312 SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 
were a little better provisioned than we were ; they had at 
least a little wine, which supplied the place of other necessa- 
ries. We then demanded some from them, explaining our 
situation ; but none would assist us, not even Captain Lachau- 
mareys, who, drinking to a kept mistress, supported by two 
sailors, swore he had not one drop on board. We were next 
desirous of addressing the boat of the governor of Senega], 
where we were persuaded were plenty of provisions of every 
kind, such as oranges, biscuits, cakes, comfits, plums, and 
even the finest liqueurs ; but my father opposed it, so well 
was he assured we would not obtain any thing. 
We will now turn to the condition of those on the raft, when 
the boats left them to themselves. 
If all the boats had continued dragging the raft forward, 
favored as we were by the breeze from the sea, we would 
have been able to have conducted them to the shore in less 
than two days. But an inconceivable fatality caused the ge- 
nerous plan to be abandoned. 
When the raft had lost sight of the boats, a spirit of sedi- 
tion began to manifest itself in furious cries. They then be- 
gan to regard one another with ferocious looks, and to thirst 
for one another^s flesh. Some one had already whispered of 
having recourse to that monstrous extremity, and of com-^ 
mencing with the fattest and youngest. A proposition so atro- 
eious filled the brave Captain Dupont and his worthy lie^ute- 
nant M. L'Heureux, with horror: and that courage which had 
so often supported them in the field of glory, now forsook 
them. Among the first who fell under the hatchets of the 
assassins was a young woman who had been seen devouring 
the body of her husband. When her turn was come, she 
sought a little wine as a last favor, then rose, and without ut- 
tering one word, threw herself into the sea. Captain Dumont 
being proscribed for having refused to partake of the sacril^ 
gious viands on which the monsters were feeding, was saved 
as by a miracle from the hands of the butchers. Scarcely had 
they seized him to lead him to the slaughter, when a large 
pole, which served in place of a mast, fell upon his body ; and 
believing that his legs were broken, they contented them- 
selves by throwing him into the sea. The unfortunate cap- 
tain plunged, disappeared, and they thought him already in 
another world. 
Providence, however, revived the strength of the unfortu- 
nate warrior. He emerged under the beams of the raft, and 
clinging with all his might, holding his head above water, he 
