296 SHIPWRECK OF TH£ MEDUSA. 
infirm and sick, that it was with difficulty we could keep them 
off 
"Every morning we saw these audacious animals patrolling 
ahout among the sea-lions and sea-bears lying on the strand, 
smelling at such as were asleep, to discover whether some one 
of them might not be dead ; if that happened to be the case, 
they proceeded to dissect him immediately, and soon afterward 
all were at work in dragging the parts away : because the sea- 
lions in their sleep overlay their young, they every morning 
examined, as if conscious of this circumstance, the whole herd 
of them one by one, and immediately dragged away the dead 
cubs from their dams, 
"As they would not suffer us to be at rest either by night or 
day, we became so exasperated at them that we killed young 
and old, and plagued them in every way we could devise. 
When we awoke in the morning there always lay two or three 
that had been knocked on the head in the night ; and I can 
safely affirm that during my stay in the island I killed above 
two hundred of these animals with my own hands. On the 
third day after my arrival I knocked down upward of seven- 
ty of them with a club, within the space of three hours, and 
made a covering to my hut of their skins. They were so ra- 
venous, that with one hand we could hold to them a piece of 
flesh, and with a stick or ax in the other could knock them 
on the head. 
" From all the circum^stances that occurred during our stay, 
it was evident that these animals could never before have been 
acquainted with mankind, and that the dread of man is not 
innate in brutes, but must be grounded on long experience." 
SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA, 
On her voyage to Senegal. By Madame Dard, 
Early on the morning of the 22d of June, 1816, we were 
on our way to the boats that were to convey us on board the 
Medusa, which was riding at anchor off the island of Aix, 
distant about four leagues from Rochefort. We soon arrived 
at the place of embarkation, where we found some of our 
fellow passengers, who, like myself, seemed casting a last 
look to heaven whilst we were yet on the French soil. We 
