een cleaning knives in the galley, had mechanically flung the board
he was using into the sea. Luckily it floated near me, and catching
it, I placed it, end up, under my chin, and thus supported my head
above the water without difficulty. But for this, perhaps, I should
have been wearied out already by the surges which would have broke
over me continually, but which I now generally rode. I also had on my
oilskin cap and coat: an equally fortunate circumstance.

After giving way, therefore, for a few minutes to despondency, as I
saw the ship drifting off, I rallied myself, and, reflecting that hope
never dies while there is life, began to consider my situation more
calmly. The comparative buoyancy of my dress, added to the board I had
so fortunately obtained, would enable me to keep afloat for an hour,
or perhaps for even a longer period, and in that time what chances
might not turn up! I knew the Gulf was crowded with vessels. I had
observed a French frigate, lying-to, to windward, just before I fell
overboard. The direction in which I was drifting would carry me near
her, when I might be more fortunate in attracting attention. I cheered
my heart with this reflection, and began to look out for the
man-of-war.

My first object, in this new frame of mind, was to get rid of my
boots, which were by this time full of water, and began sensibly to
drag me down. With great difficulty I succeeded in pulling them off;
for I had to retain hold of my board with one hand while I worked at
the boot with the other. At last I was rid of those dangerous
encumbrances, and, floating more lightly, had a better opportunity to
look around. Of course my vision of distant objects was cut off every
moment by my being carried down into the trough of the sea. No one,
who has not been in a similar situation, can appreciate the awfulness
with which I gazed on the dark, glistening sides of the immense
billows, as I saw myself sinking away from them, as if to the very
bottom of the ocean. With what horrid mockery the glassy waters seemed
to rise mountain high all around me. Suddenly, when I was at the
lowest, I would begin to ascend, as if by magic, from that gloomy
gulf, my velocity increasing every instant, until at last I would
shoot upward above the crest of the wave, like an arrow propelled from
the abyss. A toss of the head, to shake off the water, a long drawn
breath, to recover myself, a hasty glance around, and then I was
whirled downward