We trust in Heaven’s peculiar care for to protect their lives,
To prosper our intended cruise, upon the raging main,
And to preserve our dearest friends till we return again.
The wind it being leading, it bore us on our way,
As far unto the southward as the Gulf of Florida,
Where we observed a British ship, returning from the main;
We gave her two bow chasers, and she return’d the same.
We hauled up our courses, and so prepared for fight;
The contest held four glasses, until the dusk of night;
Then having sprung our mainmast, and had so large a sea,