k.

After swimming about ten minutes, I threw myself on my back to rest
and "take a fresh departure." It was so dark that I could not see the
key, yet, as I still discerned the galliot's masts relieved against
the sky, I was enabled by that beacon to steer my way landward. Naked,
with the exception of trowsers, I had but little difficulty in
swimming, so that in less than half an hour, I touched the key, and
immediately sought concealment in a thick growth of mangroves.

I had not been five minutes in this dismal jungle, when such a swarm
of mosquitoes beset me, that I was forced to hurry to the beach and
plunge into the water. In this way was I tormented the whole night. At
dawn, I retreated once more to the bushes; and climbing the highest
tree I found,--whose altitude, however, was not more than twelve feet
above the sand,--I beheld, across the calm sea, the dismantled hull of
my late home, surrounded by a crowd of boats, which were rapidly
filling with plundered merchandise. It was evident that we had fallen
a prey to pirates; yet I could not imagine why _I_ had been singled
from this scene of butchery, to receive the marks of anxious sympathy
that were manifested by the _patron_ and his French companion on the
key. All the morning I continued in my comfortless position, watching
their movements,--occasionally refreshing my parched lips by chewing
the bitter berries of the thicket. Daylight, with its heat, was as
intolerable as night, with its venom. The tropical sun and the glaring
reflection from a waveless sea, poured through the calm atmosphere
upon my naked flesh, like boiling oil. My thirst was intense. As the
afternoon wore away, I observed several boats tow the lightened hull
of our galliot south-east of the key till it disappeared behind a
point of the island. Up to that moment, my manhood had not forsaken
me; but, as the last timber of my vessel was lost to sight, nature
resumed its dominion. Every hope of seeing my old companions was gone;
I was utterly alone. If this narrative were designed to be a
sentimental confession, the reader might see unveiled the ghastly
spectacle of a "troubled conscience," nor am I ashamed to say that no
consolation cheered my desolate heart, till I prayed to my Maker that
the loss of so many lives might not be imputed to the wilful malice of
a proud and stubborn nature.

CHAPTER IV.

So passed the day. As the sun sank is the west, I began to reflect
about obtaini