, they found that they had been driven to
the south of Easter Island, and that it was not practicable to beat up
to it. They therefore determined to head for Juan Fernandez--Robinson
Crusoe's Island--some two thousand miles southeastward. On the 10th,
the second mate, Matthew Joy, died from exposure, and was buried the
next morning. On the 12th in the midst of a terrible storm, the boats
separated.

First we will follow the course of the mate's boat. {240} On the 20th,
Peterson, a black man, died and was buried. On the 8th of February,
Isaac Cole, a white seaman, died. The men on the boat were by this
time in a frightful condition, weak and emaciated to the last degree.
Their provisions were almost gone. But two biscuit to a man remained.
They were still over a thousand miles from land. They came to a
fearful determination. The body of Cole was not buried. They lived on
him from the 9th to the 14th. On the 15th and 16th, they consumed the
last vestige of their biscuit.

On the 17th, driving along at the mercy of wind and wave, for there was
not a man strong enough to do anything, they caught sight of the Island
of Massafuera. They were helpless to bring the boat near to the
Island. Whale-boats were steered by an oar. There was not a single
man able to lift an oar. In addition to starvation, thirst, weakness,
mental anguish, their legs began to swell with a sort of scurvy, giving
them excessive pain. Their condition can scarcely be imagined. The
breath of life was there, nothing more.

However, they had at last reached the end of their sufferings, for on
the morning of the 19th of February, 1821, in Lat. 35 degrees 45
minutes S., Long. 81 degrees 03 minutes W., the three surviving men
were picked up by the brig _Indian_, of London, Captain William
Crozier. On the 25th of February, they arrived at Valparaiso,
ninety-six days and nearly four thousand miles from the sinking of the
ship!

The other two boats managed to keep together for a little while after
they lost sight of the mate's boat. On the 14th of February,
provisions in the second mate's boat gave out entirely. On the 15th,
Lawson Thomas, a black man, died in that boat and was eaten. {241} The
captain's boat ran out of provisions on the 21st. On the 23rd Charles
Shorter, another Negro, died in the second mate's boat and was shared
between the two boats. On the 27th another black man died from the
same boat, furnishing a further meal for