d and saw to
my wonder and delight, that what I had taken to be a bank of mist was
really low-lying land, and that I was drifting rapidly with the tide
towards the bar of a large river. The sound of birds came from great
flocks of sea-gulls that were preying on the shoals of fish, which fed
at the meeting of the fresh and salt water. Presently, as I watched, a
gull seized a fish that could not have weighed less than three pounds,
and strove to lift it from the sea. Failing in this, it beat the fish on
the head with its beak till it died, and had begun to devour it, when I
drifted down upon the spot and made haste to seize the fish. In another
moment, dreadful as it may seem, I was devouring the food raw, and never
have I eaten with better appetite, or found more refreshment in a meal.

When I had swallowed all that I was able, without drinking water, I put
the rest of the fish into the pocket of my coat, and turned my thoughts
to the breakers on the bar. Soon it was evident to me that I could not
pass them standing in my barrel, so I hastened to upset myself into the
water and to climb astride of it. Presently we were in the surf, and I
had much ado to cling on, but the tide bore me forward bravely, and in
half an hour more the breakers were past, and I was in the mouth of the
great river. Now fortune favoured me still further, for I found a piece
of wood floating on the stream which served me for a paddle, and by its
help I was enabled to steer my craft towards the shore, that as I went I
perceived to be clothed with thick reeds, in which tall and lovely trees
grew in groups, bearing clusters of large nuts in their crowns. Hither
to this shore I came without further accident, having spent some ten
hours in my tub, though it was but a chance that I did so, because of
the horrible reptiles called crocodiles, or, by some, alligators, with
which this river swarmed. But of them I knew nothing as yet.

I reached land but just in time, for before I was ashore the tide
turned, and tide and current began to carry me out to sea again, whence
assuredly I had never come back. Indeed, for the last ten minutes, it
took all the strength that I had to force the barrel along towards the
bank. At length, however, I perceived that it floated in not more than
four feet of water, and sliding from it, I waded to the bank and cast
myself at length there to rest and thank God who thus far had preserved
me miraculously. But my thirst, which no