Overcome by fatigue, I now lay down and slept.  I took no precautions against the wind’s rising in the night; firstly, because I thought it impossible from the tranquil aspects of the heavens and the ocean; and secondly, because I felt no doubt that the wash of the water and the sound of the winds would arouse me, should it occur differently.  As on the previous night, I slept sweetly, and obtained renewed strength for any future trials.  As on the preceding morning, too, I was awaked by the warm rays of the rising sun falling on my face.  On first awaking, I did not know exactly where I was.  A moment’s reflection, however, sufficed to recall the past to my mind, and I turned to examine my actual situation.

I looked for the ship, towards the end of the mast, or in the direction where I had last seen her; but she was not visible.  The raft had swung round in the night, I thought, and I bent my eyes slowly round the entire circle of the horizon, but no ship was to be seen.  The Dawn had sunk in the night, and so quietly as to give no alarm!  I shuddered, for I could not but imagine what would have been my fate, had I been aroused from the sleep of the living, only to experience the last agony as I passed away into the sleep of the dead.  I cannot describe the sensation that came over me, as I gazed around, and found myself on the broad ocean, floating on a little deck that was only ten feet square, and which was raised less than two feet above the surface of the waters.  It was now that I felt the true frailty of my position, and comprehended all its dangers.  Before, it had been shaded by the ship, as it might be, and I had found a species of protection in her presence.  But, the whole truth now stood before me.  Even a moderate breeze would raise a sea that could not fail to break over the staging, and which must sweep everything away.  The spars had a specific lightness, it is true, and they would never sink; or, if they did sink, it would only be at the end of ages, when saturated with water and covered with barnacles; but, on the other hand, they possessed none of the buoyancy of a vessel, and could riot rise above the rolling waters, sufficiently to clear their breakers.

These were not comfortable reflections; they pressed on my mind even while engaged at my morning devotions.  After performing, in the best manner I could, this never-ceasing duty, I ate a little, though I must admit it was with a small appetite.  Then I made the best stowage I could of my effects, and rigged and stepped the mast, hoisting the sail, as a signal to any vessel that might appear.  I expected wind ere long; nor was I disappointed; a moderate breeze springing up from the north-west, about nine o’clock.  This air was an immense relief to me, in more ways than one.  It cooled my person, which was suffering from the intense heat of a summer’s sun beating directly on a boundless expanse of water, and it varied a scene that otherwise possessed an oppressively wearisome