trabands impressed into service, all the cooking
arrangements of three families appropriated, by permission, and
soon three pounds of tea were boiling, and many gallons of gruel
blubbering. In the meantime, all the bread we could buy,
twenty-five loaves, were cut into slices and _jellied_, pickles
were got in readiness, and in an incredibly short time, we were
back to our poor sufferers.

"When we carried in bread, hands from every quarter were
outstretched, and the cry, 'Give me a piece, O please! I have had
nothing since Monday;' another, 'Nothing but hard crackers since
the fight,' etc. When we had dealt out nearly all the bread, a
surgeon came in, and cried, 'Do please keep some for the poor
fellows in the hold; they are so badly off for everything.' So with
the remnant we threaded our way through the suffering crowd, amid
such exclamations as 'Oh! please don't touch my foot,' or, 'For
mercy's sake, don't touch my arm;' another, 'Please don't move the
blanket; I am so terribly cut up,' down to the hold, in which were
not less than one hundred and fifty, nearly all sick, some very
sick. It was like plunging into a vapor bath, so hot, close, and
full of moisture, and then in this dismal place, we distributed our
bread, oranges, and pickles, which were seized upon with avidity.
And here let me say, at least twenty of them told us next day that
the pickles had done them more good than all the medicine they had
taken. The tea was carried all around in buckets, sweetened, but no
milk in it. How much we wished for some concentrated milk. The
gruel, into which we had put a goodly quantity of wine, was
relished, you cannot know how much. One poor wounded boy, exhausted
with the loss of blood and long fasting, looked up after taking the
first nourishment he could swallow since the battle of Saturday,
then four days, and exclaimed, with face radiant with gratitude and
pleasure, 'Oh! that is life to me; I feel as if _twenty years were
given me_ to live.' He was shockingly wounded about the neck and
face, and could only take liquid food from a feeding-cup, of which
they had none on board. We left them four, together with a number
of tin dishes, spoons, etc. After hours spent in this way, we
returned to the Hygeia Hospital, stopping on our way to stew a