In which our industrious narrator, having prospered in Brazil, is ensnared once more by a restless ambition that leads him to embark upon a perilous voyage to the African coast, encountering violent storms and shipwreck that cast him ashore utterly unprovided for. He is left to wrestle with the immediate terrors of his situation and the stark prospect of survival in an unknown wilderness, armed with little more than a knife and his wits.