A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 37: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

34 ) A QUEER RACE. : CHAPTER VI. OF THE SAME OPINION STILL. ‘© Poor fellow! I wonder what became of him and the others? But why on earth didn’t they distill fresh water from sea water?” were the first thoughts that occurred to me after reading the chaplain’s narrative. And then i remembered that the events in question took place in a pre-scientific age; that there was certainly no distilling apparatus on board the Santa Anna, nor, probably, any means of making one large enough to pro- vide for the requirements of two or three hundred, possi- bly three or four hundred men. Again, why did not they take to their boats and try to reach Jand that way instead of waiting helplessly for a wind, with a certainty that if it did not come quickly they must all perish? But I knew not how far they were from the nearest land, for the chaplain never indicated the position of the ship, and seldom gave the date or even the days of the week, so that the length of time which elapsed between the different events set forth in the manuscript was a matter of pure conjecture. It was, moreover, quite possible that the Santa Anna’s boats had been smashed by the Hecate’s fire, and, in any case, they could not have held the crew and the prisoners and enough provisons and water for a long voyage. I could, however, see nothing to warrant the boatswain’s belief that the galleon had become derelict or been cast away. Men can live a iong time on a very short allowance of water; the chaplain would naturally be one of the first to succumb, and when the weak ones died off there would be more water for the survivors. Besides, who could say that a breeze had not sprung up, or a heavy shower of rain fallen, the very day after poor Mr. Hure committed his diary to the waves? i found no opportunity for a few days of speaking to Bolsover again, except in the presence of others. But when the chance came, I returned him his “‘ dokyment,” which, in the meanwhile, I had carefully reperused. ‘* Well, sir,” he asked, anxiously, ‘* what do you think?” Beheving that I could do the poor fellow no greater kindness than to cure him of his hallucination, if that (E(o)/ AA) G JOO q Gom