I felt, it is true, that there was some great
void within myself, but the sensation was quite as much moral as
physical. My head was so heavy that I could not hold it up; it
was swimming with giddiness, as though I were looking over a
precipice.
My symptoms were not shared by all my companions, some of whom
endured the most frightful tortures. Dowlas and the boatswain
especially, who were naturally large eaters, uttered involuntary
cries of agony, and were obliged to gird themselves tightly with
ropes to subdue the excruciating pain that was gnawing their
very vitals.
And this was only the second day of our misery! what would we
not have given for half, nay, for a quarter of the meagre ration
which a few days back we had deemed so inadequate to supply our
wants, and which now, eked out crumb by crumb, might, perhaps,
serve for several days? In the streets of a besieged city, dire
as the distress may be, some gutter, some rubbish-heap, some
corner may yet be found that will furnish a dry bone or a scrap
of refuse that may for a moment allay the pangs of hunger; but
these bare planks, so many times washed clean by the relentless
waves, offer nothing to our eager search, and after every
fragment of food that the wind carried into their interstices has
been scraped out devoured, our resources are literary at an end.
The nights seem even longer than the days. Sleep, when it comes,
brings no relief; it is rather a feverish stupour, broken and
disturbed by frightful nightmares.
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