162 I-OSS OF THE CENTAUR* 
there would be no preserving life but by running before the 
sea, which would carry us again to the northward, where we 
must soon afterward perish. 
Upon examining what we had to subsist on, I found a bag 
of bread, a small ham, a single piece of pork, two quart bot- 
tles of water, and a few of French cordials. The wind con- 
tinued to the southward for eight or nine days, and providen- 
tially never blew so strong but that we could keep the side of 
the boat to the sea: but we were always most r-.iserably wet 
and cold. We kept a sort of reckoning, but the sun and stars 
being somewhat hidden from us for twenty-four hours, we had 
no very correct idea of our navigation. We judged that we 
had nearly an E. N. E. course since the first night's run, 
which had carried us to the S. E. and expected to see the 
island of Corvo. In this, how^ever, w^e were disappointed, and 
we feared that the southerly wind had driven us far to the 
northward. Our prayers were now for a northerly wind. 
Our condition began to be truly miserable, both from hunger 
and cold ; for on the fifth day we had discovered that our 
bread was nearly all spoiled by salt water, and it was neces- 
sary to go on allowance. One biscuit divided into twelve 
morsels, for breakfast, and the same for dinner ; the neck of 
a bottle broken off, with the cork in, served for a glass, and 
this, filled with water, was the allowance for twenty-four 
hours for each man. This was done without any sort of par- 
tiality or distinction ; but we must have perished ere this, had 
we not caught six quarts of rain water ; and this we could 
not have been blessed with, had we not found in the boat a 
pair of sheets, which by accident had been put there. These 
were spread Avhen it rained, and when thoroughly wet, wrung 
into the kidd, with which we bailed the boat. With this short 
allowance, which was rather tantalizing to our comfortless 
condition, we began to grow very feeble, and our clothes being 
continually wet, our bodies were, in many places, chafed in- 
to sores. 
On the 13th day it fell calm, and soon after a breeze of 
wind sprung up from the N. N. W. and blew to a gale, so 
that we ran before the sea at the rate of five or six miles an 
hour under our blanket, till we judged we were to the south- 
ward of Fayal, and to the v/estward 60 leagues; but the wind 
blowing strong, we could not attempt to steer for it. Our 
wishes were now for the wind to shift to the westward. This 
was the fifteenth day we had been in the boat, and we had 
only one day's bread, and one bottle of water remaining of a 
