Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852Various
Religion
Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. V, No. XXIX., October, 1852
Various
American literature -- Periodicals; Civilization -- Periodicals; Culture -- Periodicals
About eight days afterward, an Arab woman, wandering along the shore
near the place where these voyagers had embarked, found Costigan lying
upon the ground there, in a dying condition, alone, and the boat at a
little distance on the beach, stranded and abandoned. The woman took
pity upon the sufferer, and calling some Arab men to the spot, she
persuaded them to take him up, and carry him to Jericho. There they
found the sailor, who, better able as it would seem to endure such
hardships than his master, had had strength enough left, when the
boat reached the land, to walk, and had, accordingly, made his way to
Jericho, leaving his master on the shore while he went for succor. At
Jericho Costigan revived a little, and was then taken to Jerusalem,
where he was lodged in a convent, and every effort was made to save his
life and to promote his recovery, but in vain. He died in two days, and
was never able to give any account of the events of his voyage.
The sailor, however, when questioned in respect to the events of the
cruise, gave an account of such of them as a mere sailor would be
likely to remember. They moved, he said, in a zigzag direction on the
lake, crossing and recrossing it a number of times. They sounded every
day, and found the depth of the water in many places very great. The
sufferings, the sailor said, which they both endured from the heat,
were very great; and the labor of rowing was excessively exhausting. In
three days, however, they succeeded in reaching the southern extremity
of the sea, and then set out on their return. During all this time
Costigan himself took his turn regularly at the oars, but on the sixth
day the supply of water gave out, and then Costigan's strength entirely
failed. On the seventh day, they had nothing to drink but the water of
the sea. This only aggravated instead of relieving their thirst, and on
the eighth day the sailor undertook to make coffee from the sea water,
hoping, by this means, to disguise in some measure its nauseating and
intolerable saltness. But all was in vain. No sustenance or strength
could be obtained from such sources, and the sailor himself soon found
his strength, too, entirely gone. All attempts at rowing were now, of
course, entirely abandoned, and although the boat had nearly reached
the land again, at the mouth of the Jordan, the ill fated navigators
must have perished floating on the sea, had it not happened that a
breeze sprung up just at this juncture--blowing toward the land. The
sailor, though too much exhausted to row, contrived to raise the sail,
and to guide the helm, so that the boat at length attained the shore.
There he left his master, while he himself made his way to Jericho, as
has been already described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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