SHIPWPvECK OF THE MEDUSA. 393 ' 
France, came fluttering above our heads and settled on our sail. 
The first thought this little creature suggested was that it was 
the harbinger of approaching land, and we clung to the hope 
with a delirium of joy. It was the ninth day we had been 
xipon the raft ; the torments of hunger consumed our entrails ; 
and the soldiers and sailors already devoured with haggard 
eyes this wretched prey, and seemed to dispute about it. 
Others looking upon it as a messenger from Heaven, declared 
that they took it under their protection, and would suffer none 
to do it harm. It is certain we could not be far from land, 
for the butterflies continued to come on the following days 
and flutter about our sail. We had also, on the same day, 
another indication not less positive, by a Goeland which flew 
around our raft. This second visiter left us not a doubt that 
we were fast approaching the African soil, and we persuaded 
ourselves we would be speedily thrown upon the coast by the 
force of the currents. 
This same day a new care employed us. Seeing we were 
reduced to so small a number, we collected all the little 
strength we had left, detached some planks on the front of the 
raft, and with some pretty long pieces of wood, raised on the 
centre a kind of platform, on which we reposed. All the ef- 
fects we could collect were placed upon it, and rendered to 
make it less hard ; which also prevented the sea from pass- 
ing with such facility through the spaces between the differ- 
ent planks ; but the waves came across, and sometimes covered 
us completely. 
On this new theatre we resolved to meet death in a man- 
ner becoming Frenchmen, and with perfect resignation. Our 
time was almost wholly spent in speaking of our happy 
country. All our wishes, our last prayers, were for the pros- 
perity of France. Thus passed the last days of our abode 
upon the raft. 
Soon after our abandonment, we bore with comparative ease 
the immersions during the nights, which are very cold in these 
countries ; but latterly, every time the waves washed over us 
we felt a most painful sensation, and we uttered plaintive 
cries. We employed every means to avoid it. Some support- 
ed their heads on pieces of wood, and made with what they 
could find a sort of little parapet to screen them from the 
force of the waves ; others sheltered themselves behind two 
empty casks. But these means were very insufficient ; it was 
only when the sea was calm that it did not break over us. 
