SHIPWRECK OF THE MEDUSA. 315 
but he had instantly to quit him for fear of losing" his hat, 
which the waves were floating away. A short while after this 
slight accident, the shallop, which we had lost sight of since 
the morning, appeared desirous of rejoining us. We plied all 
hands to avoid her, for we were afraid of one another, and 
thought that that boat, encumbered with so many people, wish- 
ed to board us, to oblige us to take some of its passengers, as 
M. Espiau would not suffer them to be abandoned like those 
upon the raft. That officer hailed us at a distance, offering to 
take our family on board, adding, he was anxious to take about 
sixty people to the Desert. The officer of our boat, thinking 
that this was a pretence, replied, we preferred suffering where 
we were. It even appeared to us that M. Espiau had hid some 
of his people under the benches of the shallop. But, alas ! in 
the end we deeply deplored being so suspicious, and of having 
so outraged the devotion of the most generous officer of the 
Medusa. 
Our boat began to leak considerably, but we prevented it 
as well as we could by stuffing the largest holes with oakum, 
which an old sailor had had the precaution to take before 
quitting the frigate. At noon the heat became so strong — so 
intolerable, that several of us believed we had reached our 
last moments. The hot winds of the Desert even reached us 5 
and the fine sand with which they were loaded had complete- 
ly obscured the clearness of the atmosphere. The sun pre- 
sented a reddish disk ; the whole surface of the ocean became 
nebulous, and the air which we breathed, depositing a fine 
sand, an impalpable powder, penetrated to our lungs, already 
parched with a burning thirst. In this state of torment we 
remained till four in the afternoon, when a breeze from the 
north-west brought us some relief Notwithstanding the pri- 
vations we felt, and especially the burning thirst which had 
become intolerable, the cool air which we now began to 
breathe made us in part forget our sufferings. The heavens 
began again to resume the usual serenity of those latitudes, 
and we hoped to have passed a good night. A second distri- 
bution of provisions was made ; each received a small glass 
of water and about the eighth part of a biscuit. Notwith- 
standing our meager fare, every one seemed content, in the 
persuasion we would reach Senegal by the morrow. But 
how vain were all our hopes, and what sufferings had we yet 
to endure ! 
At half past seven the sky was overcast with stormy clouds. 
The serenity we had admired a little while before entirely dis- 
