r one day, we were all sensibly
affected. The other boats, which, like ourselves, hoped to have got on
shore at the nearest point, were a little better provisioned than we
were; they had at least a little wine, which supplied the place of
other necessaries. We then demanded some from them, explaining our
situation, but none would assist us, not even the captain, who,
drinking to a kept mistress, supported by two sailors, swore he had
not one drop on board. We were next desirous of addressing the boat of
the Governor of Senegal, where we were persuaded were plenty of
provisions of every kind, such as oranges, biscuit, cakes, comfits,
plums and even the finest liquors; but my father opposed it, so well
was he assured we would not obtain anything.

We will now turn to the condition of those on the raft, when the boats
left them to themselves.

If all the boats had continued dragging the raft forward, favored as
we were by the breeze from the sea, we would have been able to have
conducted them to the shore in less than two days. But an
inconceivable fatality caused the generous plan to be abandoned which
had been formed.

When the raft had lost sight of the boats, a spirit of sedition began
to manifest itself in furious cries. They then began to regard one
another with ferocious looks, and to thirst for one another's flesh.
Some one had already whispered of having recourse to that monstrous
extremity, and of commencing with the fattest and youngest. A
proposition so atrocious filled the brave Captain Dupont and his
worthy Lieutenant M. L'Heureux with horror; and that courage which had
so often supported them in the field of glory, now forsook them.

Among the first who fell under the hatchets of the assassins, was a
young woman who had been seen devouring the body of her husband. When
her turn was come, she sought a little wine as a last favor, then
rose, and without uttering a word threw herself into the sea. Captain
Dupont, being prescribed for having refused to partake of the
sacrilegious viands with which the monsters were feeding on, was saved
by a miracle from the hands of the butchers. Scarcely had they seized
him to lead him to the slaughter, when a large pole, which served in
place of a mast, fell upon his body; and believing that his legs were
broken, they contented themselves by throwing him into the sea. The
unfortunate captain plunged and disappeared, and they thought him
already in another world.

Provi