208 FAMINE IN THE SHIP PEGGY. 
29th the famished crew deliberated upon selecting a second 
victim. They again came to inform the captain of their in- 
tention, and he appeared to give his consent, fearing lest the 
enraged sailors might have recourse to the lot without him. 
They left it with him to fix upon any method that he should 
think proper. The captain, summoning all his strength, wrote 
upon small pieces of paper, the name of each man who was 
then on board the brigantine, folded them up, and put them 
into a hat, and shook them well together. The crew mean- 
while preserved an awful silence j each eye was fixed, and 
each mouth was open, while terror was strongly impressed 
upon every countenance. With a trembling hand one of them 
drew from the hat the fatal billet, which he delivered to the 
captain, who opened it and read aloud the name of David 
Flatt. The unfortunate man on Avhom the lot had fallen 
appeared perfectly resigned to his fate. " My friends, (said he 
to his companions,) the only favor I request of you is, not to 
keep me long in pain ; dispatch me as speedily as you did 
the negro." Then turning to the man who had performed the 
first execution, he added, " It is you I choose to give me the 
mortal blow." He requested an hour to prepare himself for 
death, to which his comrades could only reply with tears. 
Meanwhile comipassion, and the remonstrances of the captain, 
prevailed over the hunger of the most hard-hearted. They 
unanimously resolved to defer the sacrifice till eleven o'clock 
the following morning. Such a short reprieve afforded very 
little consolation to Flatt. 
The certainty of dying the next day made such a deep im- 
pression upon his mind, that his body, which, for above a 
month, had withstood the almost total privation of nourish- 
ment, sunk beneath it. He Avas seized with a violent fever, 
and his state was so much aggravated by a delirium with 
which it was accompanied, that some of the sailors proposed 
to kill him im,JTiediately, in order to terminate his suflferings. 
The majority, however, adhered to the resolution which had 
been taken of waiting till the following morning. 
At ten o'clock in the morning of the 30th of January a 
large fire was already made to dress the limbs of the unfortu- 
nate victim, when a sail was descried at a distance. A favor- 
able wind drove her toward the Peggy, and she proved to be 
the Susan, returning from Virginia and bound to London. 
The captain could not refrain from tears at the affecting 
account of the sufferings endured by the famished crew. He 
lost no time in affording them relief, supplying them immedi- 
