for want of the precautions which experience dictates, our draught had nearly been fatal to us. Instead of beginning by rinsing our mouths, we swallowed this water, which was naturally noxious, with so much haste, and in so great a quantity, that our stomachs revolted against it, and rejected it, in an instant, with violent and excruciating emotions. Nevertheless, though faint and exhausted, we felt relieved from thirst, and so great a desire of sleep seized us, that had we not had the dread of alligators upon us, we could have sunk in repose for the night upon the spot. We filled our flagon with the water, that we might take some to the Spanish merchant, who had not been able to accompany us; and, with difficulty, we regained our sheltering cashew tree, which we saw again with as much pleasure, as a traveller, after a long journey, experiences, when he finds a house and a good bed in which he may recruit his exhausted strength. As we had not yet relinquished the expectation of arriving at the corps de garde, we determined to pass this night as we had done the last; that is to say, among the branches of the cashew tree; but it was impossible for the exhausted Spaniard to climb. His strength was completely overwhelmed with grief (for his whole fortune lay in his vessel) as well as by age, disease, and fatigue. We were obliged to let him remain at the foot of the tree, under the care of the worthy La Prudence, who, voluntarily, without any consideration of the danger to which he exposed himself, offered to take care of him. This honest negro was a perfect model of zeal and attachment. Did he know some means of rendering himself useful, he lost, instantly, every idea of trouble or fatigue, and rested not till he had afforded each of us all the services that he was able to perform. To this eulogium I must add, it is very probable that many of us must have VOL. IV. sunk beneath the weight of our sufferings long before the moment of deliverance arrived, had it not been for his indefatigable activity. This second night was terrifick, and whatever idea may be formed of it, the impression would still be feeble. To the horrours of our situation during the former night, must be added, not only faintness and the diminution of our strength, but the sight of our poor companion in misery whose disorder increased so much during the night, that at daybreak he was almost wholly insensible. He became so weak that we could not support him in a sitting posture without difficulty. While we were solicitously endeavouring to assuage his sufferings, his remaining recollection seemed entirely occupied about us, and, at length, appearing to forget his pains, he addressed us in these consolatory words :— "My dear friends, I feel that my last hour is come, and that it is no longer permitted to me to share your misfortunes. Whatsoever may arrive do not yield to despair. I have a presentiment that you will surmount these evils, and that it will not be long ere you obtain the reward due to your patience and courage. As to myself, in quitting you, I have this great consolation, that I die surrounded by Christians, who, in restoring to the earth my mortal remains, will unite their prayers to those which I address to the Father of all, that he will deign to receive me into his mercy." These were the last words which our poor companion uttered. Nevertheless, he retained his recollection, and ceased not to pray internally, until he had sighed his last. He held a scapulary in his hand, which he frequently raised to his lips; and it was not until the instant in which he let it fall, that we perceived he lived no more. Thus terminated the existence of this worthy man, whose death, while it suspended the sense of our own miseries for a short time, rendered us more acutely afflicted large fire, of which M. Prudhomme by his loss. Our first care, after we were certain that he had breathed his last, was to employ ourselves in burying him. His coat (in one of the pockets of which we found a small lens, similar to those used by watchmakers to examine their work) served him for a shroud, and with our hands and our cutlass we dug for him a grave in the sand, tolerably deep, into which we consigned his body, after having recited over him the prayers used in the ritual of the dead, and ornamented the spot with the sacred symbol of redemption. This solemn and melancholy ceremony, which apparently should have tended to weaken our remaining energies and to diminish our courage, produced a contrary effect. It seemed to invigorate our bodies and to redouble our resolution; so true is it that prayer, by drawing the soul nearer to its Creator, ennobles it, elevates it, and makes it, in some measure, participate in his power. I have just said that we found a magnifying glass in one of the pockets of the Spanish merchant, which he made use of in reading his breviary. It was to this instrument, which we had seen twenty times in his hands, without thinking of the advantage we might derive from it, that we owed our preservation; for it is certain that we could not have passed the ensuing nights in the same manner as we had done the two preceding, without being exposed to become sooner or later the prey of the alligators, which, to our astonishment, had respected the last moments of the Spaniard. This we attributed to that repugnance common to every animal, even to the most ferocious, which makes them avoid the scene of natural death. Our first care, when the sun was near its meridian height, was, by means of our lens, to steal from him one of his beams, and to make a and I took the charge, while our companions went forwards to make their discoveries, and did not return until sunset. Not only had they found neither water, nor food, but they had acquired the melancholy certainty that we were not upon the continent of Cuba, but upon a small island on its coast, which was separated from it by a canal three leagues in width. This discovery, heart rending as it was, produced, nevertheless, a good effect. It delivered us from the cruel state of uncertainty in which we had been for three days, an uncertainty many times more painful than the conviction that our surmises were well founded, and that our safety must depend upon our personal efforts. After some reflection, we agreed that there remained to us one only way of escaping destruction. It was to construct a raft. But how to accomplish such an undertaking? I have already said that the island upon which we were, was low, producing little more than reeds and shrubs, which, in whatever quantity we might collect them, would never have formed a body sufficiently solid to bear us, or to resist the waves which in that channel are particularly turbulent. There were, indeed, some trees scattered here and there on the most elevated spots. But not only were these generally at a distance from the shore, but we had no tools nor instruments to fell them or to adapt them to our purpose. Still, this idea was too attractive to be rejected; and, by continually indulging it, we at length so far persuaded ourselves of the possibility of its execution, that in less than an hour not one of us doubted of the certainty of his preservation. The wretched are not difficult in the choice of their hopes. They see in all their projects the termination of their misery. All their conclusions are directed to one point; and neither the circumstances which may happen, nor the obstacles which may arise, impede the velocity of their minds. Their imagination refuses to reflect, and even rejects the most manifest impediments with the dread of beholding the flattering illusion dissipated, which consoles them; and, for a moment, blunts the sense of misery. These pleasing ideas, united to the certainty of being able to pass a comfortable night, stretched at our ease on the sand, surrounded by good fires, and without any thing to fear from the alligators which had hitherto caused us so much terrour; these ideas, I say, caused our supper of saline herbs and dog-grass to appear excellent. We quenched our thirst with the water of the marsh, but with more precaution than on the preceding evening, and therefore with less inconvenience. We made three fires, and laid ourselves at our length in the space they encompassed. Each of us by turns kept watch to attend to the fires; and thus we passed an excellent night, which was not only free from uneasiness, but was embellished with the most seductive hope. The next morning we awoke fresh and cheerful, and we conversed upon nothing but the means of putting our project into execution. A little fresh water which the indefatigable La Prudence had collected from those wild artichokes which I have already mentioned, added farther to our comforts, and augmented our expectations; but as we were on the side of the island most distant from the main land, we resolved to travel across to the other shore. This enterprise had numerous difficulties; and although the northern coast was not more than two leagues from the point whence we departed; yet the journey took up the whole of the day. Still this was preferable to the attempt to double the point of the island on a raft, which is always ungovernable when it meets with a current contrary to the course in which it is to be navigated. It was not without a farewell sight of the tomb of the poor Spaniard, nor without paying his memory the respect of our mutual regret, that we quitted this spot, the scene of our affliction, our despair, and our hope. But the project which we had formed had so many charms, that it speedily concentrated all our ideas. It was, indeed, our only expectation, our last resource. As we walked, it formed the incessant subject of our conversation; and we spoke of it as of a measure, the execution of which was indubitable. We thus reanimated our courage and renewed our strength. In all the circumstances, and in every station of life, man delights to lull his reason with chimeras. He will even quit the real pleasures which he enjoys, to indulge his imagination in the creation of those which do not exist. He trespasses, madman as he is, upon the sacred rights of the unfortunate !Illusion is the territory of the unhappy. The blessings which it produces are to them real. They soften the sensation of present evil; they strengthen their souls in the toils of adversity; and enable them to arrive at the termination of their miseries. After a journey of seven hours we arrived, at length, on the other coast of the island. We were, indeed, in a most pitiable state. Our feet were torn by thorns, and began to refuse their support; and those among us who wore boots, had their legs so swollen, that they were obliged to cut the leather to obtain relief. But whatever were our sufferings, one single look towards the opposite coast, immediately overcame our sense of them, and a thick smoke, which we beheld rising through the trees that bordered the strand, transformed this country to a new Eden in our idea, in which our imagination presented us already, the oblivion of our miseries and the enjoyments of the land of promise. After a meal of herbs and roots, we began our work. The strongest attacked the trees at their roots, while the rest stripped them of their bark, or went in search of reeds. When our materials were united, we delivered ourselves up to our occupations, with an ardour of which our situation can alone suggest an idea. Night interrupted our labours. We made up our fires and thought of taking that repose which our journey and our work had rendered more than ever necessary to us. We enjoyed our rest in its fullest extent, until the moment when the dawn broke the charm of sleep embellished with the most promising dreams, and embellishing our waking hours with all that the most deceitful imagination renders seductive. Resolved to depart on the morning of the next day, we busied ourselves in the construction of our raft. We had collected materials, and nothing remained but to put them in order. Capt. Durand was our engineer. He began by instructing us to lash our wood together with the green bark of trees and reeds; and thus we succeeded, little by little, in fabricating a flat machine, to one of the ends of which we fastened a piece of wood that might serve us as a rudder. Our work being finished we moored our masterpiece firmly to the sandy bank, and went to rest at no great distance, still contemplating the spot that held the long laboured means of our expected safety. Alas! the stroke of misfortune had not yet spent its force. We were doomed to feel every degree of affliction and to arrive slowly at the termination of misery! We had slept two or three hours, surrounded by numerous fires, which we had intrusted to the care of La Prudence, when we were suddenly roused by loud claps of thunder, which rolled over our heads. The sky was in flames with lightning. The clouds, heaped upon one another, reflected the most terrifick hues, more or less vivid, as they were more or less opaque, while the whole appeared so closely embodied round us, that we seemed to be in the very bosom of a volcano. Our first ideas were naturally directed to our raft. Hitherto it had been the centre of our hopes; but at this moment it attracted all our fears. As I have already said, we had constructed it on the strand, where we had firmly moored it; but as the sea rose in immense billows, and even dashed over the eminence on which we were, we perpetually questioned each other, if it could be supposed possible that the waves would respect this last plank of our shipwrecked expectations? Alas! our mutual fears were too well founded! The greedy ocean had dragged it into its deep abyss, and there remained for us, on the return of light, nothing but despair and death. At this sight, we stood immovable and lifeless. For some hours we had not even the courage to speak, much less to attempt any new resource. To this deplorable situation another trouble was superadded. Hitherto we had all preserved our health. Setting aside that uneasiness which is ever the consequence of continued misfortune, we had found sufficient strength to contend with all the wants that assailed us. But the moment in which we beheld the termination of our cherished hope, the force and courage which had, until now, sustained us, suddenly abandoned us, and we fell into a faint and lifeless stupor, which must infallibly have terminated in death, if that sentiment which ever recalls man to the care of his preservation, had not given a small portion of energy to our hearts, that had almost ceased to beat. "Come!" exclaimed captain Durand, starting up with an accent that bordered upon desperation:-" when life is to be preserved every means is lawful! In our present state we must have food; otherwise, of six, not one will long remain alive, but we must die, one after another, the death of madmen!-We must not hesitate -the death of one, must assure the preservation of the rest: I have chosen my victim!" In uttering these dreadful words, he made a leap towards poor La Prudence, whom he seized by the hair, and brandishing the cutlass which he held in the other hand, he was about to strike our unfortunate companion, when a fearful cry of horrour, which burst from us all at once, arrested his murderous arm, and gave his victim an opportunity of disengaging himself from the arm that held him.But what now was the conduct of his victim? Young, robust, and stronger alone than all the rest of us together; what if he profits by the advantages which he possesses, to disarm and beat to the earth, the monster who would have slain him, and whose hand still threatens his existence? In one word, ye philosophers, shall vengeance or generosity actuate the bosom of a slave? La Prudence, poor La Prudence is more than generous? He might make his adversary tremble, from whose repentant hands the steel has just dropped:-but no, he becomes a suppliant; he begs his life, which should his executioner refuse, his attitude (for he has thrown himself upon his knees) shows him ready to resign as the last proof of his attachment. He addresses himself to all: he seeks the compassion of all whom his late services have benefited. "O masses white mans not kill I-poor La Prudence!-do all for white mans: the good God help us !"* What extremes are there in nature, and how frequent does she delight to unite them in the same individual! What opposite sentiments agitated at the same instant the soul of captain Durand, whose heart was naturally benevolent, sensible, and generous. With what astonishing rapidity did he return from a state of ferocity to the softest sentiments of compassion and humanity! He could not support his emotions. He shook through all his limbs. He fell; but it was into the arms of his negro slave, who is become for life, his brother his friend! He presses him to his heart. He sheds tears upon his face. Their tears unite, while ours flow in abundance, and the spot which was on the point of becoming the theatre of the most horrible murder, displays the triumph of humanity! But what are we to do?-Our strength exhausted, we must perish with hunger before we can collect the materials necessary for the construction of another raft. Providence will still have mercy upon us, and the instrument which it employs to assure us of our deliverance, is to be the same man, who, a moment before, one of us had destined to become the most direful of all sacrifices! While we were yet pensive and without hope, La Prudence ran towards us with speed: his joy deprived him of the power of utterance. Captain Durand and Pierre ran towards him, and we soon followed their steps. But what were our transports when we perceived a large alligator stretched lifeless along the shore, and which the retiring ebb had left upon the strand. It had no putrid smell; its flesh was fresh and white; and it seemed to have but that moment expired. To make a fire to broil what we intended to eat, and to hang slices in the smoke that we might preserve this precious gift of Providence, was the business of an instant. How delicious was our repast! and with what ardour was it followed by the enterprise which we commenced! By the evening of the next day we had collected together as much "O maîtres blancs! vous pas tuyer moi, pauvre La Prudence, faire tout pour blancs; bon Dieu secourir nous !" |