The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 1 (of 2)Paltock, Robert
Science
The Life and Adventures of Peter Wilkins, Volume 1 (of 2)
Paltock, Robert
Adventure stories; Fantasy fiction
little remorse as we should have had for feeding on the best meat in
an English market; and most certainly, when this corpse had failed,
if another had not dropped by fair means, we should have used foul by
murdering one of our number as a supply for the rest.
Water, as I said before, to moisten our mouths, was now our greatest
hardship, for every man had so often drank his own, that we voided
scarce anything but blood, and that but a few drops at a time; our
mouths and tongues were quite flayed with drought, and our teeth just
fallen from our jaws; for though we had tried, by placing all the
dead men's jackets and shirts one over another, to strain some of the
sea-water through them by small quantities, yet that would not deprive
it of its pernicious qualities; and though it refreshed a little in
going down, we were so sick, and strained ourselves so much after it,
that it came up again, and made us more miserable than before. Our
corpse now stunk so, what was left of it, that we could no longer bear
it on board, and every man began to look with an evil eye on his fellow,
to think whose turn it would be next; for the carpenter had started the
question, and preached us into the necessity of it; and we had agreed,
the next morning, to put it to the lot who should be the sacrifice. In
this distress of thought it was so ordered by good Providence, that
on the twenty-first day we thought we spied a sail coming from the
north-west, which caused us to delay our lots till we should see whether
it would discover us or not: we hung up some jackets upon our oars, to
be seen as far off as we could, but had so little strength left we could
make no way towards it; however, it happened to direct its course so
much to our relief, that an hour before sunset it was within a league
of us, but seemed to bear away more eastward, and our fear was that they
should not know our distress, for we were not able to make any noise
from our throats that might be heard fifty yards; but the carpenter, who
was still the best man amongst us, with much ado getting one of the guns
to go off, in less than half-an-hour she came up with us, and seeing
our deplorable condition, took us all on board, to the number of eleven.
Though no methods were un-essayed for our recovery, four more of us
died in as many days. When the remaining seven of us came a little to
ourselves, we found our deliverers were Portuguese, bound for Saint
Salvadore. We told the captain we begged he would let us work our
passage with him, be it where it would, to shore; and then, if we could
be of no further service to him, we did not doubt getting into Europe
again: but in the voyage, as we did him all the service in our power, we
pleased him so well that he engaged us to stay with him to work the ship
home again, he having lost some hands by fever soon after his setting
sail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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