Читать книгу The Sea: Its Stirring Story of Adventure, Peril, & Heroism (Vol. 1-4). The History of Sea Voyages, Discovery, Piracy and Maritime Warfare онлайн

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A second repulse brought many of the mutineers to their senses, and temporarily awed the rest, some asking pardon on their knees. But at midnight the revolt again broke out, the soldiers attacking the party in the centre of the raft with the fury of madmen, even biting their adversaries. They seized upon one of the lieutenants, mistaking him for one of the ship’s officers who had deserted the raft, and he was rescued and protected afterwards with the greatest difficulty. They threw overboard M. Coudin, an elderly man, who was covered with wounds received in opposing them, and a young boy of the party, in whom he took an interest. M. Coudin had the presence of mind both to support the child and to take hold of the raft; and his friends kept off the brutal soldiery with drawn swords, until they were lifted on board again. The combat was so fierce, and the weather at night so bad, that on the return of day it was found that over sixty had perished off the raft. It is stated that the mutineers had thrown over the remaining water and two casks of wine. The indications in the narrative would not point to the latter conclusion, as the soldiers and workmen were constantly intoxicated, and many, no doubt, were washed off by the waves in that condition. A powerful temperance tract might be written on the loss of the Medusa. On the morning of the fourth day after their departure from the frigate, the dead bodies of twelve of the company, who had expired during the night, were lying on the raft. This day a shoal of flying-fish played round the raft, and a number of them got on board,62 and were entangled in the spaces between the timbers. A small fire, lighted with flint and steel and gunpowder, was made inside a barrel, and the fish, half-cooked, was greedily devoured. They did not stop here; the account briefly indicates that they ate parts of the flesh of their dead companions. Horror followed horror: a massacre succeeded their savage feast. Some Spaniards, Italians, and negroes among them, who had hitherto taken no part with the mutineers, now formed a plot to throw their superiors into the sea. A bag of money, which had been collected as a common fund, and was hanging from a rude mast hastily extemporised, probably tempted them. The officers’ party threw their ringleader overboard, while another of the conspirators, finding his villainy discovered, weighted himself with a heavy boarding-axe, and rushing to the fore part of the raft, plunged headlong into the sea and was drowned. A desperate combat ensued, and the fatal raft was quickly piled with dead bodies.