utter
desperation and self-abandonment and aroused me, saying in a hoarse and
painful whisper, that there was a vessel in sight. Even this
announcement hardly sufficed to overcome the stupor into which I had
sunk, and it was with a reluctant effort, and a feeling akin to
annoyance at being disturbed, that I sat up and looked around me. My
eyes were so much inflamed that I could see nothing distinctly.

The first thing that I observed, was, that the calm was at an end. A
breeze had sprung up, and was blowing gently but pretty steadily from
the south. The surface of the sea was slightly ruffled, and its dead
stagnant aspect, had given place to one of breezy freshness. In this
change there was something reviving and strengthening. Far to the
south, where Morton pointed out the vessel which he had discovered, I
could just distinguish a white speck upon the water, which seemed more
like the crest of a wave than any thing else. Morton had already called
Arthur's attention to it, and he was watching it intently. Gradually it
became more distinct, and in half an hour, I too, could make it out
plainly, to be a small sailing vessel of some description. As she was
coming directly down before the wind, there seemed to be no need of
doing any thing to attract her attention. I now hastened to reanimate
Max and Browne, by communicating to them the intelligence that relief
was probably at hand. In three-quarters of an hour more, the strange
sail was near enough to enable us to see that she was a large double
canoe, such as is used by some of the islanders of the South Pacific, in
their trading voyages. It had two masts, with large triangular
mat-sails, and appeared to contain six or seven persons only, whom we
supposed to be natives of some neighbouring island. As soon as they
were within speaking distance, one of them, to our great astonishment
hailed us in French. Arthur undertook to answer in the same language,
when the other, probably perceiving that the French was not his native
tongue, spoke to us in tolerable English, but with a strong French
accent. It was easy to perceive, now that our attention was
particularly called to him, that the spokesman was a European. Though
almost naked like the rest, and elaborately tattooed upon the chest and
shoulders, his light hair and beard, and florid though sun-burnt skin,
sufficiently distinguished him from them. Of course the first thing
with us, was to make known our wan