1 76 Traces of Unity in the 



or else supplied to me by those who had witnessed the 

 .scene, for during an interval of such agitation, the mind 

 is too much absorbed by alternate hope and despair to 

 mark the succession of ordinary events very accurately : 

 not so, however, as regards the circumstances which im- 

 mediately followed. From the moment exertion had 

 ceased, which I imagine was immediately consequent 

 upon complete suffocation, a feeling of the most perfect 

 tranquillity superseded the previous tumultuous sensa- 

 tions. It might be called apathy. It was certainly not 

 resignation ; for dying no longer appeared to be an evil, 

 and all thought of rescue was at an end. Nor was I in 

 any bodily pain. On the contrary, my feelings were 

 rather of a pleasurable cast, comparable, perhaps, to 

 those of that dull, but satisfactory, state which precedes 

 the sleep produced by fatigue. Though the senses were 

 thus deadened, the activity of the mind seemed invigo- 

 rated and excited in a ratio which defies expression, and 

 thought succeeded thought with a rapidity which is not 

 only indescribable, but probably inconceivable, by any 

 one who has not himself been in a similar situation. 



" The course of these thoughts I can now in a great 

 measure retrace. The event that had just taken place, 

 the awkwardness that had produced it, the bustle it had 

 caused on board (for I had observed the two persons 

 leap out of the chains), the effect it would have on my 

 most affectionate father, the manner in which he would 

 disclose it to the rest of the family, and a thousand 

 other circumstances associated with home these were 

 the first ideas which occupied me. But my thoughts 

 now took a wider range, and the events of the last 

 cruise, a preceding voyage, a former shipwreck, the 

 school where I had been educated, my boyish adventures 

 and earliest exploits, every past incident in my life, 



