o shift for himself, and
every man did shift for himself, in that selfish or bewildered manner
which increased the general disaster. The captain was not among the
last, but among the first to scramble into a boat; and the boats
pushed off from the sides of the frigate, before they had taken in as
many as each was capable of holding. Reproaches, recrimination, and
scuffling took the place of order and of the word of command, both in
the ship and in the boats, when tranquillity and order were
indispensable for the common safety.

When the raft had received the miserable remnant, one hundred and
fifty in number, for whom the boats had no room, or would make no
room, it was found, when it was too late to correct the evil, that
this last refuge of a despairing and disorderly multitude had been put
together with so little care and skill, and was so ill provided with
necessaries, that the planking was insecure; there was not space
enough for protection from the waves, and charts, instruments, spars,
sails, and stores were all deficient. A few casks of wine and some
biscuits, enough for a single meal only, were all the provision made
for their sustenance. The rush and scramble from the wreck had been
accomplished with so little attention to discipline, that the raft had
not a single naval officer to take charge of her. At first, the boats
took the raft in tow, but in a short time, though the sea was calm and
the coast was known to be within fifteen leagues, the boats cast off
the tow-lines: and in not one of the six was there a sufficient sense
of duty, or of humanity left, to induce the crew to remain by the
floating planks--the forlorn hope of one hundred and fifty of their
comrades and fellow-countrymen! Nay, it is related by the narrators of
the wreck of the Medusa, that the atrocious cry resounded from one
boat to another, '_Nous les abandonnons_!'--'we leave them to their
fate,'--until one by one all the tow-lines were cast off. During the
long interval of seventeen days, the raft struggled with the waves. A
small pocket compass was the only guide of the unhappy men, who lost
even this in one of the reckless quarrels, which ensued every hour
for a better place on the raft or a morsel of biscuit. On the first
night twelve men were jammed between the timbers, and died under the
agonies of crushed and mangled limbs. On the second night more were
drowned, and some were smothered by the pressure towards the centre of
the raft