But they were taught more wit, to their cost, in two or three days; for, the very second night they felt a little unusual rising of the water, as they thought, though without any wind; and the next morning they found the water of the lake was swelled about two feet perpendicular, and that their floats, by that means, lay a great way farther from the shore than they did at first, and the water still increasing.
This made them imagine there was a tide in the lake, and that after a little time it would abate again, but they soon found their mistake; for after some time, they perceived the water, which was perfectly fine and clear before, grew by degrees of a paler colour, thick and whitish, till at last it was quite white and muddy, as is usual in land floods; and as it still continued rising, so they continued thrusting in their floats farther and farther towards the shore, till they had, in short, lost all the fine golden sands they were at work upon before, and found the lake overflowed the land so far beyond them, that, in short, they seemed to be in the middle of the lake, for they could scarce see to the end of the water, even on that very side where, but a few hours before, their floats were fast on the sands.
It may be easily judged that this put them into great consternation, and they might well conclude that they should be all drowned and lost; for they were now, as it were, in the middle of the sea upon two open floats or rafts, fenced nowhere from the least surge or swell of the water, except by a kind of waste board, about two feet high, built up on the sides, without any calking or pitching, or anything to keep out the water.
They had neither mast or sail, anchor or cable, head or stern, no bows to fence off the waves, or rudder to steer any course, or oars to give any motion to their floats, whose bottoms were flat like a punt, so that they were obliged to thrust them along with such poles as they had, some of which were about eight or ten feet long, which gained them a little way, though very slowly.
All the remedy they had in this case was, to set on with their poles towards the shore, and to observe, by their pocket compasses, which way it lay; and this they laboured hard at, lest they should be lost in the night, and not know which way to go.
Their carpenters, in the mean time, with some spare boards which they had, or rather made, raised their sides as well as they could, to keep off the wash of the sea, if any wind should rise so as to make the water rough; and thus they fenced against every danger as well as they could, though, all put together, they were but in a very sorry condition.
Now they had time to reflect upon their voracious fury, in ranging the shore to pick up gold, without considering where and in what condition they were, and without looking out on shore for a place of safety: nay, they might now have reflected on the madness of venturing out into a lake or inland sea of that vast extent, in such pitiful bottoms as they had under them. Their business, doubtless, had been to have stopped within the mouth of the river, and found a convenient place to land their goods and secure their lives; and when they had pitched their camp upon any safe high ground, where they might be sure they could neither be overflowed nor surrounded with water, they might have searched the shores of the lake as far as they thought fit; but thus to launch into an unknown water, and in such a condition, as to their vessels, as is described above, was most unaccountably rash and inconsiderate.
Never were a crew of fifty men, all able and experienced sailors, so embarked, nor drawn into such a snare; for they were surrounded with water for three or four miles in breadth on the nearest shore, and this all on a sudden, the country lying low and flat for such a breadth, all which appeared dry land and green, like the fields, the day before; and, without question, the men were sufficiently surprised.
Now they would have given all the gold they had got, which was very considerable too, to have been on shore on the wildest and most barren part of the country, and would have trusted to their own diligence to get food; but here, besides the imminent danger of drowning, they might also be in danger of starving; for had their floats grounded but upon any little hillock, they might have stuck there till they had starved and perished for hunger. Then they were in the utmost anxiety too for fear of wetting their powder, which, if it had happened, they could never have made serviceable again, and without it, they could not have killed anything for food, if they had got to the shore.
They had, in this exigence, some comforts, however, which might a little uphold their spirits; and without which, indeed, their condition must have been deplorable and desperate.