that I should be
brought to something very nearly approaching despair when my
observations that day revealed the disconcerting fact that, thanks to
our excessive drift during the gale, we were still fully six hundred
miles from our port of destination--a distance which we scarce dared to
hope might be covered, even under the most favourable circumstances, in
less than five days.

But it soon appeared as though even this protracted period of privation
and exposure was to be increased, for, as the afternoon wore on, the
wind, still continuing to drop, grew so light that our speed dwindled
down to a bare three knots by the hour of sunset; and by midnight it had
still further fallen to such an extent that our sails became useless to
us, and the oars had once more to be resorted to.

The return of daylight found us in the midst of a stark calm, under a
cloudless sky, out of which the sun soon began to dart his scorching
beams so pitilessly that the task of pulling shortly became a labour
little less than torture to people in our exhausted condition; indeed,
so severe did the men find it, that, after persevering until about four
bells in the afternoon watch, they gave it up, declaring themselves to
be quite incapable of further exertion. And thus, for the remainder of
the day, we lay motionless upon that oil-smooth sea, under the
blistering rays of the burning sun, with our tongues cleaving to our
palates as we began to experience the first fierce torments of
unquenchable thirst. For our supply of water--all but undrinkable as it
was--was growing so short that it became imperatively necessary to
husband it with the most jealous care, and to reduce our allowance to
the very smallest quantity upon which life could possibly be sustained.
The men sought to forget their sufferings in sleep, disposing themselves
in the bottom of the boat, under the shelter of the now useless sails;
but I was far too anxious to be able to sleep, for I began to realise
that our boat voyage threatened to develop into an adventure that might
easily terminate in a ghastly tragedy.

Half an hour before sunset I called the men, and we went to supper; and
with the going down of the sun the oars were once more thrown out, and
we resumed our weary voyage, all hands of us being equally anxious to
avail ourselves to the utmost of the comparatively cool hours of
darkness, to shorten, as much as possible, the distance that still
intervened between us and de