As the day wore on, their weakness increased. One of the survivors
described himself as feeling the approach of annihilation; his sight
failed, and his senses were confused; his strength was exhausted; he
looked towards the setting sun, expecting never to see it rise again.
Suddenly the approach of the boats was announced; and from the depth of
despair, they rose to the very summit of joy. Their parched frames were
refreshed with copious draughts of water.
Immediate preparations were made for departure. Of one hundred and
twenty-two persons on board the Nautilus, when she struck, fifty-eight
had perished. Eighteen were drowned when she was wrecked, five were lost
in the small boat, and thirty-four died of famine. About fifty now
embarked in four fishing vessels, and landed the same evening at
Cerigotto; making sixty-four in all, including those saved in the
whale-boat. During their six days sojourn on the rock, they had nothing
to subsist on, save human flesh.
They landed at a small creek. The Greeks received them with great
hospitality, but had not skill to cure their wounds, and had no bandages
but those procured by tearing up their own shirts.
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