172 WHALING AND PISHING. 



and so they concluded to make tlioir own way 

 safely, and leave the blacks to their fate. 



"The raft, after infinite trouble, was built. A 

 large share of the remaining water and provis 

 ions were placed on it, that th 3 whites might bft 

 sure to reach the shore, and then, bidding the poor 

 slaves " good-by," and assuring them of their 

 speedy return with aid, they spread a sail to the 

 breeze, and were soon out of sight. What long 

 days of agonized expectation the poor blacks 

 passed upon that bleak shoal; how, gradually, as 

 it were hour by hour, hope died from their breasts ; 

 how, as their little remnant of provisions failed, 

 they began to die off, and how the survivors, 

 brought to the last extremity of suffering, were 

 obliged to subsist upon their deceased friends ; 

 how anxiously they peered across the wild waste 

 of water which surrounded and threatened to 

 engulf them, and how each sun rose upon a fresl" 

 accumulation of the dead and dying all this was 

 told by the one lone survivor of six hundred who 

 had landed upon the bank. A St. Mary's coaster 

 passing by the shoal, saw upon it some signs of a 

 wreck, and approaching nearer, was able to dis- 

 cover the forms of men lying about upon tho 

 sand. Effecting a landing at the risk of their 

 lives, they found but one poor Madagassy left 

 ftlive, and took him with them. It was found, 

 afterward, that the wretches of the raft, fearful 

 that mention of their companions in misfortune 

 would get them into a French prison, told a story 



