Found
      great relief from thirst, and much comfort otherwise, by bathing
      in the sea; in this, however, we were forced to use great
      caution, being afraid of sharks, several of which were seen
      swimming around the brig during the day. July 28. Good weather still. The brig now began to lie along so
      alarmingly that we feared she would eventually roll bottom up. Prepared ourselves as well as we could for this emergency,
      lashing our tortoise, waterjug, and two remaining jars of olives
      as far as possible over to the windward, placing them outside the
      hull below the main-chains. The sea very smooth all day, with
      little or no wind. July 29. A continuance of the same weather. Augustus’s wounded
      arm began to evince symptoms of mortification. He complained of
      drowsiness and excessive thirst, but no acute pain. Nothing could
      be done for his relief beyond rubbing his wounds with a little of
      the vinegar from the olives, and from this no benefit seemed to
      be experienced. We did every thing in our power for his comfort,
      and trebled his allowance of water. July 30. An excessively hot day, with no wind. An enormous shark
      kept close by the hulk during the whole of the forenoon. We made
      several unsuccessful attempts to capture him by means of a noose. Augustus much worse, and evidently sinking as much from want of
      proper nourishment as from the effect of his wounds. He
      constantly prayed to be relieved from his sufferings, wishing for
      nothing but death. This evening we ate the last of our olives,
      and found the water in our jug so putrid that we could not
      swallow it at all without the addition of wine. Determined to
      kill our tortoise in the morning. July 31. After a night of excessive anxiety and fatigue, owing to
      the position of the hulk, we set about killing and cutting up our
      tortoise. He proved to be much smaller than we had supposed,
      although in good condition,—the whole meat about him not
      amounting to more than ten pounds. With a view of preserving a
      portion of this as long as possible, we cut it into fine pieces,
      and filled with them our three remaining olive jars and the
      wine-bottle (all of which had been kept), pouring in afterward
      the vinegar from the olives. In this manner we put away about
      three pounds of the tortoise, intending not to touch it until we
      had consumed the rest. We concluded to restrict ourselves to
      about four ounces of the meat per day; the whole would thus last
      us thirteen days. A brisk shower, with severe thunder and
      lightning, came on about dusk, but lasted so short a time that we
      only succeeded in catching about half a pint of water. The whole
      of this, by common consent, was given to Augustus, who now
      appeared to be in the last extremity. He drank the water from the
      sheet as we caught it (we holding it above him as he lay so as to
      let it run into his mouth), for we had now nothing left capable
      of holding water, unless we had chosen to empty out our wine from
      the carboy, or the stale water from the jug. Either of these
      expedients would have been resorted to had the shower lasted. The sufferer seemed to derive but little benefit from the
      draught. His arm was completely black from the wrist to the
      shoulder, and his feet were like ice. We expected every moment to
      see him breathe his last. He was frightfully emaciated; so much
      so that, although he weighed a hundred and twenty-seven pounds
      upon his leaving Nantucket, he now did not weigh more than forty
      or fifty at the farthest. His eyes were sunk far in his head,
      being scarcely perceptible, and the skin of his cheeks hung so
      loosely as to prevent his masticating any food, or even
      swallowing any liquid, without great difficulty. August 1. A continuance of the same calm weather, with an
      oppressively hot sun. Suffered exceedingly from thirst, the water
      in the jug being absolutely putrid and swarming with vermin. We
      contrived, nevertheless, to swallow a portion of it by mixing it
      with wine; our thirst, however, was but little abated. We found
      more relief by bathing in the sea, but could not avail ourselves
      of this expedient except at long intervals, on account of the
      continual presence of sharks. We now saw clearly that Augustus
      could not be saved; that he was evidently dying. We could do
      nothing to relieve his sufferings, which appeared to be great. About twelve o’clock he expired in strong convulsions, and
      without having spoken for several hours. 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. It was
      not until some time after dark that we took courage to get up and
      throw the body overboard. It was then loathsome beyond
      expression, and so far decayed that, as Peters attempted to lift
      it, an entire leg came off in his grasp. As the mass of
      putrefaction slipped over the vessel’s side into the water, the
      glare of phosphoric light with which it was surrounded plainly
      discovered to us seven or eight large sharks, the clashing of
      whose horrible teeth, as their prey was torn to pieces among
      them, might have been heard at the distance of a mile. We shrunk
      within ourselves in the extremity of horror at the sound. August 2. The same fearfully calm and hot weather. The dawn found
      us in a state of pitiable dejection as well as bodily exhaustion. The water in the jug was now absolutely useless, being a thick
      gelatinous mass; nothing but frightful-looking worms mingled with
      slime. We threw it out, and washed the jug well in the sea,
      afterward pouring a little vinegar in it from our bottles of
      pickled tortoise. 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. We afterward endeavoured to relieve our sufferings
      by mixing the wine with seawater; but this instantly brought
      about the most violent retchings, so that we never again
      attempted it. During the whole day we anxiously sought an
      opportunity of bathing, but to no purpose; for the hulk was now
      entirely besieged on all sides with sharks—no doubt the identical
      monsters who had devoured our poor companion on the evening
      before, and who were in momentary expectation of another similar
      feast. This circumstance occasioned us the most bitter regret and
      filled us with the most depressing and melancholy forebodings.