THE NEGRO BECOMES INSANE
JANUARY 20 to 22.--For the day or two after the horrible repast of the
18th those who had partaken of it appeared to suffer comparatively
little either from hunger or thirst; but for the four of us who had
tasted nothing, the agony of suffering grew more and more intense. It
was enough to make us repine over the loss of the provision that had so
mysteriously gone; and if any one of us should die, I doubt whether the
survivors would a second time resist the temptation to assuage their
pangs by tasting human flesh.
Before long, all the cravings of hunger began to return to the sailors,
and I could see their eyes greedily glancing upon us, starved as they
knew us to be, as though they were reckoning our hours, and already
were preparing to consume us as their prey.
As is always the case with shipwrecked men, we were tormented by thirst
far more than by hunger; and if, in the height of our sufferings, we
had been offered our choice between a few drops of water and a few
crumbs of biscuit, I do not doubt that we should, without exception,
have preferred to take the water.
And what a mockery to our condition did it seem that all this while
there was water, water, nothing but water, everywhere around us! Again
and again, incapable of comprehending how powerless it was to relieve
me, I put a few drops within my lips, but only with the invariable
result of bringing on a most trying nausea, and rendering my thirst
more unendurable than before.
Forty-two days had passed since we quitted the sinking Chancellor.
There could be no hope now; all of us must die, and by the most
deplorable of deaths. I was quite conscious that a mist was gathering
over my brain; I felt my senses sinking into a condition of torpor; I
made an effort, but all in vain, to master the delirium that I was
aware was taking possession of my reason. It is out of my power to
decide for how long I lost my consciousness; but when I came to myself
I found that Miss Herbey had folded some wet bandages around my
forehead. I am somewhat better; but I am weakened, mind and body, and I
am conscious that I have not long to live.
A frightful fatality occurred to-day. The scene was terrible. Jynxstrop
the negro went raving mad. Curtis and several of the men tried their
utmost to control him, but in spite of everything he broke loose, and
tore up and down the raft, uttering fearful yells. He had gained
possession of a handspike, and rushed upon us all with the ferocity of
an infuriated tiger; how we contrived to escape mischief from his
attacks, I know not. All at once, by one of those unaccountable
impulses of madness, his rage turned against himself. With his teeth
and nails he gnawed and tore away at his own flesh; dashing the blood
into our faces, he shrieked out with a demoniacal grin, "Drink, drink!"
and flinging us gory morsels, kept saying "Eat, eat!" In the midst of
his insane shrieks he made a sudden pause, then dashing back again from
the stern to the front, he made a bound and disappeared beneath the
waves.
Falsten, Dowlas, and the boatswain, made a rush that at least they
might secure the body; but it was too late; all that they could see was
a crimson circle in the water, and some huge sharks disporting
themselves around the spot.