n them, and
the poor creatures rather devoured than ate it: they were so exceedingly
hungry that they were in a manner ravenous, and had no command of
themselves; and two of them ate with so much greediness that they were in
danger of their lives the next morning. The sight of these people's
distress was very moving to me, and brought to mind what I had a terrible
prospect of at my first coming on shore in my island, where I had not the
least mouthful of food, or any prospect of procuring any; besides the
hourly apprehensions I had of being made the food of other creatures. But
all the while the mate was thus relating to me the miserable condition of
the ship's company, I could not put out of my thought the story he had
told me of the three poor creatures in the great cabin, viz. the mother,
her son, and the maid-servant, whom he had heard nothing of for two or
three days, and whom, he seemed to confess, they had wholly neglected,
their own extremities being so great; by which I understood that they had
really given them no food at all, and that therefore they must be
perished, and be all lying dead, perhaps, on the floor or deck of the
cabin.

As I therefore kept the mate, whom we then called captain, on board with
his men, to refresh them, so I also forgot not the starving crew that
were left on board, but ordered my own boat to go on board the ship, and,
with my mate and twelve men, to carry them a sack of bread, and four or
five pieces of beef to boil. Our surgeon charged the men to cause the
meat to be boiled while they stayed, and to keep guard in the cook-room,
to prevent the men taking it to eat raw, or taking it out of the pot
before it was well boiled, and then to give every man but a very little
at a time: and by this caution he preserved the men, who would otherwise
have killed themselves with that very food that was given them on purpose
to save their lives.

At the same time I ordered the mate to go into the great cabin, and see
what condition the poor passengers were in; and if they were alive, to
comfort them, and give them what refreshment was proper: and the surgeon
gave him a large pitcher, with some of the prepared broth which he had
given the mate that was on board, and which he did not question would
restore them gradually. I was not satisfied with this; but, as I said
above, having a great mind to see the scene of misery which I knew the
ship itself would present me with, in a more lively man