For
a while we sat silent, for our horror overwhelmed us, but when the
whirlpool which she made had ceased to boil, we rowed back to where the
carak had been. Now all the sea was strewn with wreckage, but among it
we found only one child living that had clung to an oar. The rest,
some two hundred souls, had been sucked down with the ship and perished
miserably, or if there were any still living, we could not find them in
that weltering sea over which the darkness was falling.
Indeed, it was well for our own safety that we failed in so doing, for
the little boat had ten souls on board in all, which was as many as she
could carry--the priest and I being the only men among them. I have said
that the darkness was falling, and as it chanced happily for us, so was
the sea, or assuredly we must have been swamped. All that we could
do was to keep the boat's head straight to the waves, and this we did
through the long night. It was a strange thing to see, or rather to
hear, that good man the priest my companion, confessing the women one
by one as he laboured at his oar, and when all were shriven sending up
prayers to God for the salvation of our souls, for of the safety of our
bodies we despaired. What I felt may well be imagined, but I forbear
to describe it, seeing that, bad as was my case, there were worse ones
before me of which I shall have to tell in their season.
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