d the cover and shut the
door, by which of course the great cabin, as I call the room in which
the two men were, was plunged in darkness; but the cold was not
tolerable, and the parcels of candles in the larder rendered me
indifferent to the gloom.

On entering the passage in which were the doors of the berths, I noticed
an object that had before escaped my observation--I mean a small
trap-hatch, no bigger than a manhole, with a ring for lifting it, midway
down the lane. I suspected this to be the entrance to the lazarette, and
putting both hands to the ring pulled the hatch up. I sniffed
cautiously, fearing foul air, and then sinking the lanthorn by the
length of my arm I peered down, and observed the outlines of casks,
bales, cases of white wood, chests, and so forth. I dropped through the
hole on to a cask, which left me my head and shoulders above the deck,
and then with the utmost caution stooped and threw the lanthorn light
around me. But the casks were not powder-barrels, which perhaps a little
reflection might have led me to suspect, since it was not to be supposed
that any man would stow his powder in the lazarette.

As I was in the way of settling my misgivings touching the stock of food
in the schooner, I resolved to push through with this business at once,
and fetching the chopper went to work upon these barrels and chests; and
very briefly I will tell you what I found. First, I dealt with a tierce
that proved full of salt beef. There was a whole row of these tierces,
and one sufficed to express the nature of the rest; there were upwards
of thirty barrels of pork; one canvas bale I ripped open was full of
hams, and of these bales I counted half a score. The white cases held
biscuit. There were several sacks of pease, a number of barrels of
flour, cases of candles, cheeses, a quantity of tobacco, not to mention
a variety of jars of several shapes, some of which I afterwards found to
contain marmalade and succadoes of different kinds. On knocking the head
off one cask I found it held a frozen body, that by the light of the
lanthorn looked as black as ink; I chipped off a bit, sucked it, and
found it wine.

I was so transported by the sight of this wonderful plenty that I fell
upon my knees in an outburst of gratitude and gave hearty thanks to God
for His mercy. There was no further need for me to dismally wonder
whether I was to starve or no; supposing the provisions sweet, here was
food enough to last me t