a slipknot around its
throat, held it up in this manner until I jumped into the hole by the
side of Peters, and assisted him in lifting it out.

The water we drew carefully from the bag into the jug; which, it will be
remembered, had been brought up before from the cabin. Having done this,
we broke off the neck of a bottle so as to form, with the cork, a kind
of glass, holding not quite half a gill. We then each drank one of these
measures full, and resolved to limit ourselves to this quantity per day
as long as it should hold out.

During the last two or three days, the weather having been dry and
pleasant, the bedding we had obtained from the cabin, as well as our
clothing, had become thoroughly dry, so that we passed this night (that
of the twenty-third) in comparative comfort, enjoying a tranquil
repose, after having supped plentifully on olives and ham, with a
small allowance of the wine. Being afraid of losing some of our stores
overboard during the night, in the event of a breeze springing up, we
secured them as well as possible with cordage to the fragments of the
windlass. Our tortoise, which we were anxious to preserve alive as long
as we could, we threw on its back, and otherwise carefully fastened.

CHAPTER 13

JULY 24. This morning saw us wonderfully recruited in spirits and
strength. Notwithstanding the perilous situation in which we were still
placed, ignorant of our position, although certainly at a great distance
from land, without more food than would last us for a fortnight even
with great care, almost entirely without water, and floating about at
the mercy of every wind and wave on the merest wreck in the world, still
the infinitely more terrible distresses and dangers from which we had so
lately and so providentially been delivered caused us to regard what
we now endured as but little more than an ordinary evil--so strictly
comparative is either good or ill.

At sunrise we were preparing to renew our attempts at getting up
something from the storeroom, when, a smart shower coming on, with some
lightning, we turn our attention to the catching of water by means of
the sheet we had used before for this purpose. We had no other means of
collecting the rain than by holding the sheet spread out with one of the
forechain-plates in the middle of it. The water, thus conducted to the
centre, was drained through into our jug. We had nearly filled it in
this manner, when, a heavy squall coming on fro