me, while my teeth were chattering with cold to such an extent
that I could scarcely make my speech intelligible. Wild, fantastic,
irrelevant fancies were whirling confusedly through my brain, and I
found it simply impossible to fix my mind upon the important question of
the direction in which we ought to steer upon the resumption of our
voyage. For the impression now forced itself upon me that poor Captain
Chesney had committed an error of judgment in adhering to his
determination to make for the Azores, after the breeze had sprung up
from a direction which placed those islands almost dead to windward, and
his only alternative of making for the Canaries appeared to be open to
the same objection, although in a considerably lesser degree. Then
arose the question: If he was mistaken in thus deciding, what ought he
to have done? But to this, in the then disordered condition of my
mental faculties, I could find no satisfactory reply. At length, while
mentally groping for a solution to this knotty problem, I sank into a
feverish semi-somnolent condition that eventually merged into sleep, and
when I again became conscious, the sun was flashing his first beams
across the surface of the heaving waters, now no longer scourged to fury
by the lashing of a gale, but just ruffled to a deep, tender blue by the
gentle breathing of a soft breeze from the north-east. A very heavy
swell was still running, of course; but it no longer broke, and there
was nothing whatever to prevent our resuming our voyage at once, saving
the question--Whither?

The matter, however, that called for our first and most imperative
attention was our own condition. We were still suffering greatly from
the effects of prolonged exposure in our still damp clothes, and we
could hope for little or no amelioration until our garments were once
more dry, and the healthy action of our skin restored; so, to facilitate
this, I suggested that we should all strip, and spread out our clothing
to thoroughly dry in the sun's now ardent beams, and that, while the
drying process was in progress, we should all go overboard and indulge
in a good swim. The greater portion of our party thought this advice
good enough to be acted upon, and in a few minutes seven of us were in
the water and swimming vigorously round the boat; the other three were
unable to swim, but they imitated us so far as to strip and pour buckets
of water over each other. The water felt pleasantly warm in