"Wait. Many of the Spanish officers proposed that we should be sunk with the ship. It would save time, they said. Sometimes I think it would have been better if they had carried out their intention, for my poor comrades suffered torments before they died."
"It was merciless!"
"Then these men held a conference. After a lot of talk they came to a decision. It was decided that the carpenter should rig out a raft in a hasty fashion, and that we were to be put aboard it. And so we were. They sent us adrift on a few timbers without a bite to eat, or one drop of water."
CHAPTER VIII.
YOUNG GLORY ON THE NASHVILLE—AT SAN JUAN DE PORTO RICO.
Captain Miles was aghast.
The officers of the Brooklyn who had drawn close to listen, were loud in their expressions of indignation.
"The brutes! the inhuman brutes!" said the skipper. "And these are the men for whom some misguided people feel pity."
"An object lesson like this," said the lieutenant-commander, "shows how much pity they deserve."