me planks on the front of the raft, and, with some pretty long pieces
of wood, raised on the centre a kind of platform, on which we reposed.
All the effects we could collect were placed upon it, and rendered to
make it less hard; which also prevented the sea from passing with such
facility through the spaces between the different planks, but the waves
came across, and sometimes covered us completely.

On this new theatre we resolved to meet death in a manner becoming
Frenchmen, and with perfect resignation. Our time was almost wholly
spent in speaking of our unhappy country. All our wishes, our last
prayers, were for the prosperity of France. Thus passed the last days of
our abode upon the Raft.

Soon after our abandonment, we bore with comparative ease the immersions
during the nights, which are very cold in these countries; but latterly,
every time the waves washed over us, we felt a most painful sensation,
and we uttered plaintive cries. We employed every means to avoid it.
Some supported their heads on pieces of wood, and made with what they
could find a sort of little parapet to screen them from the force of the
waves; others sheltered themselves behind two empty casks. But these
means were very insufficient; it was only when the sea was calm that it
did not break over us.

An ardent thirst, redoubled in the day by the beams of a burning sun,
consumed us. An officer of the army found by chance a small lemon, and
it may be easily imagined how valuable such a fruit would be to him. His
comrades, in spite of the most urgent entreaties, could not get a bit of
it from him. Signs of rage were already manifested, and had he not
partly listened to the solicitations of those around him, they would
have taken it by force, and he would have perished the victim of his
selfishness. We also disputed about thirty clover of garlic which were
found in the bottom of a sack. These disputes were for the most part
accompanied with violent menaces, and if they had been prolonged, we
might perhaps have come to the last extremities. There was found also
two small phials, in which was a spirituous liquid for cleaning the
teeth. He who possessed them kept them with care, and gave with
reluctance one or two drops in the palm of the hand. This liquor which,
we think, was a tincture of guiacum, cinnamon, cloves, and other
aromatic substances, produced on our tongues an agreeable feeling, and
for a short while removed the thirst which destroy