and shewed us ten or twelve of our companions extended lifeless on the rail.  This sight affected us the more as it announced to us that our bodies, deprived of existence, would soon be stretched on the same place.  We gave their bodies to the sea for a grave; reserving only one, destined to feed those who, the day before, had clasped his trembling hands, vowing him an eternal friendship.  This day was fine; our minds, longing for more agreeable sensations, were harmonized by the soothing aspect of nature, and admitted a ray of hope.  About four in the afternoon a circumstance occurred which afforded us some consolation:  a shoal of flying fish passed under the raft, and as the extremities left an infinite number of vacancies between the pieces which composed it, the fish got entangled in great numbers.  We threw ourselves upon them, and caught a considerable quantity:  we took near two hundred and put them in an empty cask;[25] as we caught them we opened them to take out what is called the milt.  This food seemed delicious to us; but one man would have wanted a thousand.  Our first impulse was to address new thanksgivings to God for this unexpected benefit.

An ounce of gunpowder had been found in the morning, and dried in the sun, during the day, which was very fine; a steel, some gun-flints and tinder were also found in the same parcel.  After infinite trouble we succeeded in setting fire to some pieces of dry linen.  We made a large hole in one side of an empty cask, and placed at the bottom of it several things which we wetted, and on this kind of scaffolding we made our fire:  we placed it on a barrel that the seawater might not put out our fire.  We dressed some fish, which we devoured with extreme avidity; but our hunger was so great and our portion of fish so small, that we added to it some human flesh, which dressing rendered less disgusting; it was this which the officers touched, for the first time.  From this day we continued to use it; but we could not dress it any more, as we were entirely deprived of the means; our barrel catching fire we extinguished it without being able to save any thing whereby to light it again next day.  The powder and the tinder were entirely consumed.  This repast gave us all fresh strength to bear new fatigues.  The night was tolerable, and would have appeared happy had it not been signalised by a new massacre.

Some Spaniards, Italians, and Negroes, who had remained neuter in the first mutiny, and some of whom had even ranged themselves on our side,[26] formed a plot to throw us all into the sea, hoping to execute their design by falling on us by surprise.  These wretches suffered themselves to be persuaded by the negroes, who assured them that the coast was extremely near, and promised, that when they were once on shore, they would enable them to traverse Africa without danger.  The desire of saving themselves, or perhaps the wish to seize on the money and valuables, which had been