crew went all our gay visions of deliverance
and joy. Deliberately as she went by, we might possibly have found means
of boarding her, had not our sudden disappointment and the appalling
nature of the discovery which accompanied it laid entirely prostrate
every active faculty of mind and body. We had seen and felt, but
we could neither think nor act, until, alas! too late. How much our
intellects had been weakened by this incident may be estimated by the
fact, that when the vessel had proceeded so far that we could perceive
no more than the half of her hull, the proposition was seriously
entertained of attempting to overtake her by swimming!

I have, since this period, vainly endeavoured to obtain some clew to the
hideous uncertainty which enveloped the fate of the stranger. Her build
and general appearance, as I have before stated, led us to the belief
that she was a Dutch trader, and the dresses of the crew also sustained
this opinion. We might have easily seen the name upon her stern, and,
indeed, taken other observations, which would have guided us in making
out her character; but the intense excitement of the moment blinded us
to every thing of that nature. From the saffron-like hue of such of the
corpses as were not entirely decayed, we concluded that the whole of her
company had perished by the yellow fever, or some other virulent disease
of the same fearful kind. If such were the case (and I know not what
else to imagine), death, to judge from the positions of the bodies, must
have come upon them in a manner awfully sudden and overwhelming, in a
way totally distinct from that which generally characterizes even
the most deadly pestilences with which mankind are acquainted. It is
possible, indeed, that poison, accidentally introduced into some of
their sea-stores, may have brought about the disaster, or that the
eating of some unknown venomous species of fish, or other marine animal,
or oceanic bird, might have induced it--but it is utterly useless to
form conjectures where all is involved, and will, no doubt, remain for
ever involved, in the most appalling and unfathomable mystery.

CHAPTER 11

WE spent the remainder of the day in a condition of stupid lethargy,
gazing after the retreating vessel until the darkness, hiding her from
our sight, recalled us in some measure to our senses. The pangs
of hunger and thirst then returned, absorbing all other cares and
considerations. Nothing, however, could be do