The Frozen Crew Of The Ice-Bound Ship; Or, Terrors Of The Arctic Region — page 13: what you’re looking at

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

SSS SSE THE FROZEN CREW AND ICE-BOUND SHIP. 7 oe the object that was interesting him, could now dis- tinguish that it was strewn with the fragments of some vessél’s spars and water casks, and presently, that it was covered, also, with emaciated forms, or rather corpses, which, turning round and round in the froth of the encompassing waves, one after the other were fast disappearing. __ A flash of certainty entered into the mind of the ee as, with a quick beating heart, he gasped out— SEESY, , it’s a raft!” The exclamation drew many pirates to the side of the vessel, who, in an amazement equal to their sable messmate’s, beheld the ghastly spectacle presented to their sight. It was, indeed, a scene of desolation and of death, which may be told in a few short words. _ ‘On a frail raft, fifty human beings had for days been huddled together, without a drop of water, ex- isting solely on a few handfulls of biscuit. The poor creatures had struggled manfully against hunger, but thirst had enforced its more imperious demands; in a state of torpor, and with the sun glaring fiercely upon them, they beheld the shark on the blue wave, awaiting his miserable victim. _ At such a moment why should they wish to pre- serve life? They rose, with tottering steps, and cast their bloodshot eyes upon the horizon. The ear of succuur was deaf to their cries; they saw sky and water—nothing more. Night succeeds morning, and morning night, to reveal only the horrible solitude. _ The more feeble, tired and worn out by their afflictive feelings, fall into a sleep that has hitherto ‘been denied them: they dream of home, wife and ‘children—but, alas, they will see no more those bliss- ful ties! , It was a lovely night—a night for contemplation, for examination of the heart and adoration of the Deity! when mortality commenced his march, nor halted till thirty-seven souls had winged their flight to regions of repose and peace! Then followed another and still greater affliction; it was the dreadful miasm arising from the putrefac- tion of so many bodies, which the survivors could not put aside, having neither strength, nor force of any mental faculty to remove the dead. The effluvia became, in a short space of time, so powerful, as not only to be a source of the greatest disgust and horror, but the generator of a most viru- Tent fever, to which event each of the miserable out- casts succumbed. ‘There was some peculiarity in this pestilence. It was noticed that the limbs of the infected did not stiffen, as would have been the case if they had died of any other disorder, while the gangrenous tumours that appeared on the livid flesh, made them objects too loathsome to look upon. In IMany cases the features were frightfully distorted— the tongues of the suffering wretches swollen and protruding, the hands clenched, and the toes bent towards the soles of the feet; everything denoting the dreadful pangs that must have attended dissolu- tion. Amidst this ghastly group stood one, still alive, and, apparently, in the full vigour of robust health. How he had escaped the fate of his inanimate com- panions was a marvel to all beholders; but it would ave been no longer one, had they been acquainted with the means by which this individual had preserved his existence. He was one of that fraternity whose doctrines were @ mystery to our earliest philosophers, and have con- tinued so to our own times. Participating in the immortal life of the celestials, he was said to have found the secret to arrest death, fascinate the foe danger, and to move on earth and ocean scatheless and unharmed; whether there was truth or not in the syed assertion, time and circumstance will show. ‘Ship ahoy!” shouted the solitary, waving his hat as a signal to the surprised pirates. “There’s yet a man on board!” was the general cry. ‘‘Lower arope, and let’s see what account he can give of himself, and the vessel from which he seems to have escaped.’’ } The next moment a figure was seen ascending the sides of the schooner, and, having reached its sum- mit, dexterously threw himself forward at once upon the deck. The party who had been thus rescued from his perilous position was a little, meagre personage, habiied in the garb of a Dutch sailor of the period, with a cap of dark fur hanging over his brow. His features were sharp, harsh and diminutive, and his face was deadly pale, fringed by hair of a mixture of red and white. He called himself Hans Hickman, and professed himself to be a sea pilot. Having very little show of that becoming append- age, a beard, it was a somewhat difficult matter to cetermine what was the age of this individual; he might have been either a sickly youth, sinking pre- maturely into decrepitude, or a man in years, hale in constitution, but carrying little flesh. The most important feature that attracted notice was the‘‘eye”’ of Hans Hickman. Mark you, he had but one, and that of the description vulgarly denomi- nated a piercer. The right lid was partially closed, and the ball appeared to have been burnt out by a cautery of hot iron, or caustic medicine ; but his left eye, for the size of his puny face and head, was of unusual di- mensions, It was the eye of a tigress at bay, and a serpent, and in which the fiend-like glare of the animal mingled with the glazed and sunken scowl of the hideous and malignant reptile. It was further rendered odious by having lash neither above nor below it. So remarkable was this feature, that when you looked at its possessor, you seemed to look at the eye and nothing else. It was not Hans Hickman with one eye, but one eye with Hans Hickman attached to it. But, not- withstanding his peculiar aspect, he appeared very different from the common seaman he represented himself to be. His other features, although sharp, were very regular, and there was an air of superiority even in his fawning and obsequious character, which com- manded respect, while it impressed an indescribable awe. \ There was one of the pirate crew, more than all the rest, who looked upon Hans Hickman with wonder and amazement; this was Black Bill. The sudden apparition caused him to exclaim to him- self— ‘‘Can it be possible? I thought he was drowned when we went down in Table Bay.” ‘‘ How did you escape?” he continued, in a whis- per, addressing the little man, while the rest of the crew were debating what would be the best course to pursue with regard to him; for his preservation from the death which had befallen his companions had been looked upon as miraculous, and their late ad- venture with Vanderdecken had not diminished their wonted superstition. “Then you know me?” chuckled Hans, fixing his eye on Bill—whether in malice or satisfaction he could not tell. “Iam not eurprised at that; those who have had dealings with seldom forget me.”’ The pirate shrunk for a moment beneath the withering gaze of the red orb darted upon him ; but SOIMIECHOOKSEGCO in