'There being no prospect but that of starvation here, we determined to
put to sea again. Three of our comrades, however, chose to remain, and
we pledged ourselves to send a vessel to bring them off, if we ourselves
should ever escape to a Christian port. With a very small morsel of
biscuit for each, and a little water, we again ventured out on the wide
ocean. In the course of a few days our provisions were consumed. Two men
died; we had no other alternative than to live upon their remains. These
we roasted to dryness by means of fires kindled on the ballast-sand at
the bottom of the boats.[44] When this supply was spent, what could we
do? We looked at each other with horrid thoughts in our minds, but we
held our tongues. I am sure that we loved one another as brothers all
the time; and yet our looks told plainly what must be done. We cast
lots, and the fatal one fell on my poor cabin-boy. I started forward
instantly, and cried out, "My lad, my lad, _if you don't like your lot_,
I'll shoot the first man that touches you." The poor emaciated boy
hesitated a moment or two; then, quietly laying his head down upon the
gunnel of the boat, he said, "_I like it as well as any other."_ He was
soon despatched, and nothing of him left. I think, then, another man
died of himself, and him, too, we ate. But I can tell you no more--my
head is on fire at the recollection; I hardly know what I say. I forgot
to say that we had parted company with the second boat before now. After
some more days of horror and despair, when some were lying down at the
bottom of the boat not able to rise, and scarcely one of us could move a
limb, a vessel hove in sight. We were taken on board, and treated with
extreme kindness. The second last boat was also picked up at sea, and
the survivors saved. A ship afterwards sailed in search of our
companions on the desolate island, and brought them away.'
Captain Pollard closed his dreary narrative with saying, in a tone of
despondency never to be forgotten by him who heard it, 'After a time I
found my way to the United States, to which I belonged, and got another
ship. That, too, I have lost by a second wreck off the Sandwich Islands,
and now I am utterly ruined. No owner will ever trust me with a whaler
again, for all will say I am an _unlucky_ man.'
The following account respecting the three men that were left on the
uninhabited island, is given in a note of the same work, and said to be
extracted from a religious tract, No. 579, issued by the Society in
Paternoster Row.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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