MUTINY AND MUKDER. 79 



and perished. The effects of starvation were beginning- to tell upon them :* all their faculties 

 were strangely impaired. Some fancied that they saw lighted signals in the distance, and 

 answered them by firing off their pistols, or by setting fire to small heaps of gunpowder; 

 others thought they saw ships or land, when there was nothing in sight. The next day 

 strong symptoms of mutiny broke out, the officers being utterly disregarded by the soldiers. 

 The evening again brought bad weather. " The people were now dashed about by the fury 

 of the waves; there was no safety but in the centre of the raft/' where they packed 

 themselves so close that many were nearly suffocated. " The soldiers and sailors, now 

 considering their destruction inevitable, resolved to drown the sense of their situation by 

 drinking till they should lose their reason ; " nor could they be persuaded to forego their 

 mad scheme. They rushed upon a cask of wine which was near the centre, and making 

 a hole in it, drank so much, that the fumes soon mounted to their heads, in the empty 

 condition in which they were ; and " they then resolved to rid themselves of their officers, 

 and afterwards to destroy the raft by cutting the lashings which kept it together." One 

 of them commenced hacking away at the ropes with a boarding-hatchet. The civil and 

 military officers rushed on this ringleader, and though he made a desperate resistance, soon 

 dispatched him. The people on the raft were now divided into two antagonistic parties 

 about twenty civil officers and the better class of passengers on one side, and a hundred or 

 more soldiers and workmen on the other. " The mutineers," says the narrative, " drew their 

 swords, and were going to make a general attack, when the fall of another of their number 

 struck such a seasonable terror into them that they retreated; but it was only to make 

 another attempt at cutting the ropes. One of them, pretending to rest on the side-rail 

 of the raft, began to work;" when he was discovered, and a few moments afterwards, with 

 a soldier who attempted to defend him, was sent to his last account. This was followed 

 by a general fight. An infantry captain was thrown into the sea by the soldiers, but 

 rescued by his friends. He was then seized a second time, and the revolters attempted to 

 put out his eyes. A charge was made upon them, and many put to death. The wretches 

 threw overboard the only woman on the raft, together with her husband. They were, 

 however, saved, only to die miserably soon afterwards. 



A second repulse brought many of the mutineers to their senses, and temporarily awed 

 the rest, some asking pardon on their knees. But at midnight the revolt again broke out, 

 the soldiers attacking the party in the centre of the raft with the fury of madmen, even 

 biting their adversaries. They seized upon one of the lieutenants, mistaking him for one 

 of the ship's officers who had deserted the raft, and he was rescued and protected afterwards 



* Later it took with many of them still stranger forms. One M. Savigny had the most agreeable visions ; he 

 fancied himself in a rich and highly-cultivated country, surrounded by happy companions. Some desired their 

 companions not to fear, that they were going to look for succour, and would soon return; they then plunged 

 into the sea. Others became furious, and rushed on their companions with drawn swords, asking for the wing 

 of a chicken, or some bread. Some, thinking themselves still aboard the frigate, asked for their hammock, that they 

 might go below to sleep. Others imagined that they saw ships, or a harbour, behind which was a noble city. M. 

 Correard believed he was in Italy, enjoying all the delights of that beautiful country. One of the officers said to 

 him, " I recollect that we have been deserted by the boats, but don't be afraid; I have just written to the governor, 

 and in a few hours we shall be in safety." These illusions did not last for any length of time, but were constantly 

 broken by the war of the elements, and the fitful revolts which constantly disgraced the company. 



