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Show 224 deuce, and we lay nO\V in the sight of heaven, amidst the equal realm of sea and sky, with the laud sprc:uling Joyclily before us, yet could we do nothing for ourselves. W c lay without food or drink all day, seeing notbing but the bare skies, the sea, and the shore, which only mocked our eyes. My sister sorrowed !lnd sickened in my arms. She cried for water as one cries in the delirious agouic~ of fever. She would drink of the water of tho deep, but this we denied her; and the day sunk agaiu, and \'l'ith it her hope and strength. With the incre!l!le of the winds that night, she grew delirious ; and, when we knew not-and this was strange, for 1 cannot believe that l closed mine eyes that nightshe disappeared. Once, it seemed that I heard her voice, in a. wi.ld scream, calling me by name, and l st:trtcd forward to feel that she was gone. She left. my arms while I lay insensible. H was not sleep. It. was stupor. My consciousness was drowned in my great grief, and in the exhaustion of o.ll my strength for lack of food. "My brother and myself alone survived of all our family. With the knowledge that our sister was really gone-swallowed up, doubtless, in the remorseless deep, into which she had darted in her delirium-we came to a full consciousness. Then, when it w:1.1 only misery to know, we were permitted to know all, and to feel the whole terrible truth pressing upon us, that we were alone in that dreO.rJ world of sea. Not alone of our company ; only of our people. Many there were who still kept in life, watchful but hopelcSB. We could sec their dusky forms by the faint light of the stars, crouching along tho slanting plano of tho vessel, upon which, by cord, and sail, and spar, we still contrived to maintain foothold ; and, anon, our company would lessen. The solemn silence of all things, except the dllBh of the waves TilE ADVE!'TUftE OF LE BARBU. 220 against us, rolling up with murmurs, and breaking away in wrath, was interrupted ouly by a sullen plunge, ever and anon, into tho cngulphing deep, as the hope went out utterly in the heart of the victim, and he yielded to death, rather than prolong the wretched endurance of a life so full of misery. H Thus the night passed; not without other signs to cheer as well as startle us. Through the darkness we could sec lights in the direction of the sborc, as if borne by human hands. With the dawn of day 1 our eyes were turned eagerly in that direction. Nor did we look in vain. The shore swarmed with human forms. A hundred canoes were already darting along the margin of the great deep, and evident were the preparations of the people of this wild region, to visit our stranded vessel. In a little time they came. Their canoes were some of them large enough to carry forty warriors, though made from a single tree. They came to us in order of battle; a hundred boats, holding cnch from teo to fifty warriors. These carried spear and shield, huge lances, 1\nd wcU.c-urvcd bows, drawn with powerful sinews of the deer. Their arrows were long shafts of tho feathery reed, such as flourish in all these forests. The feather from the eagle's wing gave it buoyancy, and the end of the shaft was barbed with a keen flint, wrought by art to an edge such as our best workmen give to steel Many were the chief men among these warriors, who approached us in full panoply of barbnric pomp. Turbnns of white and crimson·stuiued cotton, such as the Turk is shown to wear, tl1ough folded in n. slill noblerfnshion, were wrapped about their heads, over wlJicb shook bunches of plumes taken from the paroquet, the crane, and the eagle. Robes of cotton, white, or crimson, or scarlet, colored with native dies of the forest, clothed their loins, and fell flowing from their shoulders; 10' |
