In the morning I looked around and observed I had got over to the other side of the hillock, in sight of a low, marshy country, intermixed with low shrubbery, but saw no sign of habitation or cattle. I then took a survey of myself, and I truly looked like nothing human, or in the likeness of any thing upon earth or the waters beneath. My wounds were filled with sand, as were also my eyebrows, hair, beard and whiskers; my leg swelled to the plumpness of a wool sack, my left wrist out of joint, and the hand swelled and wholly useless; my feet were swelled and wrinkled like tripe, from remaining so long in the water, and painful from several wounds;[1] and a ragged shirt, torn in my struggles, scantily covered a body discolored and sadly disfigured; I was, indeed, a figure too shocking even to excite pity, too disabled to excite fear, and too monstrous for any sensation but astonishment. I descended the slope of the hill and entered among the bushes that grew around, and slowly moved along for some time, till I espied at some distance, through the grass, a low hollow, that I thought might contain water, for my thirst was intolerable. In half an hour, resting at intervals, I reached it, and found, to my great joy, that I was not deceived; it was water! clear and tempting; but the difficulty was to get at it. I at first tried several different plans to get my mouth to the brook, for my limbs were too lame and stiff to bend. At last, by laying at length on the grass and rolling up to it, I succeeded. It was the most delicious draught I ever tasted! I drank an immoderate quantity, breathed awhile, and drank once more, not knowing when I should drink again. Looking about me, I saw nothing but what indicated a barren and inhospitable waste; I was therefore compelled to wend my way over the sand, and return to my old abode; a tedious and difficult task, which, however, I surmounted, and reached the beach about noon. The weather was still inauspicious and cloudy, the gale not much abated, and the sea continued to roar.
While descending the slope, I had seen among the great mass of articles on the beach, a large empty wine pipe, which lay but a short distance below me, with one head stove in by the sea, the other end facing the wind and water, and the mouth near the hill, which was a snug shelter in front. This was a fine house for me, and fortunately just what I needed. I hitched myself towards it, entered it and laid down, being very weak and fatigued; but I soon found the rough staves too hard for my bare bones and bruised carcase. I shortly after sallied out in search of a covering, and in hopes of finding some bed, mattress or blanket among the wreck, I took a survey on each side, and saw at a distance, on my right, something that looked like a bed, but on coming up to it, I found only a sack of cotton wool, wet and heavy, which I could not remove; I then returned to the cask, having reluctantly left it, as it was my only hope. I rested awhile, and then took another survey, and soon saw, at a great distance down the beach, on my left, towards the water, some rolls of cotton bagging, of which we had a great number on board, and again started out in pursuit. I was a long time in getting to them, and then found them so buried in the sand that I was an hour in digging and clearing it away from around them. It was now, I judged, about four, P. M. They were two large rolls, like bed ticking, with about twenty yards of one rolled round the other and sewed. I tore away the stitches with my teeth and unrolled one from the other, and found the inner one still wet. I pushed it down and rolled it along before me, hitching myself up to it, and then pushing it from me again. Thus I got it to the cask and across its mouth; getting into which, I unrolled eight or ten fathoms, then laying down in the cask, pushed and spread it as well as I could underneath me; I then unrolled as much more by the help of my feet, and covered myself with it, though it was still wet, and covered, as was every thing else, with sand. I now thought myself very well off, and my situation very comfortable, compared with that of the last thirty hours. Darkness soon came on, and during this night extreme and raging thirst kept me awake, and pain kept me constantly shifting positions. Such to me appeared the endless duration of the night, that for many hours before day-break, I firmly believed, and was greatly alarmed by the apprehension, that light would never again revisit the earth; and that darkness had regained its primeval empire. I watched away the night in insufferable thirst, which I thought would drive me to distraction; a fever was raging within me, and I would have given my all for one poor draught of water. Daylight, at last, slowly dawned forth, and as my limbs were too feeble to undertake a journey to the watering place, I resolved to break in upon the wine, and to search for a pipe that had its bung inclining downwards, that the wine might flow, if I could hammer it out. My hunger, too, was loudly craving; on my way to the wine, I found an orange broken open and filled with sand, which I greedily devoured, and hitched along; soon after, I fell in with a quantity of kegs of salmon, and found one with the head out, and partly filled with sand; nevertheless, I resolved to take it with me, and fill it with wine. I was in fact surrounded at this place with different parts of the cargo. At a short distance from me, strewed upon the beach, were nearly 150 pipes of wine, kegs of butter, barrels of flour, baskets of pork, bales of goods, &c., different fragments of the wreck without number. In passing the kegs of butter and baskets of pork, my hunger compelled me to claw out a handful of each, which my hunger forced down; but the wine which I afterwards drank, soon threw it out again. Coming to the pipes, I found one that answered, and procuring a billet of wood, struck out the bung of one that inclined downward, and applied my mouth to the hole, drinking a great quantity. I afterwards rinced the keg with the wine, which contained about a gallon; and nearly filling it with wine, returned with it slowly to the cask, pushing it before me. The gulls overhead, were noisy and clamorous, and seemed to anticipate the meal they should make of me. This keg I at last brought to the cask, to my great satisfaction; set it outside, crawled in, and began to ruminate upon my condition. I found it would be impossible, without succor, to move much longer about, and determined to remain at home during the remainder of the day; and if sufficient strength remained on the morrow, to rig a kind of signal, with a pole or spar, as my only chance of relief, with a piece of cotton bagging, for a flag, that if any vessel appeared near enough, she might observe it from the river. I at first had serious thoughts of endeavoring to get off the small boat, which I could discover at a great distance, bottom up, and to rig a kind of sail, and steer up the river; but on looking at my limbs, and having but one leg and arm serviceable, I immediately abandoned the project; I knew too, that my time was short; I knew that the next day I should be unable to make a farther search than I had done for provisions, as the method of getting along was slow and painful; I had frequently to stop and thrash myself, from the cold. Added to this, nothing was more probable than that the first savage who should discover me, would instantly despatch me, as an impediment to plunder. I expected no less, and that my fears were not groundless, the sequel too mournfully shows; but a certain presentiment of brighter hours, still upheld my spirits, which were never less depressed than upon this occasion. I remembered that the Great Director still had not forsaken me, since ‘God is ever present, ever felt, in the wide waste as in the full city,’ and I could not doubt that He whose outstretched arm had preserved me through the conflict of that dreadful night, would not now leave me to a miserable death. I was now more comfortably situated than at any former period; I had a covering inside, and a keg of good wine outside. Every thing considered, I determined to wait with humble hope, the will of heaven; I was resigned and cheerful, and even sung, and was happy. After this, by repeated drinking, owing to excessive thirst, I was thrown into a doze of about half an hour.
It was now three days and nights since I had taken food, and my taper of life began to glimmer in the socket. How I survived these scenes of accumulated misery so long, when but barely alive on reaching the shore, I scarcely can tell; the retrospect even now astonishes me. But frail mortality could resist no longer; my strength had utterly failed, and at this period I abandoned all hope of again leaving the pipe.
The day was declining apace, and I expected not to behold another dawn. I hailed the approaching night as the termination of my toils; considered the mean covering over me as my shroud, the cask as my coffin, and waited with fortitude the hour of dissolution. But the next was the hour of deliverance!
At four o’clock, on this afternoon, (Saturday, the 20th of September,) as I was stretched out in the cask, indulging in recollections of home, I was aroused from my reveries by the startling sound of a horse’s feet. I waited his approach with calmness, being absolutely indifferent in my choice, to sleep or die;—the sounds grew louder and nearer—in a few moments a horse with a rider appeared before the cask. I hailed in Spanish, faintly, “amigo,” (friend,)—he instantly alighted, but struck with such a ghastly spectacle as I then exhibited, he started as he stooped down to observe me, and recoiled backwards against his horse. Recovering soon, however, from his dismay, by seeing my helpless condition, he re-advanced to learn by what means I had outlived the general wreck. He was a young man of benevolent features, a Creole, or half Indian, and dressed partly in the Indian method. I told my tale in a few words, to which he listened with breathless attention, and concluded by asking him the distance to a habitation; and if it was possible that he could furnish means for reaching one the next day, as I had no idea but that he came from a great distance. ‘In a few hours,’ he replied; ‘before night, I can return with horses and assistance, as my mother’s rancho, (or hut) is not more than one league distant.’ After a few more questions, he expressed his surprise at my providential rescue, crossing himself repeatedly at every ‘hair breadth escape,’ and blessed St. George, as my special preserver. It was lucky, he said, that I spoke his language so well; that I was very fortunate in being discovered by him, whose mother, he said, lived at the nearest habitation, whither I should be conveyed; assuring me if I had fallen into the hands of the savages, they would certainly have despatched me, for they were merciless and ferocious. But first says he, ‘I will bring you something to eat, for you look half starved;’ so saying, he jumped upon his horse, and was soon out of sight. His period of absence, seemed to me an age. A prospect of deliverance, of once more beholding my country, had lighted up a hope within me, and again I feared he might prove a deceiver.
In about an hour, however, he appeared, and the foam of his good horse bore witness that he had lost no time. He jumped from his steed, and threw into my lap, as I sat upright in the cask, a warm sausage, and some mouldy bread, wrapped up in a napkin. I greedily seized the food, thinking I could devour it at once; but was surprised to find I could not swallow a mouthful, my throat being contracted, closed and sore.
He now informed me, that on his first coming down to the beach, he had passed the pipe in which I was laying, without suspicion, at a distance upon his left, as he rode near the water; that he saw the beach covered for a great length with numberless articles of the wreck, and that he had been greatly disconcerted on finding the sand dug away from around a roll of cotton, and one carried off, and no marks of footsteps, or any thing living, excepting the sea gulls—that he had seen but one corpse, and that of one of the sailors; that a great many chests, trunks, &c. he had likewise seen; some half buried in the sand; others broken open by the sea; but many that were locked and entire, and that if I wished, he would search for my own, if I would describe it, and draw it up before the cask. I told him that my chests were unlocked at the time we struck, and of course the contents were scattered and sunk. He however rode away to a great distance, and drew up at repeated times, several chests and trunks, belonging to the passengers and seamen, saying that there were many more, but at such a distance, so buried, or so heavy, that he could not drag them along. He asked me for several pieces of clothing, which he had picked up. I told him to keep whatever he pleased, as none could dispute his right to them. He then began to plan the means for my removal; I thought it most practicable that he should empty one of the largest chests of its contents, and that I should get inside, and his horse should draw me over the plains. This he told me was impossible, from the shrubs and marshes and pools, which obstructed the path. I left it then wholly to his care, as my head was far too heavy to talk or to reason; and from previous exertion, even fell back into the cask. My friend then made his lasso (a line of green hide, with which they catch wild horses,) fast to the handle of the largest trunk, and with an assurance that he would soon return, drove off. I listened with painful feelings to the sound of the horse’s retreating footsteps; for on him alone rested my hope of deliverance.
Shortly after he had gone, a guacha, a savage of fierce and murderous countenance, rode up and alighted from his horse in great haste, and roughly asked, ‘quien es usted?’ I replied, ’un marinero naufrago;’ ‘es usted el capitan?’ ‘no,’ I answered; ‘estoy el pilota,’ and that I had previously been discovered by a paysano, who had just left me to return with assistance. He demanded the road he took; I told him, when he leaned upon his horse and galloped off in the direction the other had taken.
It seems, as my deliverer afterwards informed me, that this savage came up with him and endeavored by entreaties and threats, to dissuade him from his design of assisting me; saying I had better be despatched and buried in the sand, and then there would be none to dispute the right of plunder. But my deliverer told him that the chief was already acquainted with the affair, as well as his father and others, who were even then preparing to go down to the beach; on hearing this, he lost no time, but turning his horse, hastily spurred off in an opposite course.
During the absence of my friend, my moments in the cask were spent in the most tormenting anxiety and suspence. I had been discovered, contrary to all conjecture, by a friend, instead of an enemy, and one bright ray of hope, which I hardly dared to cherish, had reanimated my soul. Now was the fearful hazard that he should not return with timely succor. I eagerly listened to catch the sound of his returning galloping steed; after a while I heard the approach of several horses; I awaited their appearance with breathless hope, for my life or my death hung upon the moment.