Perhaps, in every situation of life, it is necessary that hope should be first lessened by disappointment, before the buoyancy of the human mind will permit it to descend to the level of an evil fortune.  Until a frustrated effort teaches him the difficulty of the attempt, he who has fallen may hope to rise again; and it is only when an exertion has been made with lessened means, that we learn the value of advantages, which have perhaps been long enjoyed, with a very undue estimate of their importance.  Until the stern of the French frigate was seen retiring from the raft, those who were on it had not been fully sensible of the extreme danger of their situation.  Hope had been strongly excited by the return of dawn; for while the shadows of night lay on the ocean, their situation resembled that of one who strove to pierce the obscurity of the future, in order to obtain a presage of better fortunes.  With the light had come the distant sail.  As the day advanced, the ship had approached, relinquished her search, and disappeared, without a prospect of her return.

The stoutest heart among the group on the raft began to sink at the gloomy fate which now seemed inevitable.

“Here is an evil omen!” whispered Ludlow, directing his companion’s eyes to the dark and pointed fins of three or four sharks, that were gliding above the surface of the water, and in so fearful a proximity to their persons, as to render their situation on the low spars, over which the water was washing and retiring at each rise and fall of the waves, doubly dangerous.—­“The creature’s instinct speaks ill for our hopes!”

“There is a belief among seamen, that these animals feel a secret impulse, which directs them to their prey;” returned the Skimmer.  “But fortune may yet balk them.—­Rogerson!” calling to one of his followers;—­“thy pockets are rarely wanting in a fisherman’s tackle.  Hast thou, haply, line and hook, for these hungry miscreants?  The question is getting narrowed to one, in which the simplest philosophy is the wisest.  When eat or to be eaten, is the mooted point, most men will decide for the former.”

A hook of sufficient size was soon produced, and a line was quietly provided from some of the small cordage that still remained about the masts.  A piece of leather, torn from a spar, answered for the bait; and the lure was thrown.  Extreme hunger seemed to engross the voracious animals, who darted at the imaginary prey with the rapidity of lightning.  The shock was so sudden and violent, that the hapless mariner was drawn from his slippery and precarious footing, into the sea.  The whole passed with a frightful and alarming rapidity.  A common cry of horror was heard, and the last despairing glance of the fallen man was witnessed.  The mutilated body floated for an instant in its blood, with the look of agony and terror still imprinted on the conscious countenance.  At the next moment, it had become food for the monsters of the sea.