WRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 



could never drink it, but gave it to his comrades, who found 

 the taste agreeable ; that of others grew thick and very sharp ; 

 and what is remarkable, it was scarcely swallowed before it caused 

 a new desire to make water. I tried salt water, but it only in- 

 creased my thirst, whilst urine really possesses some coohng pro- 

 perties. 



When we were come to this state of misery, we fell into such a 

 degree of weakness, that we could not stand up for half a minute 

 without fainting, so we were conttantly lying down. During the 

 first nights, after we were forsaken, which are very sharp in these 

 climates, we easily supported our immersion ; but, during the last 

 nights we passed on the raft, whenever a wave broke over us, it 

 caused such pain as made us cry out frightfully. We were now 

 almost naked, burnt up with the sun, and ten of us hardly able to 

 move our limbs, stript of skin, our wounds changed to ulcers, and 

 a deep alteration exhibited in all our features ; our hollow and al- 

 most ferocious eyes, and our long beards, added to the horror of 

 our appearance ; we were nothing more than our own shadows. 

 At length, on the thirteenth day, we were miraculously taken up 

 by the Argus. 



The ship's surgeon's first care was to dress our wounds and give 

 us broth, with excellent wine in it ; doubtless his intention was to 

 keep us to a severe regimen for some days, and to accustom us, 

 little by little, to hght food ; but the man who has so long been 

 deprived of every necessary, and finds himself suddenly blessed 

 with abundance, can hardly listen to the voice of reason ; thus 

 some few who persisted in taking a quantity of solid food, paid for 

 their fdtal imprudence with violent vomitings, and the crudest 

 pains in the alimentary passage. All the care and attentions that 

 were lavished on them were insufficient to save the greater num- 

 ber ; three of them, in a short time, fell by adynamic fevers and 

 violent dysenteries. It was very slowly that our strength return- 

 ed, but even then by no means equal to what it was on our de- 

 parture from Europe. Pains all over the body gave me continu- 

 ally notice of every change in the atmosphere ; my digestion is 

 long and painful, and for these two years past I have been trou- 

 bled with the cohc, at least for eighteen months. My beard 

 sprung out suddenly in forty days' time, that is to say, during the 

 passage from Senegal to France. In two months after we were 

 saved, my body increased remarkably in every dimension ; during 



