was enabled to stand alone, and by means of
assistance to walk. The hot coffee was of the greatest service, every
swallow that he got down appearing to set the engine of life into new
motion. The compelled exercise contributed its part; and by the time the
mate, to use his own expression, "had run the nigger into dock," which
meant when he had got him safe within the hut, his senses and faculties
had so far revived as to enable him to think and to speak. As Gardiner and
Stimson returned with him, everybody was up and listening, when the black
told his story.

It would seem that, during the terrible month which had just passed,
Daggett had compelled his crew to use more exercise than had been their
practice of late. Some new apprehension had come over him on the subject
of fuel, and his orders to be saving in that article were most stringent,
and very rigidly enforced. The consequence was, that the camboose was not
as well attended to as it had been previously, and as circumstances
required, indeed, that it should be. At night, the men were told to keep
themselves warm with bed-clothes, and by huddling together; and the cabin
being small, so many persons crowded together in it, did not fail to
produce an impression on its atmosphere.

Such was the state of things, when, on going to his camboose, in order to
cook the breakfast, this very black found the fire totally extinguished!
Not a spark could he discover, even among the ashes; and, what was even
worse, the tinder-box had disappeared. As respects the last, it may be
well to state here, that it was afterwards discovered carefully bestowed
between two of the timbers of the wreck, with a view to a particular
safe-keeping; the person who had made this disposition of it, forgetting
what he had done. The loss of the tinder-box, under the circumstances, was
almost as great a calamity as could have befallen men, in the situation of
the Vineyarders. As against the cold, by means of bed-clothes, exercise,
and other precautions, it might have been possible to exist for some time,
provided warm food could be obtained; but the frost penetrated the cabin,
and every one soon became sensitively alive to the awkwardness, not to say
danger, of their condition. A whole day was passed in fruitless attempts
to obtain fire, by various processes. Friction did not succeed; it
probably never does with the thermometer at zero. Sparks could be
obtained, but by this time everything was stiff wi