difficulty in determining their character. At a glance he would have
recognised the _debris_ of the burnt ship, from which he and his
companion had so narrowly escaped,--the slave-bark _Pandora_.

He would have looked upon these objects with no very great surprise, but
in all likelihood with a feeling of considerable satisfaction: as
offering the means for recruiting the strength of his own slight
embarkation, which was barely sufficient to sustain the weight of
himself and his companion, and certainly not strong enough to withstand
the assault of the most moderate of storms.

In the midst of the "waifs" above enumerated, however, there was one not
yet named,--one that differed greatly from all the rest,--and which, had
it been seen by them, would have caused extreme surprise both to Ben
Brace and little William.

It was a raft, not a great deal larger than their own, but altogether of
different construction. A number of planks most of them charred by
fire, with a sofa, a bamboo chair, and some other articles of furniture,
had been rudely bound together by ropes. These things, of themselves,
would have made but a very clumsy craft, no better for navigating the
great ocean than that upon which Ben and the boy were themselves
embarked. But the buoyancy of the former was secured by a contrivance
of which the sailor had not had the opportunity of availing himself.
Around its edge were ranged hogsheads or water-casks, evidently empty.
They were lashed to the plank; and being bunged up against the influx of
the water, kept the whole structure afloat, so that it would have
carried a ton or two without sinking below the surface.

There was a smaller cask floating alongside, attached to the timbers by
a piece of rope that was tightly looped around the swell. But this
could not have been designed to increase the buoyancy of the raft: since
it was itself almost submerged, evidently by the weight of something it
contained.

Such a congeries of objects might have drifted side by side by chance,
or the caprice of the currents; but they could not have tied themselves
together in such fashion. There was design in the arrangement; and in
the midst of the circle of empty hogsheads might have been seen the
contriver of this curious craft. He was, of course, a human being, and
a man; but such an one as, under any circumstances, would arrest the
attention of the beholder; much more in the singular situation in which
he was the