er the starboard bow near the bowsprit.
This last was a stout and tall man, with a very dark skin. He seemed
by his manner to be encouraging us to have patience, nodding to us in
a cheerful although rather odd way, and smiling constantly, so as to
display a set of the most brilliantly white teeth. As his vessel drew
nearer, we saw a red flannel cap which he had on fall from his head into
the water; but of this he took little or no notice, continuing his
odd smiles and gesticulations. I relate these things and circumstances
minutely, and I relate them, it must be understood, precisely as they
_appeared _to us.

The brig came on slowly, and now more steadily than before, and--I
cannot speak calmly of this event--our hearts leaped up wildly within
us, and we poured out our whole souls in shouts and thanksgiving to
God for the complete, unexpected, and glorious deliverance that was so
palpably at hand. Of a sudden, and all at once, there came wafted over
the ocean from the strange vessel (which was now close upon us) a
smell, a stench, such as the whole world has no name for--no conception
of--hellish--utterly suffocating--insufferable, inconceivable. I gasped
for breath, and turning to my companions, perceived that they were paler
than marble. But we had now no time left for question or surmise--the
brig was within fifty feet of us, and it seemed to be her intention to
run under our counter, that we might board her without putting out a
boat. We rushed aft, when, suddenly, a wide yaw threw her off full five
or six points from the course she had been running, and, as she passed
under our stern at the distance of about twenty feet, we had a full view
of her decks. Shall I ever forget the triple horror of that spectacle?
Twenty-five or thirty human bodies, among whom were several females, lay
scattered about between the counter and the galley in the last and most
loathsome state of putrefaction. We plainly saw that not a soul lived in
that fated vessel! Yet we could not help shouting to the dead for help!
Yes, long and loudly did we beg, in the agony of the moment, that those
silent and disgusting images would stay for us, would not abandon us to
become like them, would receive us among their goodly company! We were
raving with horror and despair--thoroughly mad through the anguish of
our grievous disappointment.

As our first loud yell of terror broke forth, it was replied to by
something, from near the bowsprit of the stra