4 HISTORY OF 



was the only person that had not lost his senses 

 when they received accidental relief. He assur- 

 ed me, his pains at first were so great as to be 

 often tempted to eat a part of one of the men 

 who died, arid which the rest of his crew actually 

 for some time lived upon : he said, that during 

 the continuance of this paroxysm, he found his 

 pains insupportable ; and was desirous, at one 

 time, of anticipating that death which he thought 

 inevitable : but his pains, he said, gradually de- 

 creased after the sixth day, (for they had water in 

 the ship, which kept them alive so long), and 

 then he was in a state rather of languor than de- 

 sire ; nor did he much wish for food, except when 

 he saw others eating, and that for a while revived 

 his appetite, though with diminished importunity. 

 The latter part of the time, when his health was 

 almost destroyed, a thousand strange images rose 

 upon his mind, and every one of his senses began 

 to bring him wrong information. The most fra- 

 grant perfumes appeared to him to have a fetid 

 smell, and every thing he looked at took a greenish 

 hue, and sometimes a yellow. When he was pre- 

 sented with food by the ship's company that took 

 him and his men up, four of whom died shortly 

 after, he could not help looking upon it with 

 loathing, instead of desire 5 and it was not till 

 after four days that his stomach was brought to 

 its natural tone, when the violence of his appe- 

 tite returned with a sort of canine eagerness. 



Thus dreadful are the effects of hunger ; and 

 yet, when we come to assign the cause that pro- 

 duces them, we find the subject involved in doubt 



