Austin swam out to him, and the two endeavored to right her. This, after many efforts, was accomplished, "the mate contriving to put his feet against the gunwale and to seize the keel with his hands," while Austin "tilted her up from the opposite side with his shoulders." She was still, however, full of water. This was got rid of in a very ingenious manner, for the enormous hat which Austin wore, "after the fashion of the dwellers in the West Indies," was useless to bail her. The mast of the brig rose and fell some twenty feet, and the captain fastened a rope to its top, and held on to it from the boat. Whenever the vessel rose, it lifted up him and the boat, by which three-fourths of the water was emptied; but "having no means of disengaging her from the masts and shrouds, they fell down, driving him and the boat under the surface, and nearly breaking his thigh."
Despite his wound, which, however, rendered any further attempt without assistance hopeless, Austin threw himself into the water, and with the rope in his mouth swam to the men on board the brig, who, by their united strength, hauled the boat over the brig's stern, and emptied it. A hole, however, was knocked in it by this rough treatment, which was repaired by being stuffed with the shirt of the man who could not swim, and had therefore retained that garment. They had no oar, no sail, and except a dog belonging to the captain, "which was gladly taken in case of necessity," no provisions.
The brig remained longer above water than might have been expected, for she had casks of flour and butter on board, "the former of which slowly imbibes water, and the latter always swims," but none of these things could be got at. When she sank, the boat being still kept near her, a chest containing clothes and linen, with chocolate and sugar, floated out of her, and for these poor sailors it contained more than the riches of the Indies. It was too large, however, to be lifted into the boat, which, indeed, it would have sunk; and though they exhausted every means to open it, they found this impossible, and had to let it go. They picked up thirteen floating onions, and that was all.
They had no fresh-water; they were without any kind of implement except a knife, which was in the pocket of the sailor who could not swim, and they calculated that at the very nearest they were one hundred and fifty miles from land. Surely never were human creatures in a worse position.
Not a moment, however, was lost in vain regrets. By patient perseverance they loosened one of the planks with which the boat was lined, and formed it into a kind of mast, which they tied to the foremost thwart; another piece of plank served as a yard, and to this they fixed their only pair of trousers for a sail. Two of the men had always to lie along the gunwale with their backs to the waves, which would otherwise have swamped the boat, and, even so, another had constantly to bail it by means of the Dutch hat.
Thus they ran before the wind all night at the rate of about a league an hour. At daylight they ate half an onion each, which "wonderfully revived them," but they were tormented with agonies of thirst. Their naked limbs, too, were so scorched with the sun that from head to foot they were red and blistered as from fire. On the third day the captain killed his dog. He "afterward reflected on it with regret, but at that time no such sentiment affected him."
At last the exhausted men gave themselves up to despair, and refused to make any more exertions for their own deliverance, nor would he who had to bail the boat continue to do so, though Austin fell "on his knees to entreat him."
On the fifth day an enormous shark followed the boat—an omen the dark meaning of which was only too well known to them; and this depressed them still further. The dog had long been eaten, and they caught but one flying-fish, which was little indeed among so many. There were several heavy showers, but there was nothing to catch the rain in but the hat and the trousers, which had become so impregnated by salt-water that they were almost useless for that purpose. "Their only resource was endeavoring to catch a few drops as they fell into their open mouths to cool the heat of their tongues."
The two seamen drank sea-water and became delirious, but the captain and mate resisted that temptation; they each kept a nail in his mouth, and sprinkled his head with water, which afforded but slight relief to their sufferings. On the eighth day the two men died, but in the evening the boat reached land, and the two survivors, "forsaking the bodies of their companions, crept out of the boat and crawled on all fours" along the sand. The cliffs that walled it they were quite unable to climb up.
At eight in the morning a young Carib discovered them, "whose eyes, upon beholding their forlorn appearance, filled with tears." He understood a few French words, and informed them that they were on the island of Tobago. He brought them fresh-water, which they drank with passionate eagerness, and cakes of cassava and broiled fish, which they could not swallow.