Part 8 (2/2)
A TERRIBLE EXPERIENCE
”The only things left floating in the water after the pinnace sank down under us,” resuorously at his pipe as if to make up for lost time as well as to restore his equani tarpaulin; the sun awning, which was of lighter stuff, and soon got saturated by the sea, o to the bottom too; a couple of oars that had become, somehow or other, unfastened from the rowlocks and went adrift; a pork breaker or barrel; and tater barricoes, one of which was eallons of the precious fluid which in a short tiold--but, I' matters
”Five of the boat's creent down alht of us to battle against the waves and try to swih I, for one, didn't believe a soul would ever live to set foot on land again, that is if I gave any thought to it at all!
”What the others did at the moment I can't say; for with that selfish instinct of self-preservation which ardless of what his corappled hold of one of the oars and the pork breaker, besides the stern-sheet grating, which I forgot to say also floated froether into a sort of raft with a long woollen coht before while keeping watch to protect me from the da water all the ti very buoyant in the Indian Ocean on account of its extra saltness, Iup my raft pretty well Then, when I had finished it totoo busy to do that before; and, seeing Bella on to the other oar, and Russell, another chap in the saaskets of one of the barricoes, I helped the theside and pushi+ng it; for neither of the poor fellows could aid me--they seeh in the heavens and blazing right down upon our heads with an intensity of heat that al us feel as if a red-hot cinder was laid on top of it There was notdied away soon after daybreak, the tornado having spent all its force and blown itself out; but the sea was still rough, the heavy rolling waves washi+ng over us every now and then as they broke against the raft Perhaps this ood for us, the rapid evaporation of the water under the burning heat keeping us cool; but, ith the exposure and the fright he had sustained at our sudden upset, poor Russell went clean out of hisall I could to keep hiling to prevent his holding on; and he co to forcehe only got worse instead of better, and that I had no ht the best thing I could do for ive the other two a chance for their lives, was to trust to th and strike out for the shore, leaving the two on the raft to look after the that frail support, however, I adopted the precaution of taking off every stitch of clothing I had on-- even then for the worst Had I not done this, I' you this tale”
”I'lad you took the precaution,” I observed, ”it was a sensible one”
”Yes,” said Ben, ”there's no use a s on A fellow can do it in a bath, as a sort of exhibition like; but when he coainst the sea, the only chance he has is when he's stripped; for his clothes suck in the water and weigh him down so as to take all the buoyancy out of him and cripple his efforts to keep afloat--that's my opinion from painful experience
”Soon after I quitted the raft,” continued Ben, proceeding again with his narrative afterback that Russell had clutched hold of Bellamy the sath, for the other soon got the better of hiainst the rollers so as to prevent the mishap, I couldn't make headway in spite of all my efforts, so in a minute or so I saw both tuether in an embrace of death Poor fellows, thequiet, they ht have been washed safely ashore in ti now vacant and ah to support me alone coive up that hope and strike out once h the latter was so far off and lon too in the water that I couldn't even get a glimpse of it now to cheer e the direction of it by the set of the tide and the sun; and although I swaht occurred tofor the open ocean instead of the land after all, and was only prolonging ht of one of e, for I had believed up till then, when Bellamy and Russell sank under water, that I was the only one of the pinnace's crew left alive
”His naellan, one of the smartest topmen of the old _Dolphin_, and he seemed now to rival the reputation of the fish after which our vessel was na ahead of h the waves I first saw hi back at the sa his head to avoid the wash of the wave, caught sight ofout, 'where are you bound for?'
”'For the shore, you lubber,' I retorted jokingly, for seeing him put such fresh life in h out aloud with joy!
”'Have you got anything to support you in the water?' he asked with surprise
”'No,' said I, 'nothing but s'
”'The saet to land first'
”'All right!' I cried, 'start away!' and we both of us struck out hard; but he was a far better swih I followed in the same track as well as I could steer
”About noontide, when the sun had got vertical in the sky overhead and blazed doith even greater power than it had done before, I had another cheer up; for, as I rose on the send of the sea I could faintly discover the tops of two trees in the distance standing out amidst the waste of waters This put additional pluck into me, and made me exert n of land at all; but, after swiain and became assailed by all manner of ht it was strange that I could not see Magellan, if he were still in front of me, in the saone down at last and got drowned like the others, I said to myself; or else a shark has snapped him up and made an end of him, so that I alone was left out of all the thirteen of the pinnace's crew What was I reserved for?--a worse fate perhaps than the others-- possibly to reach a desolate shore, where I would starve to death in solitude without a single soul to share my misery! The idea of sharks, however, haunted ht, for I knew that there were plenty of these seacaught by one of the, which now seeh I still swam on mechanically Every time a wave broke over me, or when I splashed up the water withhorror seizedsaw-like teeth of a shark were ready to close uponh ain, sir--not for thedistance of water I had to traverse before I could hope to reach the end, so ht that my shi+pmates were all drowned, and the nervous dread I suffered on account of those devils of the deep, although all the while I actually never saw one This was fortunate for ht of one in ht out of me and rew so strong upon me that I absolutely tried to drown myself, but I could not keep h to carry outforthat I could not sink, try as hard as I could, it appeared to me that I wasn't born to be drowned--sailors,--you know, are rather superstitious so this, and assured that I was certain now to get to land, if only the sharks left ain towards the direction of the two trees that I saw every now and then to encourage me as I rose up on the crest of each alternate wave, deter as the breath was left in me
”Why, sir, it was a swi the Channel, for the pinnace had gone down soon after daybreak, and I had been swi in the west, looking as if it were going to dip in another hour at the most
Yet, I seemed as far off from the land as ever, those two trees that I watched so earnestly, and shapedto rise out of the water or come nearer to me than two miles off--for, whether the tide had turned or there was a current carryingin a parallel direction with the shore, or soot any closer than that It was very hard, I thought, with the land so near to me now, and I unable to reach it, strive how I may! Perhaps, I fancied, those trees are a e of the desert that tortures poor lost wanderers with pictures of cool lakes and rivers, while they are really in the an to doubt they were real trees at all, for I should have got up to theain with despair, I tried a second tihtly tono effort to swim--but it was all in vain, I could not keep down I ined it all, going out ofinthe faces of people I knew in England-- tome out of the water, when I knew all the while that I saw the for my life in the Mozambique Channel, and that they were safe at home in the old country! I suppose inthrough et what happened I must have become insensible, for I don't remember what occurred between I seemed to wake up to consciousness all at once, and then I foundon a low sandy beach, where Itide
”Although the sun had now set--which showed that II recollected was its scorchingin an easterly direction towards Madagascar, as it sank down the horizon it got behindabout me, I perceived that I was on a small island or sand-bank, some distance still off the mainland, from which it was separated by a wide channel of water I tried to get up on my feet to notice better hoide this channel-as; but I was so weak fro stopped all circulation, that I fell back again flat onto rise, however,up a considerable quantity of sea-water, soallons or more, which I must have shen insensible, for I certainly never took down half that quantity while swiet intoood, and I feltit fro a bit, stretched out on the sand-bank, I could not help thanking the merciful Providence that had thus preserved my life when I had abandoned myself to despair, and had been powerless to aid myself; and I wondered whether any of my comrades had been saved too, or if I were the sole survivor of the ill-fated boat's crew?
”The evening growing darker hts of action, especially as the tide rising on the beach where I was lying began to lap againston my hands and knees, for I was still unable to rise to hs doard, I et out of the way of the water for a while; but as it yet continued to rise, and I thought it h tide, I deter channel that lay between the little islet I was on and the loom seemed more than a mile away, and I felt utterly feeble and worn out