I now exerted my voice, and cried as loud as my wasted strength would
admit. Its echoes were sent back to me in broken and confused sounds and
from above. This effort was casual, but some part of that uncertainty in
which I was involved was instantly dispelled by it. In passing through
the cavern on the former day, I have mentioned the verge of the pit at
which I arrived. To acquaint me as far as was possible with the
dimensions of the place, I had hallooed with all my force, knowing that
sound is reflected according to the distance and relative positions of
the substances from which it is repelled. The effect produced by my voice on this occasion resembled, with
remarkable exactness, the effect which was then produced. Was I, then,
shut up in the same cavern? Had I reached the brink of the same
precipice and been thrown headlong into that vacuity? Whence else could
arise the bruises which I had received, but from my fall? Yet all
remembrance of my journey hither was lost. I had determined to explore
this cave on the ensuing day, but my memory informed me not that this
intention had been carried into effect. Still, it was only possible to
conclude that I had come hither on my intended expedition, and had been
thrown by another, or had, by some ill chance, fallen, into the pit. This opinion was conformable to what I had already observed. The
pavement and walls were rugged like those of the footing and sides of
the cave through which I had formerly passed. But if this were true, what was the abhorred catastrophe to which I was
now reserved? The sides of this pit were inaccessible; human footsteps
would never wander into these recesses. My friends were unapprized of my
forlorn state. Here I should continue till wasted by famine. In this
grave should I linger out a few days in unspeakable agonies, and then
perish forever. The inroads of hunger were already experienced; and this knowledge of
the desperateness of my calamity urged me to frenzy. I had none but
capricious and unseen fate to condemn. The author of my distress, and
the means he had taken to decoy me hither, were incomprehensible. Surely
my senses were fettered or depraved by some spell. I was still asleep,
and this was merely a tormenting vision; or madness had seized me, and
the darkness that environed and the hunger that afflicted me existed
only in my own distempered imagination. The consolation of these doubts could not last long. Every hour added to
the proof that my perceptions were real. My hunger speedily became
ferocious. I tore the linen of my shirt between my teeth and swallowed
the fragments. I felt a strong propensity to bite the flesh from my arm. My heart overflowed with cruelty, and I pondered on the delight I should
experience in rending some living animal to pieces, and drinking its
blood and grinding its quivering fibres between my teeth. This agony had already passed beyond the limits of endurance. I saw that
time, instead of bringing respite or relief, would only aggravate my
wants, and that my only remaining hope was to die before I should be
assaulted by the last extremes of famine. I now recollected that a
tomahawk was at hand, and rejoiced in the possession of an instrument by
which I could so effectually terminate my sufferings. I took it in my hand, moved its edge over my fingers, and reflected on
the force that was required to make it reach my heart. I investigated
the spot where it should enter, and strove to fortify myself with
resolution to repeat the stroke a second or third time, if the first
should prove insufficient. I was sensible that I might fail to inflict a
mortal wound, but delighted to consider that the blood which would be
made to flow would finally release me, and that meanwhile my pains would
be alleviated by swallowing this blood. You will not wonder that I felt some reluctance to employ so fatal
though indispensable a remedy. I once more ruminated on the possibility
of rescuing myself by other means. I now reflected that the upper
termination of the wall could not be at an immeasurable distance from
the pavement. I had fallen from a height; but if that height had been
considerable, instead of being merely bruised, should I not have been
dashed into pieces? Gleams of hope burst anew upon my soul. Was it not possible, I asked, to
reach the top of this pit? The sides were rugged and uneven. Would not
their projectures and abruptnesses serve me as steps by which I might
ascend in safety? This expedient was to be tried without delay. Shortly
my strength would fail, and my doom would be irrevocably sealed. I will not enumerate my laborious efforts, my alternations of
despondency and confidence, the eager and unwearied scrutiny with which
I examined the surface, the attempts which I made, and the failures
which, for a time, succeeded each other. A hundred times, when I had
ascended some feet from the bottom, I was compelled to relinquish my
undertaking by the _untenable_ smoothness of the spaces which
remained to be gone over. A hundred times I threw myself, exhausted by
fatigue and my pains, on the ground. The consciousness was gradually
restored that, till I had attempted every part of the wall, it was
absurd to despair, and I again drew my tottering limbs and aching joints
to that part of the wall which had not been surveyed. At length, as I stretched my hand upward, I found somewhat that seemed
like a recession in the wall. It was possible that this was the top of
the cavity, and this might be the avenue to liberty. My heart leaped
with joy, and I proceeded to climb the wall. No undertaking could be
conceived more arduous than this. The space between this verge and the
floor was nearly smooth. The verge was higher from the bottom than my
head. The only means of ascending that were offered me were by my hands,
with which I could draw myself upward so as, at length, to maintain my
hold with my feet. My efforts were indefatigable, and at length I placed myself on the
verge. When this was accomplished, my strength was nearly gone. Had I
not found space enough beyond this brink to stretch myself at length, I
should unavoidably have fallen backward into the pit, and all my pains
had served no other end than to deepen my despair and hasten my
destruction. What impediments and perils remained to be encountered I could not
judge. I was now inclined to forebode the worst. The interval of repose
which was necessary to be taken, in order to recruit my strength, would
accelerate the ravages of famine, and leave me without the power to
proceed. In this state, I once more consoled myself that an instrument of death
was at hand. I had drawn up with me the tomahawk, being sensible that,
should this impediment be overcome, others might remain that would prove
insuperable. Before I employed it, however, I cast my eyes wildly and
languidly around. The darkness was no less intense than in the pit
below, and yet two objects were distinctly seen. They resembled a fixed and obscure flame.