ch attached us to the other boats, and tugged off with all
his force. At the same instant every boat imitated our execrable
example; and wishing to shun the approach of the shallop, which sought
for assistance, stood off from the raft, abandoning in the midst of the
ocean, and to the fury of the waves, the miserable mortals whom they had
sworn to land on the shores of the Desert.

Scarcely had these cowards broken their oath, when we saw the French
flag flying upon the raft. The confidence of these unfortunate persons
was so great, that when they saw the first boat which had the tow
removing from them, they all cried out, the rope is broken! the rope is
broken! but when no attention was paid to their observation they
instantly perceived the treachery of the wretches who had left them so
basely. Then the cries of _Vive le Roi_ arose from the raft, as if the
poor fellows were calling to their father for assistance; or, as if they
had been persuaded that, at that rallying word, the officers of the
boats would return, and not abandon their countrymen. The officers
repeated the cry of _Vive le Roi_, without a doubt, to insult them; but,
more particularly, M. Lachaumareys, who, assuming a martial attitude,
waved his hat in the air. Alas! what availed these false professions?
Frenchmen, menaced with the greatest peril, were demanding assistance
with the cries of _Vive le Roi_; yet none were found sufficiently
generous, nor sufficiently French, to go to aid them. After a silence
of some minutes, horrible cries were heard; the air resounded with the
groans, the lamentations, the imprecations of these wretched beings, and
the echo of the sea frequently repeated, Alas! how cruel you are to
abandon us!!! The raft already appeared to be buried under the waves,
and its unfortunate passengers immersed. The fatal machine was drifted
by currents far behind the wreck of the Frigate; without cable, anchor,
mast, sail, oars; in a word, without the smallest means of enabling them
to save themselves. Each wave that struck it, made them stumble in heaps
on one another. Their feet getting entangled among the cordage, and
between the planks, bereaved them of the faculty of moving. Maddened by
these misfortunes, suspended, and adrift upon a merciless ocean, they
were soon tortured between the pieces of wood which formed the scaffold
on which they floated. The bones of their feet and their legs were
bruized and broken, every time the fury of the w