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burning timber, to one of which he clung. In this situation. he saw one of his crew swimming past him, to whom he called; and both got upon a larger piece of the wreck. Besides this young man, no being was visible; but ere night closed upon them, the two boats, which had escaped from the ship before the explosion, drew near, in the hope of saving some of the crew. They found their captain and the young man, but searched in vain for others. No ripple marked the circle where one hundred and seventeen ocean graves had been so quickly formed, and all seemed hushed after that fatal thunder peal.

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After hovering for some time around the destroyed vessel, the boats departed to search for a path to some land over the lonely waters. In the boats were seventy-two persons, and only about eight pounds of biscuit; as for water, they had none. The crews rowed away from the wreck, impelled by a species of madness; but the captain, knowing that land must be distant, advised the men to lay aside their oars, and reserve their strength for the privations which might await them. To impel the boat onwards the men tore up their shirts for sails, and thus were enabled to steer in a direction which it was hoped would lead them to Batavia. tense thirst was soon produced by their anxieties and the heat of the climate, which some rain caught in a sail, and drank from a shoe, but slightly alleviated. It was soon found that the cutter could not keep up with the launch, whereupon the selfish crew of the latter cut the tow rope by which the cutter had been for some time drawn along. Thus the very men whose desertion of their captain caused the loss of the ship, were now equally ready to abandon their companions to drowning or starvation. Extremes of selfishness are sometimes met with in retreating armies, when lacerated men are abandoned on the road-side or snowcovered heaths, by their companions; but such heartlessness is still more revolting when exercised on the wild ocean-tracks, where the sternness of solitude should knit man to man in closer brotherhood. The cutter, however, managed, by desperate efforts, to keep up with the large boat, and her crew were at last prevailed on by the captain to receive their fellow-sufferers into the launch. In a short time all their food was exhausted, and famine began

to wear out the bodies of both officers and men. Some lay down in the bottom of the boat, and quietly yielded themselves to death; others, half maddened by thirst, drank seawater, and were soon reduced to the delirium consequent upon such drink. Thus a fearful spectacle might have been seen in the slowly moving boat: some with fever-blackened lips cursing their companions; others, calmly desperate, longed for the billows to sink the famine-stricken group; many laughed wildly, as with frenzied eye they gazed on the waste of waters; and few retained the patience and coolness required by their sad condition. One day, when the last hope was leaving the stoutest heart, a crowd of flying fish* suddenly rose from the calm waves, and, becoming entangled in the sails, were caught by those who had struggled to grasp the prey. They were instantly eaten raw, and the ravenous men thus alleviated for a brief space their hunger. Many kept on the watch for a fresh shoal of these fish, but no more were taken. It was at length whispered by a few that some must die to appease the hunger of the rest, and two or three boys were selected as the most suitable victims. By degrees the whisper spread; none rejected the horrid proposal, and at length the fatal murmur reached the captain's ears. He besought, reasoned, and threatened, by turns; assured the men that land could not be far off, but all in vain; the utmost he could cure was a promise to wait for three days, when, if no relief appeared, some of the boys must die. Those familiar with maritime annals will recal various instances of famine-maddened crews adopting a resolution so horrible to our contemplation. We can but pause and pity those men-unquestionably bravewho have been led by a tremendous combination of circumstances to such depths of misery. In the present case, however, murder was to be added to cannibalism, and thus the horror of the miserable scene is deepened by its alliance with crime. The savage, feeding on the dead body of his foe, is a disgusting spectacle; but to see the civilized man murdering his fellow-creature, for food, fills us with dismay. The misery was, however, terminated, and the crime prevented, by

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*These fish frequent the tropical seas, are about the size of a herring, and furnished with two pairs of fins, moved by powerful muscles, which the fish uses as wings to rise from the water. The flight is about two hundred yards.

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a discovery of land on the last of the three days named by the men as a limit to their forbearance. The land was an uninhabited island, on which cocoa-nuts were found; the milk of which being used to alleviate their thirst, their strength was in some measure restored. After some further perils and sufferings the boat reached the Dutch settlements in Java.

From Batavia Captain Bontekoe returned to Holland at the close of the year 1625. Often in the quietude of his dwelling at Horn did his thoughts return to that moment when the roar of his ship's conflagration thundered in his ear. Frequently, when sea-perils became the subject of remark, would the old captain describe the terrors of the crew when the sides of the powder-filled magazine were seen on fire, and the strange calm which took away all dread from his mind whilst expecting the crash.

IV.

THE SAILOR ENSLAVED;

OR,

ADVENTURES OF JOHN FOXE, AN ENGLISH SAILOR, TAKEN CAPTIVE BY THE TURKS IN 1563.

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HE enterprising mariners of the sixteenth century had to contend with a foe unknown to the modern navigators of European seas. Swarms of Turkish pirates then infested the sea, especially the Mediterranean,* from whom the Christian sailor had little to expect save perpetual captivity or a miserable death. These vile pests of the ocean-highways were more dreaded by mariners and traders than the storm or hidden rock.

The events narrated in this chapter will partly exhibit the maritime perils to which allusion has been made, and the audacity of the Turkish robbers before the decisive battle of Lepantot had nipped the blossom of their pride. In the year 1563, a ship named "The Three Half-Moons" left Portsmouth with a cargo for Seville, having a crew of thirtyeight men on board. All went well till near the close of the voyage, and the ship was nearing the mouth of the Guadalquiver, with every hope of a prosperous result, when eight Turkish galleys suddenly appeared between the vessel and

* Even so late as the reign of Charles II. the British Channel was infested by Turkish pirates, who actually made descents on the Irish coasts.

†This battle was fought 1571, in the Gulf of Lepanto, formerly called the Corinthian Gulf. The fleets of Spain, Venice, and the Papal States joined, and completely defeated the grand Turkish navy of two hundred and eighty galleys.

her haven. Resistance was useless; but the spirit of chivalry which had so often checked the advance of the crescent was amongst the sailors, and all resolved to fight till the last against the blasphemer who now sought to spoil them. The ship was provided with guns, and also with a gunner named Foxe, a man of cool head and daring courage. He arranged the guns in the most effective manner; and as the Turks came on, the pieces were discharged with the utmost steadiness into the midst of the galleys. The artillery was aided by a weapon at which the sailors of Nelson may smile--the arrow. These were sent in rapid showers upon the enemy by some archers on board. But the cannon from eight ships of the pirates began to tell with terrible effect on the one solitary vessel exposed to the storm. The Three HalfMoons received many balls under water; and in the midst of a furious cannonade the Turks rushed forward to board her.

In spite of their great force they were beaten back with much slaughter by the Christian crew. The repulse exasperated without much weakening the foe, from whose galleys the shot flew into the Three Half-Moons at every point. No sign of surrender was given after a long continuance of the struggle; and the pirates began to fear lest their expected prey might escape them by sinking. Accordingly, they made a dash with their whole force on the exhausted crew, and bore down all resistance by the crushing weight of numbers. Thus these brave men, with their intrepid gunner, became prisoners, though not without inflicting a heavy punishment on their assailants. The pirates, when they had plundered their captives, compelled them to work at the oars, and thus aid in their transportation to an enemy's country. The Turks sailed for Alexandria, which they soon reached, and immediately placed Foxe and his companions in a strong prison, having first secured them by chains. The captain and master of the captured ship were in a short time redeemed by their friends; but the rest of the crew met with no such deliverance. The British ambassador or consul was not then at hand to protect his countrymen, and the brave crew of the Three Half-Moons were abandoned to the bitterness of slavery. Their spirits might have sunk beneath the strange troubles now pressing upon them; but Foxe en

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