, himself,
had done.

A few minutes later, all three began to know what we were about. The
launch was hauled up alongside of the stage, and we sat on the latter,
relating the manner in which each of us had been saved. First, then, as to
Neb: I have already told the mode in which the launch was swept overboard,
and I inferred its loss from the violence of the tempest, and the height
of the seas that were raging around us. It is true, neither Marble, nor I,
saw anything of the launch after it sunk behind the first hill of water to
leeward, for we had too much to attend to on board the ship, to have
leisure to look about us. But, it seems the black was enabled to maintain
the boat, the right side up, and, by bailing, to keep her afloat. He drove
to leeward, of course, and the poor fellow described in vivid terms his
sensations, as he saw the rate at which he was driving away from the ship,
and the manner in which he lost sight of her remaining spars. As soon as
the wind would permit, however, he stepped the masts, and set the two
luggs close-reefed, making stretches of three or four miles in length, to
windward. This timely decision was the probable means of saving all our
lives. In the course of a few hours, after he had got the boat under
command, he caught a glimpse of the fore-royal-masts sticking out from the
cap of a sea, and watching it eagerly, he next perceived the whole of the
raft, as it came up on the same swell, with Marble, half-drowned, lashed
to the top. It was quite an hour, before Neb could get near enough to the
raft, or spars, to make Marble conscious of his presence, and sometime
longer ere he could get the sufferer into the boat. This rescue did not
occur one minute too soon, for the mate admitted to me he was half
drowned, and that he did not think he could have held out much longer,
when Neb took him into the boat.

As for food and water, they fared well enough. A breaker of fresh water
was kept in each boat, by my standing orders, and it seems that the cook,
who was a bit of an epicure in his way, was in the habit of stowing a bag
of bread, and certain choice pieces of beef and pork, in the bows of the
launch, for his own special benefit. All these Neb had found, somewhat the
worse for salt-water, it is true, but still in a condition to be eaten.
There was sufficient in the launch, therefore, when we thus met, to
sustain Marble and Neb, in good heart, for a week.

As soon as the mate was got off