ok counsel with myself as to whether I should
declare that I was whole from the plague and pray them to spare me, or
whether I should suffer myself to be drowned. The desire for life was
strong, but perhaps it may serve to show how great were the torments
from which I was suffering, and how broken was my spirit by misfortunes
and the horrors around me, when I say that I determined to make no
further effort to live, but rather to accept death as a merciful
release. And, indeed, I knew that there was little likelihood of such
attempts being of avail, for I saw that the Spanish sailors were mad
with fear and had but one desire, to be rid of the slaves who consumed
the water, and as they believed, had bred the pestilence. So I said such
prayers as came into my head, and although with a great shivering of
fear, for the poor flesh shrinks from its end and the unknown beyond it,
however high may be the spirit, I prepared myself to die.

Now, having dragged away my neighbour in misery, the living savage, the
men turned to me. They were naked to the middle, and worked furiously
to be done with their hateful task, sweating with the heat, and keeping
themselves from fainting by draughts of spirit.

'This one is alive also and does not seem so sick,' said a man as he
struck the fetters from me.

'Alive or dead, away with the dog!' answered another hoarsely, and I saw
that it was the same officer to whom I had been given as a slave. 'It
is that Englishman, and he it is who brought us ill luck. Cast the Jonah
overboard and let him try his evil eye upon the sharks.'

'So be it,' answered the other man, and finished striking off my
fetters. 'Those who have come to a cup of water each a day, do not press
their guests to share it. They show them the door. Say your prayers,
Englishman, and may they do you more good than they have done for most
on this accursed ship. Here, this is the stuff to make drowning easy,
and there is more of it on board than of water,' and he handed me the
flask of spirit. I took it and drank deep, and it comforted me a little.
Then they put the rope round me and at a signal those on the deck above
began to haul till I swung loose beneath the hatchway. As I passed
that Spaniard to whom I had been given in slavery, and who but now had
counselled my casting away, I saw his face well in the light of the
lantern, and there were signs on it that a physician could read clearly.

'Farewell,' I said to him, 'we may so