At length the night wore away, and the dawn broke upon the desolate sea.  Presently the sun came up, for which at first we were thankful, for we were chilled to the bone, but soon its heat grew intolerable, since we had neither food nor water in the boat, and already we were parched with thirst.  But now the wind had fallen to a steady breeze, and with the help of the oars and a blanket, we contrived to fashion a sail that drew us through the water at a good speed.  But the ocean was vast, and we did not know whither we were sailing, and every hour the agony of thirst pressed us more closely.  Towards mid-day a child died suddenly and was thrown into the sea, and some three hours later the mother filled a bailing bowl and drank deep of the bitter water.  For a while it seemed to assuage her thirst, then suddenly a madness took her, and springing up she cast herself overboard and sank.  Before the sun, glowing like a red-hot ball, had sunk beneath the horizon, the priest and I were the only ones in that company who could sit upright—­the rest lay upon the bottom of the boat heaped one on another like dying fish groaning in their misery.  Night fell at last and brought us some relief from our sufferings, for the air grew cooler.  But the rain we prayed for did not fall, and so great was the heat that, when the sun rose again in a cloudless sky, we knew, if no help reached us, that it must be the last which we should see.

An hour after dawn another child died, and as we were in the act of casting the body into the sea, I looked up and saw a vessel far away, that seemed to be sailing in such fashion that she would pass within two miles of where we were.  Returning thanks to God for this most blessed sight, we took to the oars, for the wind was now so light that our clumsy sail would no longer draw us through the water, and rowed feebly so as to cut the path of the ship.  When we had laboured for more than an hour the wind fell altogether and the vessel lay becalmed at a distance of about three miles.  So the priest and I rowed on till I thought that we must die in the boat, for the heat of the sun was like that of a flame and there came no wind to temper it; by now, too, our lips were cracked with thirst.  Still we struggled on till the shadow of the ship’s masts fell athwart us and we saw her sailors watching us from the deck.  Now we were alongside and they let down a ladder of rope, speaking to us in Spanish.

How we reached the deck I cannot say, but I remember falling beneath the shade of an awning and drinking cup after cup of the water that was brought to me.  At last even my thirst was satisfied, and for a while I grew faint and dizzy, and had no stomach for the meat which was thrust into my hand.  Indeed, I think that I must have fainted, for when I came to myself the sun was straight overhead, and it seemed to me that I had dreamed I heard a familiar and hateful voice.  At the time I was alone beneath the awning, for the crew of the ship were gathered on the foredeck