“‘There is no need why we should all die,’ growled a third.
“They clearly understood what each other meant. I was listening, but could: not believe the horrid truth. Those who were but able to move crawled aft to Mr Carr, to tell him of their determination. For long he would not listen to them, but drove them forward, calling them cannibals, and telling them to wait God’s providence. For my own part, I felt that I would rather have died than have agreed to their proposals. What they wanted was that lots should be drawn, and that he who drew the shortest should be put to death, and the one next should be the executioner. The captain’s wife was to be free. At last their importunity became so great that Mr Carr agreed that, should no sail appear at the end of another twenty-four hours, he would no longer oppose their wishes. Before that time, two of those who were most eager for the dreadful mode of sustaining life, or most fearful of death, were summoned away. The crime was prevented; no one had to become a murderer. I will not describe how my wretched shipmates sustained life. Mr Carr abstained from the dreadful repast. So did I and one or two others; and though we lost in strength, our sufferings were much less acute, and our minds more tranquil, and our judgment far clearer than was the case with those who thus indulged their appetites. What we might have done I know not, had not God in his mercy sent your brig to our aid, with men on board with hearts to feel for us, and courage, in spite of all dangers, to rescue us. Some time before this the ship had become completely water-logged; and we, being driven from all shelter below, were reduced to the state in which you found us.”
The account De Lisle gave of Mr Carr raised him very much in my opinion, and I thought at the time that he was just the man I should like to sail with. We more than once spoke on the subject of the condition to which the crew of the Eagle had been reduced.
“To my mind,” observed De Lisle, “I cannot believe that people are justified in taking away the life of a fellow-creature even to preserve their own. I thought so at the time, and I think so now, that our duty is to resign ourselves implicitly to God’s will—to do our very utmost to preserve our lives, and to leave the rest in his hands.”
Peter agreed with him. He told him that he wondered Mr Carr did not mix up the grease on which they had fed with very fine saw-dust, as it would have made it go much further. De Lisle replied, that had they even supposed such a thing would have been beneficial, they had no means of making fine saw-dust, as they could get at no saw, and every particle of wood, as well as everything else, was soaked with wet.
After all the dangers and adventures we had gone through, it was with no little satisfaction that, as I was stationed on the look-out aloft, I espied land on the starboard-bow, which Captain Gale pronounced to be that of Nova Scotia, a little to the westward of Cape Spry. We were in sight of Sambro Head just at nightfall, but had to lay off till the morning before we could run in among the numerous islets which exist between that point and Devil’s Island.
Thus another night had to be passed on board by our weary shipwrecked visitors. Dark and dreary it proved. The wind came off cold and cheerless, in fitful gusts, from the shore, and moaned and howled through the rigging; the rain beat on our decks; and broken cross-seas tumbled and danced round us like imps of evil, eager to prevent our escaping from their malign influence. Thus wore on the night.