He fell from the starboard futtock shrouds, and not knowing how to swim, and being heavily dressed, with all those things round his neck, he probably sank immediately.
— from Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana

When I first discovered them, I was going to give over my enterprise, and come back again, not knowing how far it might oblige me to go out to sea; and above all, doubting how I should get back again: so I came to an anchor; for I had made a kind of an anchor with a piece of a broken grappling which I got out of the ship.
— from The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

The sentinels at the door were scared at the strange figure that rushed up to the General’s gate, and, not knowing him, crossed bayonets, and refused him admission.
— from Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray

My Lord Sandwich is still in good esteem, and now keeping his Christmas in the country; and I in good esteem, I think, as any man can be, with him.
— from The Diary of Samuel Pepys — Complete by Samuel Pepys

He was in sore straights, and, not knowing how to decide, it seemed best to him to lay the matter before heaven.
— from Anabasis by Xenophon

There was also Tros the son of Alastor—he came up to Achilles and clasped his knees in the hope that he would spare him and not kill him but let him go, because they were both of the same age.
— from The Iliad by Homer

Akuy nagmatutù kaníla hangtud sa ílang pagkaulitáwu, I reared the boys until they were teen-agers.
— from A Dictionary of Cebuano Visayan by John U. Wolff

At last, a while after midnight, a man attacked a woman and nearly killed her by beating her over the head with his manacles before the jailer could come to the rescue.
— from The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

And although those before them had seen remains of arches, of colossi, of statues, of urns, and of storied columns in the ages that came after the sackings, the destructions, and the burnings of Rome, and never knew how to make use of them or draw from them any benefit, up to the time mentioned above, the minds that came after, discerning well enough the good from the bad and abandoning the old manners, turned to imitating the ancient with all their industry and wit.
— from Lives of the Most Eminent Painters Sculptors and Architects, Vol. 01 (of 10) Cimabue to Agnolo Gaddi by Giorgio Vasari

To my judgment, lad, it's the best piece of work that I've met with in the woods; and none know how often the hand of God is seen in the wilderness, but them that rove it for a man's life.”
— from The Pioneers; Or, The Sources of the Susquehanna by James Fenimore Cooper

In Jerusalem, where the king's death was bitterly mourned, no further steps were taken till the election of a new king had been decided on.
— from History of the Jews, Vol. 1 (of 6) by Heinrich Graetz

It was just dusk, and nobody knew he had been hit until one of our men, coming down, heard his hoarse whispering request to "get a doctor, for God's sake get a doctor."
— from Trenching at Gallipoli The personal narrative of a Newfoundlander with the ill-fated Dardanelles expedition by John Gallishaw

Hadn’t she read over and over, when seated in the garret, the story of the old and new kings, how they sat on their thrones, and ruled their people sometimes with a rod of iron?
— from Rose O'Paradise by Grace Miller White

The afternoon was spent in packing up and writing home, as none knew how soon the chance would be given them to write again.
— from Campaign of the Fourteenth Regiment New Jersey Volunteers by J. Newton (John Newton) Terrill

[48] On landing in New York I only knew one individual, and not knowing how far I should have to go to find him I put up at an hotel on Broadway, but soon found that too expensive for my means, and went to a private boarding house as soon as I could.
— from The Evolution of Photography With a Chronological Record of Discoveries, Inventions, Etc., Contributions to Photographic Literature, and Personal Reminescences Extending over Forty Years by Werge, John, active 1854-1890

The church is filled as instantaneously, and the wildly gay dancers of a moment ago are now kneeling, hushed and down-bent, in devotional attitudes.
— from Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Volume 15, No. 85, January, 1875 by Various

Almighty God, and not knowing what may befall me in these sad times of God’s heavy visitation with the plague, (dated September 6, 1665, proved May 4, 1666);” Ralph Tymberlake, tallow chandler, “calling to mind the great uncertainty of this life, especially at this time when the arrows of God’s wrath are amongst us,” (dated September 9, 1665, proved September 20th); and John Garland thus: “The Lord’s hand being evidently gone out against this city, and not knowing how soon the stroke of death may be my portion, in order thereunto I make this my last will and testament.
— from The Romance of Wills and Testaments by Edgar Vine Hall