When consciousness at length returned, it was accompanied by a sensation of almost unendurable agony from my numerous smarting, inflamed, and stiffening wounds; and to this was added the torture of a burning thirst.
I was lying, completely naked, upon the scorching sand, a few yards distant from the water’s edge, whither I had been dragged, apparently for the purpose of being stripped of the poor spoil of my clothing.
The sun, now nearing the horizon, poured his fiery beams full upon me, still further increasing the tortures from which I was suffering; but I believe that to this circumstance alone am I indebted for my preservation from death, for the glowing rays dried and hardened the blood as it oozed from my wounds, and thus prevented my bleeding to death.
To my great surprise, I was entirely alone. The sand around me was impressed with numerous footprints from unshod feet; and, on looking more intently about me, I saw that they had all left me in the direction of the beach, and the canoes were gone.
This circumstance excited within me anew the direst apprehensions; for I had not the slightest doubt that the savages were away in pursuit of the boat, and I every moment dreaded to see her reappear, and to hear the triumphant shouts proclaiming our enemies’ success.
But the moments, laden with excruciating mental and bodily torture, wore slowly away, and nothing appeared to disturb or break in upon the solitude which surrounded me; and now, urged by the desire for a cooler spot, I sought to drag my agonised frame from the burning sand to the cool, fresh, verdant greensward, which was but a few yards distant.
Slowly, and writhing at every movement with the keenest anguish, I crawled foot by foot upwards along the beach, and at length, after half an hour of intense torment, sank utterly exhausted upon the utmost verge of the grass-covered plain.
My exertions caused all my wounds to burst open afresh, and I now became aware that I had received several in addition to those inflicted in the fight; these last being doubtless the result of wanton cruelty and savage delight on the part of my enemies at finding me in their power.
But I was still as far as ever from the means of slaking my burning thirst, for there was not a drop of fresh water within miles of me, as far as I knew; and had there been, my strength was by this time so completely gone that I could not have crawled another half-dozen yards to save my life, or even to quench that thirst which was now to me almost worse than death.
Stern, stubborn endurance was therefore my only resource, and I sank back upon the cool grass to await, in bitter helplessness, the death which I felt must soon come to my relief.