Chapter 36

CHAPTER XXXVI.

DECEMBER 22nd.--Daylight came at length, and the sun broke
through and dispersed the clouds that the storm had left behind.
The struggle of the elements, while it lasted, had been terrific,
but the swoon into which I was thrown by my fall, prevented me
from observing the final incidents of the visitation.  All that I
know is, that shortly after we had shipped the heavy sea that I
have mentioned, a shower of rain had the effect of calming the
severity of the hurricane, and tended to diminish the electric
tension of the atmosphere.

Thanks to the kind care of M. Letourneur and Miss Herbey, I
recovered consciousness, but I believe that it is to Robert
Curtis that I owe my real deliverance, for he it was that
prevented me from being carried away by a second heavy wave.

The tempest, fierce as it was, did not last more than a few
hours; but even in that short space of time what an irreparable
loss we have sustained, and what a load of misery seems stored up
for us in the future!

Of the two sailors who perished in the storm, one was Austin, a
fine active young man of about eight-and-twenty; the other was
old O'Ready, the survivor of so many ship wrecks.  Our party is
thus reduced to sixteen souls, leaving a total barely exceeding
half the number of those who embarked on board the "Chancellor"
at Charleston.

Curtis's first care had been to take a strict account of the
remnant of our provisions.  Of all the torrents of rain that fell
in the night we were unhappily unable to catch a single drop; but
water will not fail us yet, for about fourteen gallons still
remain in the bottom of the broken barrel, whilst the second
barrel has not yet been touched.  But of food we have next to
nothing.  The cases containing the dried meat, and the fish that
we had preserved, have both been washed away, and all that now
remains to us is about sixty pounds of biscuit.  Sixty pounds of
biscuit between sixteen persons!  Eight days, with half a pound a
day apiece, will consume it all.

The day has passed away in silence.  A general depression has
fallen upon all:  the spectre of famine has appeared amongst us,
and each has remained wrapped in his own gloomy meditations,
though each has doubtless but one idea dominant in his mind.

Once, as I passed near the group of sailors lying on the fore
part of the raft, I heard Flaypole say with a sneer,--

"Those who are going to die had better make haste about it."

"Yes," said Owen, "leave their share of food to others."

At the regular hour each person received his half-pound of
biscuit.  Some, I noticed, swallowed it ravenously, others
reserved it for another time.  Falsten divided his ration into
several portions, corresponding, I believe, to the number of
meals to which he was ordinarily accustomed.  What prudence he
shows!  If any one survives this misery, I think it will be he.