By The Beginning Of April That Began
To Fail, So That We Were Reduced To Flour Alone, Which Was Sore Spoiled,
Being Full Of Maggots, Spiders, And Other Vermin, So That Nothing But
The Extremity Of Want Could Have Induced Us To Eat It.
It was surprising
to behold this strange alteration in the flour, which only a few days
before was white and fine, and was now in a manner all alive, the
maggots tumbling over each other in prodigious numbers.
On strict
enquiry, these maggots seemed to proceed from the eggs of spiders
deposited among the flour, out of which the maggots were bred, and then
fed voraciously on the flour. Words can only faintly describe the
miseries of our situation, which was somewhat alleviated by work, and
our spirits were buoyed up by the hopes of accomplishing our long and
difficult voyage. Some occasional assistance we derived by now and then
catching a dolphin. At other times we saw many sea fowl, such as
boobies, noddies, and others, which would come and perch on some part of
our rigging, and happy was he that could catch one. In this manner we
spent ten weeks, at the end of which we were in a very melancholy
condition, and nothing but the hope of seeing land could possibly keep
us from despair.
The 10th of April, we observed the clouds to gather more than usual in
the horizon, which is a sure indication of land, as it is common between
the tropics to be foggy over the land, though perfectly clear at sea;
wherefore we kept an anxious look-out all this night, and early in the
morning of the 11th, we saw the island of Magon W. ten leagues
distant.
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