flags, and placed under the kitchen fire, which exposed them to perish in the night; fire having broken out between decks, about ten o’clock, which had like to have reduced the vessel to ashes; but timely assistance was afforded, and we were saved for the second time.  We had scarcely escaped when some of us again become delirious:  an officer of the army wanted to throw himself into the sea, to go and look for his pocket book; which he would have done had he not been prevented; others were seized in a manner equally striking.

The commander and officers of the brig were eager to serve us, and kindly anticipated our wants.  They had just snatched us from death, by rescuing us from our raft; their reiterated care rekindled in us the flame of life.  Mr. Renaud, the surgeon, distinguished himself by indefatigable zeal; he passed the whole day in dressing our wounds; and during the two days that we remained on board the brig, he exerted all the resources of his art, with a degree of attention and gentleness which merit our eternal gratitude.

It was, in truth, time that our sufferings should have an end:  they had already lasted thirteen days; the strongest among us might, at the most, have lived forty-eight hours more.  Mr. Correard, felt that he must die in the course of the day; yet he had a foreboding that we should be saved; he said that a series of events so extraordinary was not destined to be buried in oblivion:  that providence would preserve some of us at least, to present to mankind the affecting picture of our unhappy adventures.

Through how many terrible trials have we past!  Where are the men who can say that they have been more unfortunate than we have?

The manner in which we were saved is truly miraculous:  the finger of heaven is conspicuous in this event.

The Argus had been dispatched, from Senegal, to assist the shipwrecked people belonging to the boats, and to look for the raft; for several days it sailed along the coast without meeting us, and gave provisions to the people from the boats who were crossing the great desert of Zaara; the captain, thinking that it would be useless to look for our raft any longer, steered his course towards the harbour from which he had been dispatched, in order to announce that his search had been fruitless; it was when he was running towards Senegal that we perceived him.  In the morning he was not above forty leagues from the mouth of the river, when the wind veered to the South West; the captain, as by a kind of inspiration, said that they ought to go about, the winds blew towards the frigate; after they had run two hours on this tack, the man at the mast head, announced a vessel:  when the brig was nearer to us, by the aid of glasses, they perceived that it was our raft.  When we were taken up by the Argus, we asked this question:  Gentlemen have you been long looking for us?  We were answered yes; but that, however, the captain had not received any positive orders on the subject;