e others. Francisco made signs to them, but
they understood him not. He returned to the knoll, and pouring out
water into a tin pan from the breaker, brought it down to them. He
offered it to one, who seized it eagerly; water was a luxury seldom
obtained in the hold of a slave-vessel. The man drank deeply, and would
have drained the cup, but Francisco prevented him, and held it to the
lips of another. He was obliged to refill it three times before they
had all been supplied: he then brought them a handful of biscuit, and
left them, for he reflected that, without some precautions, the whole
sustenance would be seized by them and devoured. He buried half a foot
deep, and covered over with sand, the breakers of water and the
provisions, and by the time he had finished this task, unperceived by
the negroes, who still squatted together, the sun had sunk below the
horizon. Francisco had already matured his plans, which were, to form a
raft out of the fragments of the vessel, and, with the assistance of the
negroes, attempt to gain the mainland. He lay down, for the second
night, on this eventful spot of desolation, and commending himself to
the Almighty protection, was soon in a deep slumber.

It was not until the powerful rays of the sun blazed on the eyes of the
youth that he awoke, so tired had he been with the anxiety and fatigue
of the preceding day, and the sleepless harrowing night which had
introduced it. He rose and seated himself upon his sea-chest: how
different was the scene from that of yesterday! Again the ocean slept,
the sky was serene, and not a cloud to be distinguished throughout the
whole firmament; the horizontal line was clear, even, and well defined:
a soft breeze just rippled over the dark blue sea, which now had retired
to its former boundary, and left the sand-bank as extended as when first
Francisco had been put on shore. But here the beauty of the landscape
terminated: the foreground was horrible to look upon; the whole of the
beach was covered with the timbers of the wreck, with water-casks, and
other articles, in some parts heaped and thrown up one upon another; and
among them lay, jammed and mangled, the bodies of the many who had
perished. In other parts there were corpses thrown up high and dry, or
still rolling and turning to the rippling wave: it was a scene of
desolation and of death.

The negroes who had been saved were all huddled up together, apparently
in deep sleep, and Fr