not light and access to
the store-room and water-casks. I had no notion of running the risk of
starving myself, having had sufficient experience of the uncomfortable
sensations accompanying inanition when I was shut up in the mill. I had
thought myself very badly off then, but I was now in a much worse
condition, and suffering great pain, and, as far as it appeared to me,
with more than one limb broken. I tried to move, to ascertain whether
this was the case. First I moved one arm, and then another. They were
sound, though they hurt me. Then I tried my right leg, and then my
left. They were certainly unfractured.

I was doubtful about one of my ankles. It pained me more than any other
part of my body. I drew it up and felt it all over. It was tender to
the touch, but none of the bones appeared to be out of their places.
This examination occupied some time. I did not call out for fear of the
consequences. The pain which had hitherto prevented me thinking about
what would follow now decreased, and I began to consider the awkward
position in which I was placed. I tried to persuade myself that I had
not positively intended to act the part of a stowaway. I could not but
know that I had thought about it, yet I had only gone below for the sake
of seeing the hold of a ship. I could say that when I was discovered,
with a tolerably clear conscience, so I fancied. Should I be
discovered? That was the question. For what I could tell I might be
entombed beneath the cargo and be unable to get out till I was starved
to death. The thought was too dreadful for contemplation, and I tried
to put it from me. I remembered how I had escaped from the old mill and
the way I got out without any one to help me.

"Perseverance conquers all difficulties," I said to myself as I said
then. My situation in some respects was very similar, only on that
occasion I had expected, on obtaining my freedom, to meet my friends,
and now I should find myself confronted by a rough crew and an irate
captain, who might send me on shore, and, for what I could tell, have me
put into jail if there was time for doing so. I had, at first, no idea
of the size of the place in which I was shut up. I only knew that I
could touch the boards above my head by extending my hand when sitting
upright. I thereby knew that there would not be room for me to stand.
I now crawled about and ascertained that I was in a tolerably wide
place, extending fore and a