Accidents > Dangers of the deep, or, Narratives of shipwreck and adventure at sea

174 RETURN TO MOUNT MISERY,
and in our men, this persuasion was much
heightened by the melancholy condition they
were reduced to ; and was farther confirmed
by an occurrence which happened some little
time before we went upon our last expedition.
One night -we were alarmed with a strange
cry, which resembled that of a man drown¬
ing. Many of us ran out of our huts towards
the place from whence the noise proceeded,
which was not far off shore; where we could
perceive, but not distinctly (for it was then
moonlight,) an appearance like that of a man
swimming half out of water. The noise that
this creature uttered was so unlike that of any
animal they had heard before, that it made a
great impression upon the men; and they
frequently recalled this apparition at the time
of their distresses, with reflections on the ne¬
glect of the office they were now fulfilling.
We were soon driven again to the greatest
straits for want of something to subsist upon,
by the extreme bad weather that now set in
upon us. Wild celery was all we could pro¬
cure, which raked our stomachs instead of
assuaging our hunger. That dreadful and
last resource of men, in not much worse cir¬
cumstances than ours, of consigning one man