nt above the boat's gunwale, waved its hand feebly, and sank down
again. But--merciful Heaven! what a sight it was, which was thus
momentarily presented to our view. The figure was that of a full-grown
man clad in the ordinary garb of a Spanish seaman, but the clothes hung
about it in rags, and the features were so shrunken that the skin
appeared as though strained over a naked skull.

"Good God!" ejaculated Captain Annesley. "Why, they are in the last
stage of starvation. Round-to and back the main-yard, if you please,
Mr Flinn. Mr Chester, take the gig, and tow them alongside. Where's
the doctor?"

I jumped into the gig, with six hands; she was lowered down, the tackles
unhooked, and away we went. A few strokes took us alongside the boat;
and I then saw a sight which I shall never forget. The boat seemed full
of bodies, all huddled together in the bottom in such a way that it was
impossible to count them as they lay there, and the stench which arose
was so sickening that we had to hold our nostrils while the painter was
being cleared away and made fast.

We were soon alongside the frigate once more, and the doctor with his
assistant at once jumped down into the Spanish boat and proceeded to
examine its occupants. Three of them proved to be still alive; the
remainder were dead and rotted almost out of the semblance of humanity.
The survivors were hoisted as carefully as possible on board the
frigate; and then, as the best means we could think of for disposing of
the boat and her dreadful freight, half a dozen eighteen-pound shot were
passed down into her, a plank knocked out of her bottom, and she was
left to sink, which she did before the frigate had sailed many yards
from the spot.

The survivors were tended all that day with the utmost care by our
worthy medico, and toward evening he was enabled to announce the
gratifying intelligence that he hoped to save them all. The next day
they were very much better; and on the day following one of them--the
man whom we had seen rise up in the boat--was strong enough to tell us
his story. I will not repeat it in all its dreadful details of
suffering; suffice it to say that their ship, homeward-bound from Saint
Iago, had been attacked by a piratical schooner, the crew of which,
after rifling and scuttling the ship, had turned the crew adrift in one
of their own boats, without provisions or water, masts or sails; and
there they had been, drifting helplessly about