I think it was about this time that I finally lost control of myself, for thenceforward I was conscious that I was continually talking to myself--in a hoarse, guttural croak, that even now I shudder to call to mind--now arguing, now encouraging, now reproaching myself, until at length my ideas wandered away to all sorts of incongruous subjects; and by turns I detected myself laughing, singing, praying, apostrophising the sun, the clouds, the distant land, and even the spirits of my drowned companions, whom I imagined to be crowding round me and trying to drag me off the floating hatch.
