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fortunately preserved a small pocket-compass, and this little instrument inspired them with so much confidence, that they conceived their safety to depend on it; but this treasure, above all price, speedily snatched from them for ever; it fell from the man’s hand, and disappeared between the openings of the raft.
None of the party had taken food before they left the ship, and hunger beginning to oppress them, they mixed the biscuit, of which they had about five and twenty pounds on board, with wine, and distributed it, in small portions to each man. ‘Such,’ says the narrator, ‘was our first repast, and the best we made during our whole abode upon the raft.’ They thought themselves, however, not quite lost: and the hope of speedy vengeance on those who had so basely deserted them, tended to revive their courage. They succeeded in erecting a kind of most, and hoisting one of the royals that had belonged to the frigate.
Night at length came on, the wind freshened, and the sea began to swell; the only consolation now was the belief that they should discover the boats the following morning. About midnight the weather became very stormy; and the waves broke over them in every direction.
‘During the whole of this night,’ say the narrators, ‘we struggled against death, holding ourselves closely to spars which were bound firmly together. Tossed by the waves from one end to the other, and sometimes precipitated into the sea; floating between life and death;
