y, and wandering in my mind, for I can recollect perfectly
seeing the faces of people I knew in England--my father and mother and
my young wife--beckoning to me and holding out their hands to drag me
out of the water, when I knew all the while that I saw them that I was
swimming for my life in the Mozambique Channel, and that they were safe
at home in the old country! I suppose in my delirium two different
trains of thought were running through my head?

"After that, I forget what happened. I must have become insensible, for
I don't remember what occurred between. I seemed to wake up to
consciousness all at once, and then I found myself lying on a low sandy
beach, where I must have been washed up and left by the retreating tide.

"Although the sun had now set--which showed that I must have been
unconscious for some time, as the last thing I recollected was its
scorching my back, for of course as I was swimming in an easterly
direction towards Madagascar, as it sank down the horizon it got behind
me,--it was still light; and, looking about me, I perceived that I was
on a small island or sand-bank, some distance still off the mainland,
from which it was separated by a wide channel of water. I tried to get
up on my feet to notice better how wide this channel-way was; but I was
so weak from my long immersion in the sea, having stopped all
circulation, that I fell back again flat on my back like a dead man.
The exertion of trying to rise, however, made me bring up a considerable
quantity of sea-water, some two gallons or more, which I must have
swallowed when insensible, for I certainly never took down half that
quantity while swimming, having carefully avoided letting any get into
my mouth for fear of its increasing my thirst; but, however it got into
me, the emetic did me good, and I felt much better after thus disgorging
it from my inside.

"Resting a bit, stretched out on the sand-bank, I could not help
thanking the merciful Providence that had thus preserved my life when I
had abandoned myself to despair, and had been powerless to aid myself;
and I wondered whether any of my comrades had been saved too, or if I
were the sole survivor of the ill-fated boat's crew?

"The evening growing darker my mind was soon brought back to thoughts of
action, especially as the tide rising on the beach where I was lying
began to lap against my body. Crawling on my hands and knees, for I was
still unable to rise to my feet and wa