including the above, had met with a watery grave. The only articles of provisions saved from the wreck were three bags of biscuit, a small keg of wine, and several barracoes of water: the number of persons to subsist thereon was ninety-nine; and the distance they had to proceed in four open boats, before a fresh supply could be hoped for, at least 1100 miles. Thus circumstanced, the strictest economy became necessary; and orders were accordingly given, that only two ounces of bread, and one gill of wine, or the same quantity of water, should be served to each man once in twenty-four hours.
The boats’ sails were now converted into tents for the Pandora’s crew, most of whom had landed in a very exhausted state, and required a little rest previous to their departure. The prisoners, however, were kept at a distance from them, without the least covering to protect their naked bodies from the scorching rays of a vertical sun by day, and the chilling effect of heavy dews at night. A spare sail, which was lying useless on the quay, being refused them by Captain Edwards, they tried the experiment of burying themselves neck-deep in the sand, which caused the skin to blister and peel off from head to foot, as though they had been immersed in scalding water. The excruciating torture which they suffered from thirst, aggravated as it had been by involuntarily swallowing salt water, whilst swimming from the wreck, was, if possible, increased by the sight of rain, and their total inability to catch any of it. Exposed in this manner to alternate heat and cold, in the latitude of 11 S. some conception may be formed of their sufferings, but words will be found wanting to describe them.
The damages sustained by one of the boats having been repaired, and such other preparations made for their voyage as circumstances would admit, the whole party embarked at noon on the 31st Aug. and proceeded towards Coupang, where they arrived in a miserable condition at 5 P.M. on the 16th of the following month. Whilst there, Mr. Heywood and the other prisoners were closely confined in the castle; but, although for several days treated with great rigour by their Dutch gaolers, they do not at any time appear to have suffered so many privations at once, as when in the sole custody of a British Captain!
