dians, from a discovery we
made of some of their lances and other arms in our hut; and our uncertainty
of their strength and disposition gave alarm to our imagination, and kept
us in continual anxiety.

In this miserable hovel, one of our company, a lieutenant of invalids, died
this night; and of those who for want of room took shelter under a great
tree, which stood them in very little stead, two more perished by the
severity of that cold and rainy night. In the morning, the calls of hunger,
which had been hitherto suppressed by our attention to more immediate
dangers and difficulties, were now become too importunate to be resisted.
We had most of us fasted eight-and-forty hours, some more; it was time
therefore to make enquiry among ourselves what store of sustenance had been
brought from the wreck by dire providence of some, and what could be
procured on the island by the industry of others; but the produce of the
one amounted to no more than two or three pounds of biscuit-dust preserved
in a bag; and all the success of those who ventured abroad, the weather
being still exceedingly bad, was to kill one sea-gull and pick some wild
sellery. These, therefore, were immediately put into a pot, with the
addition of a large quantity of water, and made into a kind of soup, of
which each partook as far as it would go; but we had no sooner thrown this
down than we were seized with the most painful sickness at our stomachs,
violent reachings, swoonings, and other symptoms of being poisoned. This
was imputed to various causes, but in general to the herbs we made use of,
in the nature and quality of which we fancied ourselves mistaken; but a
little farther enquiry let us into the real occasion of it, which was no
other than this: the biscuit-dust was the sweepings of the bread-room, but
the bag in which they were put had been a tobacco-bag, the contents of
which not being entirely taken out, what remained mixed with the biscuit-
dust, and proved a strong emetic.

We were in all about a hundred and forty who had got to shore, but some few
remained still on board, detained either by drunkenness or a view of
pillaging the wreck, among whom was the boatswain. These were visited by an
officer in the yawl, who was to endeavour to prevail upon them to join the
rest; but finding them in the greatest disorder and disposed to mutiny, he
was obliged to desist from his purpose and return without them. Though we
were very desirous, and our ne