wanted to take their muskets and some cartridges: this was formally
opposed.[19] They left them on the deck, and preserved only their sabres:
some few, however, saved their carbines, and, almost all the officers,
their fowling pieces and pistols. In all, we were about one hundred and
forty-seven or one hundred and fifty; such is pretty nearly the account of
the persons who embarked on this fatal machine, one hundred and twenty
soldiers, including the officers of the army, twenty-nine men, sailors and
passengers, and one woman. The barge, commanded by a lieutenant, on board
of which were the governor and his family, took in thirty-five persons in
all: this large fourteen-oared vessel, could certainly have carried a
larger number: besides the people, there were three trunks; another
fourteen-oared boat took in forty-two persons; the captain's barge took
twenty-eight; the long boat, though in a very bad condition, destitute of
oars, took in, however, eighty-eight; an eight-oared boat which was to be
left at Senegal, for the service of the port, took twenty-five sailors; the
smallest of the boats had fifteen persons on board; among whom were the
interesting family of Mr. Picard, of whom we have spoken above: it was
composed of three young ladies, his wife, and four young children. All
these numbers added together, form a total of three hundred and
ninety-seven persons;[20] there were on board the frigate, near four
hundred sailors and soldiers: thus it appears that several poor wretches
were abandoned; when the Medusa was again found, fifty-two days after, it
was ascertained that the number of those, who had been abandoned, was
seventeen; which proves to us, that there were more than one hundred and
forty seven of us on the raft, and that it is more correct to fix the
number of the men at a hundred and fifty. It is said, that when the last
boat, which was the long boat, left the frigate, several men refused to
embark in her; the others were too much intoxicated to think of their
safety. A man of the name of Dalès, one of the seventeen who remained on
board the frigate, deposed in the council, that fourteen men had left the