essed it tighter and tighter every moment.

Though he was in this situation not more than one minute, yet it
seemed to him to be an hour of torture, so intense was the agony
experienced; and yet it was beyond a doubt his salvation in the end,
for he had by chance struck one of those violent undertows that
prevail in all these fresh water inland seas, which defy all
philosophical calculation, and which bore him with the speed of an
arrow for two hundred rods far away from the spot where he had a
second time sunk below the surface, until, as he once more rose to
the surface, he found himself so far away from the boat that he
could not possibly be recognized.

Close by him he heard the strokes and saw the oars of a large
man-of-war boat passing by the spot where he had risen from his
fearful contest with the water. His first impulse was to dive once
more, but his efforts with the current he had struck below had
seemed to deprive him of the power of all further exertion. The
shore was a quarter of a mile distant, and in his exhausted state,
he doubted if it was possible for him to reach it. He gave a second
look at the boat with longing eyes, his strength was momentarily
failing him, he felt that he must either sink or call to those in
the boat for assistance, and while he was thus debating in his own
mind, he observed the person who had the helm steer the boat towards
him, and in a moment after Aphiz was raised in the arms of the sea
men and placed in the bottom of the caique.

Scarcely had he been placed in this position when there commenced
throughout his whole system such a combination of fearful and
harrowing pains that he almost prayed that he might die, and be
relieved from them. He had not the power left in his limbs to move
one inch, and yet he felt as though he could roll and writhe all
over the boat. The fact was that while exertion was necessary to
preserve him from drowning, his instinct and mental faculties
combined to support him, and enable the sufferer still to make an
effort to preserve his life, but now that no exertion on his part
could benefit himself, he was thrown back upon a realization of the
consequent suffering induced by his exposure.

The quantity of water he had swallowed pained him beyond measure,
while the action of the dense water upon his brain, and the combined
pains he was enduring, rendered him almost deranged. It is said that
drowning is the easiest of deaths, but those who have re