away before the rising blast at almost
double her usual speed.

On the following day we were again favoured with an example of the ease
with which the Almighty can supply the wants of His creatures, even in
such a situation as ours; for during the forenoon a shoal of flying-fish
rose out of the water alongside, and passed directly over the raft,
nearly a score being intercepted in their flight by our sail, and caught
before they were able to flop off into the water again. I thought that
any attempt to preserve them would be sure to end in failure by their
quickly becoming unfit for human food, and therefore proposed that they
should be at once eaten, which proposition, I need scarcely say, met
with the cordial approval of my companions, and was immediately carried
out. We took with them the remainder of the water which we had caught
and preserved in our hats and boots, but found, to our consternation,
that a great deal of it had leaked away, and the little that remained
had become strongly brackish from the quantity of spray which had flown
over us and mingled with it since the freshening of the breeze.

The wind remained fresh all that day and rose still higher during the
following night, so that our speed gradually increased from a knot and a
half to nearly four knots. The sea rose also in proportion, and this
caused the raft to work to such an extent that I began to entertain
serious fears as to whether it would hold together much longer. Most of
the lashings had worked quite loose; but there were now only three of
us, and our united strength was wholly inadequate to the tightening of
them until the sea should go down.

Another night passed, another day, and no more rain had fallen; and then
our sufferings returned--as it seemed to us--with tenfold intensity.
Our strength went from us like water from a sieve; and when night once
more closed down upon our tortured frames we abandoned ourselves, with
one accord, to despair; the helm was left to itself, and the raft was
allowed to steer herself as best she might. We sank down upon the
hatches which formed our deck, and sought to evade in our slumbers some
small portion of our horrible torments. As far as I was concerned,
however, the effort was in vain; for the moment that sleep stole upon my
exhausted frame visions of lakes and springs, murmuring brooks and
sparkling fountains of cool, delicious, fresh water arose before me, and
I suffered all the agonies of th