Key, it was a little before sunset. I proceeded
into the bushes about three-fourths of a mile, it being a small
Key, and came out nearly to its margin, where I passed the
night, leaning against a bunch of mangroves, with the water up to
my hips. Such had been my fatigue and mental excitement, that
even in this unpleasant situation, I slept soundly, until I was
disturbed by a vision of the horrible scene in the canoes--the
images of Capt. Hilton and Mr. Merry, mangled as when I last saw
them, came before my eyes; and in my fancied attempt to rescue
them, I awoke, but could not convince myself it was a dream,
until I grasped my own flesh. Again I slept interruptedly until
day-light. Being excessively hungry, for this was the third day
since I had taken a single particle of food or drink, I plucked
some of the greenest of the leaves; this relieved my hunger but
increased my thirst. About sun-rise I departed from this Key,
wading with the water, at times, up to my neck, for nearly a
mile, when it grew deeper.

The next and fourth Key, being about another mile distant, I swam
to. This day I kept on about the same course, South Westerly, and
crossed three more small Keys, about a mile distant from each
other. I had now arrived at the seventh and last Key; on this I
passed the night, having prepared a kind of flake of old roots,
on which I slept soundly, for the first time out of water, since
I left Cruz del Padre. Between day-light and sun-rise, having
eaten of the green leaves as before, and having been refreshed by
sleep, I departed from the last Key; by this time so weak that I
could scarcely walk. The water was not so deep but I could wade
until within half a mile of what afterward proved to be Cuba;
but of which I was ignorant at the time.

While I was crossing this last passage, I had to contend with a
strong current probably from the mouth of the very river I
afterward forded; and when but a few rods from the shore a
_Shark_ approached within a rod; but to my great joy, he turned
and left me.

I had now swam about nine miles beside the distance I had
travelled through mud and water, and the hunger and thirst I had
endured, having tasted neither food nor drink, except a few salt
leaves of mangroves, during my flight. And to add to my
sufferings, my almost naked body was covered with moschetoes,
attracted by the blood and sores produced by my escape from Cruz
del Padre.

Observing that this shore varied a little