on the dreadful thoughts which
passed through my mind. Was I truly under the ban of Heaven? Was I to
prove the destruction of every vessel I sailed aboard? This was the
fourth time I had been shipwrecked. "Oh, my oath! my oath!" I
ejaculated. "Could I but retract it! But how is that to be done?"
Uttered once, there it must remain engraven in the book of heaven. As I
lay on that sea-tossed raft, in the middle of the Atlantic, I pondered
deeply of those things in my own wild untutored way. Did but men
remember always that every word they utter, every thought to which they
give expression, is entered on a page never to be erased till the day of
judgment, how would it make them put a bridle on their tongues, how
should it make them watch over every wandering emotion of their minds,
and pray always for guidance and direction before they venture to speak!

For several days the gale continued. We scarcely ventured to move for
fear of being washed away. Now the raft rose on the side of a sea--now
rocked on its summit--now sunk down into the trough, but still was
preserved from upsetting--had which event occurred, we must have been
inevitably lost. We had food in the chests, but we had little
inclination to taste it. Water was our great want. Our supply was very
scanty. By the master's urgent advice, we took only sufficient at a
time to moisten our tongues. For a few days we bore this with patience.
Then the wind went down, and the sea grew calm, and the hot sun came
out and struck down on our unprotected heads. The weather grew hotter
and hotter. The men declared they could stand it no longer. One seized
the cask of water, and before the master could prevent him, took a huge
draught: then the others followed his example. The mate for some time
withstood the temptation, but at length he yielded to it.

"Are we to die without a prospect of prolonging existence, because these
men consume all the water?" I said to myself, and taking the cask, drew
enough to quench my thirst. I offered it to the master. "Come, sir,"
said I, "take the water, it may revive you, and perhaps to-morrow help
may come."

He could not withstand the appeal. Perhaps some men might have done so,
from a high sense of the necessity of adhering to a resolution once
formed. In two days we had not a drop of water left. Then came horrors
unspeakable. Madness seized the poor mate. Before he could be
restrained, he leaped from the raft a