt about for a Tree to fell across the River. At length we found one, which we cut down, and it reach'd clear over: on this we passed to the other side, where we found a small Plantain-walk, which we soon ransackt.
While we were busie getting Plantains our Guide was gone, but in less than two hours came to us again,