hree large ship biscuits of the coarsest kind. The
broth, however, exhaled a distinctly appetising odour, which had the
effect of again reminding me that I was hungry; so, with my visitor's
assistance, I contrived to raise myself into a sitting posture, and
forthwith attacked the contents of the bowl, previously breaking into it
a small quantity of biscuit. The "broth" proved to be turtle soup,
deliciously made, and, taking my time over the task, I consumed the
whole of it, my companion meanwhile giving an account of himself, his
ship, and the circumstances attending my rescue.

"My name, monsieur," he said, in reply to a question of mine, "is
Lemaitre--Jean Lemaitre; a native of Fort Royal, in the island of
Martinique, and owner as well as Captain of _La belle Jeannette_--the
schooner which you are now honouring with your presence. I am in the
slave-trade, monsieur,--doing business chiefly with the Spaniards,--and
exactly a month ago to-day I sailed from Havana for the Guinea coast.
We came west and south about, round Cape San Antonio, stretching well
over toward the Spanish Main, in order to avoid, if possible, those
pestilent cruisers of yours, which seem to be everywhere, and are always
ready to snap up everything that they can lay their hands upon. By
great good fortune we managed to dodge them, and got through without
being interfered with; but it threw us into the track of the hurricane,
and necessitated our remaining hove-to for twenty-six hours. Four days
later, as we were sailing merrily along, we saw something floating ahead
of us, and ten minutes later we all but ran down your raft, on which we
saw you lying face downwards, while the sharks were righting each other
in their efforts to get at you and drag you off. Francois, my mate, was
for leaving you where you were,--asserting that you must surely be dead,
and that to pick up a dead man would make the voyage unlucky,--but I am
a humane man, monsieur, and I insisted upon heaving-to and sending away
a boat to bring you aboard. The boat's crew had a hard job of it to
drive off the sharks, and to get you safely into the boat, monsieur;
and, even _so_, the creatures followed the boat alongside--to the number
of seventeen, for I counted them myself. Francois suggested that we
should throw you to them, declaring that you were as good as dead
already, and that it was a shame to disappoint the sharks after they had
waited so patiently for you; but I am a huma