“‘In this condition, when all coveted death to relieve the tortures of thirst, there came on the sixteenth of its rise upon our forlorn hopes at sundown, a waft that made all murmur thanks in their weakness. This was followed with genial showers which brought a reviving consciousness of an overruling presence inspiring a love of life and the blessings of kindred affection. When the clouds, to whose timely benefactions we were beholden for our preservation, were dispersed by the rising sun, our eyes and hearts were gladdened with the sight of land, which called forth tears with whispered rejoicings, and wan smiles of congratulation bestowed with embraces, and hand pressures in thankful praise that we had been once more permitted to see the element from which we had been so long divorced by cruel fate. “‘Borne onward by a gentle wind from the ocean, we entered a broad estuary whose banks, or shores, were bordered with a forest verdure of trees exceeding in magnitude our previous conceptions. Far off in the interior, as the sun declined, were seen mountains whose summits were clothed in fleecy mists while beneath the varied descent appeared dressed in rainbow tints of moving light and shadow. The banks of the mighty river, or arm of the ocean, became more distinct in the approaching twilight, until darkness with its pall withheld them from view. Again another day dawned; refreshed with the dews of the night we bethought ourselves how we might bring the vessel to land where we could obtain water to quench our thirst, when lo, with the first feeble dip of the oars the trickle of the water inward discovered to a child its freshness. The faint struggles of the oarsmen strengthened with the fear of again being carried out into the ocean, for the current was forcing the vessel backward, were at length rewarded with the stranding of its keel beneath the steep bank of an inlet.