 and fro by the exertions of the carnivorous bird, and it
was this motion which had at first impressed us with the belief of its being
alive. As the gull relieved it of its weight, it swung round and fell partially
over, so that the face was fully discovered. Never, surely, was any object so
terribly full of awe! The eyes were gone, and the whole flesh around the mouth,
leaving the teeth utterly naked. This, then, was the smile which had cheered us
on to hope! this the - but I forbear. The brig, as I have already told, passed
under our stern, and made its way slowly but steadily to leeward. With her and
with her terrible crew went all our gay visions of deliverance and joy.
Deliberately as she went by, we might possibly have found means of boarding her,
had not our sudden disappointment, and the appalling nature of the discovery
which accompanied it, laid entirely prostrate every active faculty of mind and
body. We had seen and felt, but we could neither think nor act until, alas! too
late. How much our intellects had been weakened by this incident may be
estimated by the fact, that when the vessel had proceeded so far that we could
perceive no more than the half of her hull, the proposition was seriously
entertained of attempting to overtake her by swimming!
    I have, since this period, vainly endeavored to obtain some clew to the
hideous uncertainty which enveloped the fate of the stranger. Her build and
general appearance, as I have before stated, led us to the belief that she was a
Dutch trader, and the dresses of the crew also sustained this opinion. We might
have easily seen the name upon her stern, and, indeed, taken other observations,
which would have guided us in making out her character; but the intense
excitement of the moment blinded us to everything of that nature. From the
saffron-like hue of such of the corpses as were not entirely decayed, we
concluded that the whole of her company had perished by the yellow fever, or
some other virulent disease of the same fearful kind. If such were the case (and
I know not what else to imagine), death, to judge from the positions of the
bodies, must have come upon them in a manner awfully sudden and overwhelming, -
in a way totally distinct from that which generally characterizes even the most
deadly pestilences with which mankind are acquainted. It is possible, indeed,
that poison, accidentally introduced into some of their sea-stores, may have
brought about the disaster;
