k
back into the chair and called to the black sailors.

'Away with this slave. Why are you so slow?'

The men advanced upon me, but I was not minded to be handled by them if
I could help it, and I was minded to cause de Garcia to share my fate.
Suddenly I bounded at him, and gripping him round the middle, I dragged
him from his chair. Such was the strength that rage and despair gave to
me that I succeeded in swinging him up to the level of the bulwarks. But
there the matter ended, for at that moment the two black sailors sprang
upon us both, and tore him from my grip. Then seeing that all was lost,
for they were about to cut me down with their swords, I placed my hand
upon the bulwark and leaped into the sea.

My reason told me that I should do well to drown as quickly as possible,
and I thought to myself that I would not try to swim, but would sink at
once. Yet love of life was too strong for me, and so soon as I touched
the water, I struck out and began to swim along the side of the ship,
keeping myself in her shadow, for I feared lest de Garcia should cause
me to be shot at with arrows and musket balls. Presently as I went I
heard him say with an oath:

'He has gone, and for good this time, but my foreboding went near to
coming true after all. Bah! how the sight of that man frightens me.'

Now I knew in my heart that I was doing a mad thing, for though if no
shark took me, I might float for six or eight hours in this warm water
yet I must sink at last, and what would my struggle have profited me?
Still I swam on slowly, and after the filth and stench of the slave
hold, the touch of the clean water and the breath of the pure air were
like food and wine to me, and I felt strength enter into me as I went.
By this time I was a hundred yards or more from the ship, and though
those on board could scarcely have seen me, I could still hear the
splash of the bodies, as the slaves were flung from her, and the
drowning cries of such among them as still lived.

I lifted my head and looked round the waste of water, and seeing
something floating on it at a distance, I swam towards it, expecting
that every moment would be my last, because of the sharks which abound
in these seas. Soon I was near it, and to my joy I perceived that it was
a large barrel, which had been thrown from the ship, and was floating
upright in the water. I reached it, and pushing at it from below,
contrived to tilt it so that I caught its upper edge wit