DECEMBER 18 to 20.—On the 18th the wind freshened a little, but as it blew from the same favorable quarter we did not complain, and only took the precaution of putting an extra support to the mast, so that it should not snap with the tension of the sail. This done, the raft was carried along with something more than its ordinary speed, and left a long line of foam¹ in its wake.  
In the afternoon the sky became slightly over-clouded, and the heat consequently less oppressive. The swell² made it more difficult for the raft to keep its balance, and we shipped two or three heavy seas; but the carpenter managed to make with some planks³ a kind of wall about a couple of feet high, which protected us from the direct action of the waves. Our casks of food and water were secured to the raft with double ropes, for we dared not run the risk of their being carried overboard, an accident that would at once have reduced us to the direst distress⁴.
 
In the course of the day the sailors gathered some of the marine⁵ plants known by the name of sargassos, very similar to those we saw in such profusion⁶ between the Bermudas and Ham Rock. I advised my companions to chew the laminary tangles⁷, which they would find contained a saccharine⁸ juice, affording considerable relief to their parched⁹ lips and throats.
 
The remainder of the day passed without incident. I should not, however, omit to mention that the frequent conferences held among the sailors, especially between Owen, Burke, Flaypole, Wilson, and Jynxstrop, the negro, aroused some uneasy suspicions in my mind. What was the subject of their conversation I could not discover, for they became silent immediately that a passenger or one of the officers approached them. When I mentioned the matter to Curtis I found he had already noticed these secret interviews, and that they had given him enough concern to make him determined¹⁰ to keep a strict eye upon Jynxstrop and Owen, who, rascals¹¹ as they were themselves, were evidently trying to disaffect their mates.
 
On the 19th the heat was again excessive. The sky was cloudless, and as there was not enough wind to fill the sail the raft lay motionless upon the surface of the water. Some of the sailors found a transient alleviation¹² for their thirst by plunging¹³ into the sea, but as we were fully¹⁴ aware that the water all around was infested¹⁵ with sharks, none of us was rash enough to follow their example, though if, as seems likely, we remain long becalmed, we shall probably in time overcome our fears, and feel constrained¹⁶ to indulge ourselves with a bath.
 
The health of Lieutenant¹⁷ Walter continues to cause us grave anxiety, the young man being weakened by attacks of intermittent¹⁸ fever. Except for the loss of the medicine-chest we might have temporarily reduced this by quinine; but it is only too evident that the poor fellow is consumptive, and that that hopeless malady¹⁹ is making ravages²⁰ upon him that no medicine could permanently²¹ arrest. His sharp, dry cough, his short breathing, his profuse²² perspirations, more especially in the morning; the pinched-in nose, the hollow cheeks, of which the general pallor is only relieved by a hectic²³ flush, the contracted lips, the too brilliant eye and was............