It was not until the break of day that his repose was very abruptly broken by a shock, which threw him from the stern-sheets of the boat, right over the aftermost thwart.
Newton recovered his legs, and his senses, and found himself alongside of a vessel.

He had run stem on to a small schooner, which was lying at anchor.

As the boat was drifting fast by, Newton made a spring, and gained the deck of the vessel.
"Ah! mon Dieu!--les Anglais--les Anglais--nous sommes prisonniers!" cried out the only man on deck, jumping on his feet, and making a precipitate dive below.
The vessel, of which Newton had thus taken possession, was one employed in carrying the sugars from the plantations round to Basse Terre, the port of Guadaloupe, there to be shipped for Europe,--Newton's boat having run away so far to the southward, as to make this island.

She was lying at anchor off the mouth of a small river, waiting for a cargo.
It happened that the crew of the schooner, who were all slaves, were exactly in the same situation as Newton, when their vessels came in contact--viz., fast asleep.

The shock had awakened them; but they were all below except the one who had kept such a remarkably good watch.
Exhausted as Newton was, he could not but smile at his uninterrupted possession of the vessel's decks.