A drizzling shower now came on, and having continued for some time,
was at length succeeded by heavy rain, which having been converted
into sleet, was carried in flakes swiftly along the tops of the
towering mountains of sea; while the cold sensibly affected the
already exhausted lascars, at once disinclining them from exertion,
and incapacitating them from making any; some of them even sat down
like inanimate statues, with a fixed stare, and a deathlike hue upon
their countenances: the most afflicting circumstance was, their being
destitute of warm clothing, which they had neglected to provide
themselves with, as they ought to have done, out of the four months'
advance they received in Calcutta. All that I could spare was given to
Thomson; but unable to endure the sight of their misery, I distributed
among them many articles which I could ill spare,--sheets, shirts,
and blankets, except one of the latter, which I had reserved as a
provision against any further extreme of suffering which might yet
await us. There was one poor lascar, a simple inoffensive youth, about
nineteen, who was an object of the liveliest commiseration; he was
nearly naked, and in that state had been continually drenched by the
sea and rain, during the whole of the day and night; he was holding
his hands up to heaven in a supplicating attitude, and shaking
in an aguish fit; the tears fell in torrents down his cheeks,
while he uttered his plaints in loud and piercing lamentations.
Unable, at last, to witness his misery any longer, I rushed
down to my cabin--"Can you, Virginia, spare me this blanket without
feeling the cold too much yourself?--it is to save the life of a
fellow-creature."--"Yes, take it; but stay with me, or, under the
horrors I feel, I shall die in this cabin, and alone. I know we must
perish, and why not die together?" I entreated her to support herself
with all the fortitude she could collect, urged the impossibility of
my keeping her company, as every moment called for my assistance; and