afford material for a conclusion of Mr. Pym’s account.

But there arose in our pathway a shrouded human figure, very far larger in its proportions than any dweller among men. And the hue of the skin of the figure was of the perfect whiteness of the snow.

osier

We were thus relieved from immediate danger, but our situation was still sufficiently gloomy.

We were now clear off, and making great way out to sea.

They had already made a complete wreck of the vessel, and were now preparing to set her on fire.

We were the only living white men upon the island.

never to be conceived.

alacrity

pertinaciously

Batavia.”

In the whole of this adventure we saw nothing in the demeanour of the natives calculated to create suspicion, with the single exception of the systematic manner in which their party was strengthened during our route from the schooner to the village.

The dwellings were of the most miserable description imaginable, and, unlike those of even the lowest of the savage races with which mankind are acquainted, were of no uniform plan.

The phenomena of this water formed the first definite link in that vast chain of apparent miracles with which I was destined to be at length encircled.

biche de mer

This was a degree of ignorance for which we were not prepared, and for my part I could not help thinking some of it affected.

Too-wit

harangue

in which we could distinguish the words Anamoo-moo! and Lama-Lama!

Leaping upon the back of the huge beast, he plunged the blade of a knife behind the neck, reaching the spinal marrow at a blow.

January 1, 1828

My own experience will be found to testify most directly to the falsity of the conclusion arrived at by the society.

azimuth

salubrity

in latitude 37 degrees 8’ S, longitude 12 degrees 8’ W.

take them off.

the albatross.

saxifrage

verdure

verdure

Crozet

Prince Edward’s Island

Possession Island

the proper precautions.

and we began to remember what had passed rather as a frightful dream from which we had been happily awakened, than as events which had taken place in sober and naked reality.

blunderbusses

carronades

Just at daybreak we both at the same instant descried a sail to the eastward, and evidently coming towards us!

carboy

voracious

Our thirst could now scarcely be endured, and we tried in vain to relieve it by wine, which seemed only to add fuel to the flame, and excited us to a high degree of intoxication.

His death filled us with the most gloomy forebodings, and had so great an effect upon our spirits that we sat motionless by the corpse during the whole day, and never addressed each other except in a whisper.

masticating

we set about killing and cutting up our tortoise.

and striking Peters violently with his tail.

JULY 24

This time he succeeded beyond our utmost expectations, returning instantly with a large ham and a bottle of Madeira wine.

I recovered from my swoon in time to behold the consummation of the tragedy in the death of him who had been chiefly instrumental in bringing it about.

Before any one condemn me for this apparent heartlessness, let him be placed in a situation precisely similar to my own.

we prepared to draw lots.

He proposed, in a few words, that one of us should die to preserve the existence of the others.

I suffered less than any of us,

mania a potu

ague

when Augustus burst into tears.

putrefaction

He seemed by his manner to be encouraging us to have patience, nodding to us in a cheerful although rather odd way, and smiling constantly, so as to display a set of the most brilliantly white teeth.

phrensy

accomplishing our deliverance.

balustrade

windlass

and filling every inch of the vessel with water.

It was now about one o’clock in the morning

he seized him by the throat, and, by dint of sheer strength, strangled him instantaneously.

dint

This friend was no other than Tiger.

The mate sprang up from the mattress on which he was lying, and, without uttering a syllable, fell back, stone dead, upon the cabin floor, and was hurled to the leeward like a log by a heavy roll of the brig.

chicanery

billets of wood

bulwarks

superstitious terrors and guilty conscience of the mate.

.

scud

Augustus and myself should then come up, and endeavour to provide ourselves with some kind of weapons from the deck, and that we should then make a rush together, and secure the companion-way before any opposition could be offered. I

hydrophobia

We had made a narrow escape indeed; for scarcely had he arranged all matters, when the mate came below, with Dirk Peters and the cook.

schooner

Madeira

stanchions

ballast.

impetus

rotundity

interstices

In explanation of some portions of this narrative, wherein I have spoken of the stowage of the brig, and which may appear ambiguous to some of my readers who may have seen a proper or regular stowage, I must here state that the manner in which this most important duty had been per formed on board the Grampus was a most shameful piece of neglect on the part of Captain Barnard, who was by no means as careful or as experienced a seaman as the hazardous nature of the service on which he was employed would seem necessarily to demand. A proper stowage cannot be accomplished in a careless manner, and many most disastrous accidents, even within the limits of my own experience, have arisen from neglect or ignorance in this particular.

To leave Tiger in the box was what neither of us could endure to think of, yet, how to act otherwise was the question.

succor

He could not think it possible that I had survived my confinement for so long a period breathing so oppressive an air.

He dwelt on the world of novelty and amusement to be found among the innumerable islands of the Pacific, on the perfect security and freedom from all restraint to be enjoyed, but, more particularly, on the deliciousness of the climate, on the abundant means of good living, and on the voluptuous beauty of the women.

a slight incision with the pen-knife on the back of a finger just above the nail—a copious flow of blood ensuing, as usual, from wounds in that vicinity.

bulwark

the captain pale as death, but somewhat recovered from the effects of his wound.

(with the exception of Augustus, whom Peters insisted in a jocular manner upon keeping as his clerk)

a narrative, let me here say, which, in its latter portions, will be found to include incidents of a nature so entirely out of the range of human experience, and for this reason so far beyond the limits of human credulity, that I proceed in utter hopelessness of obtaining credence for all that I shall tell, yet confidently trusting in time and progressing science to verify some of the most important and most improbable of my statements.

pliancy

.

Here the cook stood with an axe, striking each victim on the head as he was forced over the side of the vessel by the other mutineers.

pinioned

The only reply was a blow on the forehead from an axe.

ruffianly

handspike

when I think of the condition of the hold in which I was imprisoned,

soporific

He was going—my friend, my companion, from whom I had a right to expect so much—he was going—he would abandon me—he was gone!

orlop

sagacity

This will account for the fact that many miserable hours of despondency elapsed after my last adventure with the phosphorus, before the thought suggested itself that I had examined only one side of the paper.

evidently mumbled by the dog. I concluded at once that he had devoured the whole of my supply of candles, and I felt hopeless of being ever able to read the note of Augustus.

paroxysm

larboard

pernicious

My head ached excessively; I fancied that I drew every breath with difficulty; and, in short, I was oppressed with a multitude of gloomy feelings.

disquietude;

I afterward found that Augustus had purposely arranged the stowage in this hold with a view to affording me a thorough concealment, having had only one assistant in the labour, a man not going out in the brig.

He started back two or three steps, turned first pale and then excessively red, threw up his spectacles, then, putting them down, ran full tilt at me, with his umbrella uplifted. He stopped short, however, in his career, as if struck with a sudden recollection; and presently, turning round, hobbled off down the street, shaking all the while with rage, and muttering between his teeth: “Won’t do—new glasses—thought it was Gordon—d—d good-for-nothing salt water Long Tom.”

exigency

This hiding-place, he assured me, would be rendered sufficiently comfortable for a residence of many days, during which I was not to make my appearance.

who would contrive a hiding-place for me in the Grampus.

I determined to go at all hazards; and, having made known my intentions to Augustus, we set about arranging a plan by which it might be accomplished.

In one of our conversations Augustus frankly confessed to me, that in his whole life he had at no time experienced so excruciating a sense of dismay, as when on board our little boat he first discovered the extent of his intoxication, and felt himself sinking beneath its influence.

and if there was a man run down, it was nobody’s fault but his own, he might drown and be dammed”

evincing

Augustus, paler than death, was busily occupied in chafing my hands. Upon seeing me open my eyes, his exclamations of gratitude and joy excited alternate laughter and tears from the rough-looking personages who were present.

chafing

I contrived to raise him partially up, and keep him in a sitting position, by passing a rope round his waist, and lashing it to a ringbolt in the deck of the cuddy.

deluged

By good luck, however, she kept steady, and gradually I recovered some degree of presence of mind.

He was drunk—beastly drunk—he could no longer either stand, speak, or see.

I could stand it no longer, however, and spoke to Augustus about the propriety of turning back.

trepidation

lee

in Nantucket.

gale

maddest freaks

tonnage

I used frequently to go home with him, and remain all day, and sometimes all night. We occupied the same bed, and he would be sure to keep me awake until almost light,

Nantucket,

he had managed to lay by a tolerable sum of money.

Even to those readers who have not seen the “Messenger,” it will be unnecessary to point out where his portion ends and my own commences; the difference in point of style will be readily perceived.

under the garb of fiction.

Mr. Poe,

A distrust in my own abilities as a writer was, nevertheless, one of the principal causes which prevented me from complying with the suggestions of my advisers.

veracity

except by the evidence of a single individual, and he a half-breed Indian)

She had gone “where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.”

antiquaries

I said, “Will the preachers take for their text, ‘Proclaim liberty to the captive, and the opening of prison doors to them that are bound’? or will they preach from the text, ‘Do unto others as ye would they should do unto you’?”

clew

Dr. Flint is dead.

Spring returned, and I received warning from the south that Dr. Flint knew of my return to my old place, and was making preparations to have me caught.

palsied

despotic

The slave Hamlin, the first fugitive that came under the new law, was given up by the bloodhounds of the north to the bloodhounds of the south.

But when it was accidentally discovered that her mother was a fugitive slave, every method was used to increase her advantages and diminish her expenses.

palliating

   “Come up into my parlor,” said the spider to the fly; “Tis the prettiest little parlor that ever you did spy.”

Some of the apprentices were Americans, others American-born Irish; and it was offensive to their dignity to have a “nigger” among them,

It is a sad feeling to be afraid of one’s native country.

I felt that the condition of even the meanest and most ignorant among them was vastly superior to the condition of the most favored slaves in America.

“I declare, Ellen, I believe you are right.”

Let every colored man and woman do this, and eventually we shall cease to be trampled under foot by our oppressors.

“O no, not if you are with me,

your native place

There are no bonds so strong as those which are formed by suffering together.

memorandum

She told me she was an English woman, and that was a pleasant circumstance to me, because I had heard they had less prejudice against color than Americans entertained.

how could she look me in the face, while she thrust such a dagger into my heart?

subterfuges

dacent

aped

“We have the same sorrows,” said I. “No,” replied she, “you are going to see your children soon, and there is no hope that I shall ever even hear from mine.”

indefatigable

I was grievously disappointed, but I promised to relinquish my project.

rapacious

remonstrated

interment

“I wish the past could be forgotten, and that we might never think of it,” said he; “and that Linda would come to supply her aunt’s place.

factotum

she pronounced it to be just as much stealing as it would be for him to come and take a piece of furniture out of her parlor.

indignant

that I had made a great deal of trouble in her family

pecuniary

I don’t remember how mother looked—do you, Benny?”

If you had seen the tears, and heard the sobs, you would have thought the messenger had brought tidings of death instead of freedom.

You have been here a long time; almost five years;

She has been very ungrateful to me for all my kindness; but I forgive her, and want to act the part of a friend towards her.

the paper that systematically abuses the colored people,

Dr. Flint had not given me up.

“I couldn’t have him go away without emancipating the children. Who knows what may happen?”

convivial

stanch

spared me the anguish of feeling that I caused her death.”

stupefied

benumbed

oakum

So passed the first Christmas in my den.

Johnkannaus.

How I longed to tell him that his mother made those garments, and that many a tear fell on them while she worked!

impertinent

little red insects

interstices