After the disappearance of the boats, the consternation was extreme:  all the terrors of thirst and famine arose before our imaginations, and we had besides to contend with a perfidious element, which already covered the half of our bodies:  when recovered from their stupefaction, the sailors and soldiers gave themselves up to despair; all saw inevitable destruction before them, and gave vent in lamentations to the gloomy thoughts which agitated them.  All we said did not at first avail to calm their fears, in which we however participated, but which a greater degree of strength of mind enabled us to dissemble.  At last, a firm countenance and consoling words succeeded in calming them by degrees, but could not wholly dispel the terror with which they were struck; for according to the judicious reflection, made after reading our deplorable story, by Mr. Jay, whose authority we quote with pleasure, “To support extreme misfortunes, and what is worthy of remark, to bear great fatigues, moral energy is much more necessary than corporeal strength, nay, than the habit of privations and hard labour.  On this narrow theatre where so many sufferings are united, where the most cruel extremes of hunger and thirst are experienced, strong and indefatigable men who have been brought up to the most laborious professions, sink in succession under the weight of the common destiny, while men of a weak constitution, and not inured to fatigue, find in their minds the strength which their bodies want, endure with courage unheard-of trials, and issue victorious from their struggle with the most horrible afflictions.  It is to the education they have received, to the exercise of their intellectual faculties, that they owe this astonishing superiority and their deliverance,” When tranquillity was a little restored, we began to look upon the raft for the charts, the compass and the anchor, which we presumed had been placed there, from what had been said to us at the time we quitted the frigate.  These highly necessary articles had not been put upon our machine.  The want of a compass in particular, greatly alarmed us, and we uttered cries of rage and vengeance.  Mr. Correard then recollected, that he had seen one in the hands of one of the chief workmen under his command, and enquired of this man about it:  “Yes, yes,” said he, “I have it with me.”  This news transported us with joy, and we thought that our safety depended on this feeble resource.  This little compass was about the size of a crown-piece, and far from correct.  He who has not been exposed to events, in which his existence was in imminent peril, can form but a faint idea of the value which one then sets upon the most common and simple objects, with what avidity one seizes the slightest means, that are capable of softening the rigour of the fate with which one has to contend.  This compass was given to the commander of the raft; but an accident deprived us of it for ever:  it fell, and was lost between the pieces of wood which composed our machine:  we had kept it only for a few hours; after this loss, we had nothing to guide us but the rising and setting of the sun.