small beaker at the cask, wedged in among the cargo of deals; but now,
scarcely able to keep our feet along the planks, and still less so to
haul the vessel up to the top, we were in danger of even this resource
being cut off from us. In this manner, incredible as it may seem, we
managed to keep body and soul together till the eleventh day; our only
sustenance, the pork, the cat, water, and the bark of some young birch
trees, which latter, in searching for a keg of tamarinds, which we had
hoped to find, we had latterly come athwart.

On the twelfth morning, at daybreak, the hailing of some one from the
deck electrified us all. Supposing, as we had missed none of our
shipmates from the top, that it must be some boat or vessel, we all
eagerly made a movement to answer our supposed deliverers, and such was
our excitement that it well nigh upset what little reason we had left.
We soon found out our mistake. We saw that one of the party was missing;
and from this individual, whom we had found without shoes, hat, or
jacket, had the voice proceeded.

Despair had now taken such complete hold, that, suspended between life
and death, a torpor had seized us, and, resigned to our fate, we had
scarcely sufficient energy to lift our heads, and exercise the only
faculty on which depended our safety. The delirium of our unfortunate
shipmate had, however, reanimated us, and by this means, through
Providence, he was made instrumental to our deliverance. Not long after,
one of the men suddenly exclaimed, "This is Sunday morning!--The Lord
will deliver us from our distress!--at any rate I will take a look
round." With this he arose, and having looked about him a few minutes,
the cheering cry of "a sail!" announced the fulfilment of this singular
prophecy. "Yes," he repeated in answer to our doubts, "a sail, and
bearing right down upon us!"