Page:Paine--Lost ships and lonely seas.djvu/320

278 seal by him and was the only one in possession of anything like a meal. But they were become so hardened to the sufferings of others and so much familiarized to similar scenes of misery that the poor man's dying entreaties were in vain. Mr. Byron sat next him when he dropped, and having about five or six dried shell-fish in his pocket, put one from time to time in his mouth, which only served to prolong his misery. From this, however, death released him soon after his benefactor's little supply was exhausted. For him, and the other man, a grave was made in the sand.

It would have greatly redounded to the tenderness and humanity of Captain Cheap if he had remitted somewhat of that attention which he testified to self-preservation and spared in those exigencies what might have been wanted, consistently with his own necessities. He had better opportunities of recruiting his stock than the others, for his rank was an inducement to the Indian guide to supply him when not a bit of anything could be found for the rest. On the evening of the same day. Captain Cheap produced a large piece of boiled seal, of which he permitted no one, excepting the surgeon, to partake. His fellow-sufferers did not expect it, as they had a few small mussels and herbs to eat, but the men could not suppress the greatest indignation at his neglect of the deceased, saying that he deserved to be deserted for such savage conduct.

If one may hazard a personal conjecture, it seems plausible to assume that Captain Cheap was the Jonah of the Wager expedition and that the spell might have been lifted if he had been thrown overboard much earlier in the adventure. Be that as it