did we now regret the
loss of our jug and carboy; for, in spite of the little means we had of
catching the water, we might have filled one, if not both of them. As
it was, we contrived to satisfy the cravings of thirst by suffering
the shirts to become saturated, and then wringing them so as to let the
grateful fluid trickle into our mouths. In this occupation we passed the
entire day.

August 7. Just at daybreak we both at the same instant descried a
sail to the eastward, and _evidently coming towards us!_ We hailed the
glorious sight with a long, although feeble shout of rapture; and began
instantly to make every signal in our power, by flaring the shirts in
the air, leaping as high as our weak condition would permit, and even by
hallooing with all the strength of our lungs, although the vessel
could not have been less than fifteen miles distant. However, she
still continued to near our hulk, and we felt that, if she but held her
present course, she must eventually come so close as to perceive us. In
about an hour after we first discovered her, we could clearly see the
people on her decks. She was a long, low, and rakish-looking topsail
schooner, with a black ball in her foretopsail, and had, apparently,
a full crew. We now became alarmed, for we could hardly imagine it
possible that she did not observe us, and were apprehensive that she
meant to leave us to perish as we were--an act of fiendish barbarity,
which, however incredible it may appear, has been repeatedly perpetuated
at sea, under circumstances very nearly similar, and by beings who
were regarded as belonging to the human species. {*2} In this instance,
however, by the mercy of God, we were destined to be most happily
deceived; for, presently we were aware of a sudden commotion on the deck
of the stranger, who immediately afterward ran up a British flag, and,
hauling her wind, bore up directly upon us. In half an hour more
we found ourselves in her cabin. She proved to be the Jane Guy, of
Liverpool, Captain Guy, bound on a sealing and trading voyage to the
South Seas and Pacific.

CHAPTER 14

THE _Jane Guy_ was a fine-looking topsail schooner of a hundred and
eighty tons burden. She was unusually sharp in the bows, and on a wind,
in moderate weather, the fastest sailer I have ever seen. Her qualities,
however, as a rough sea-boat, were not so good, and her draught of water
was by far too great for the trade to which she was destined. For this
pec