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A new insurrection to destroy the raft, broke out on the fourth night; this too, was marked by perfidy, and ended in blood.  Most of the rebels were thrown into the sea.  The fifth morning mustered but thirty men alive; and these sick and wounded, with the skin of their lower extremities corroded by the salt water.  Two soldiers were detected drinking the wine of the only remaining cask; they were instantly thrown into the sea.  One boy died, and there remained only twenty-seven; of whom fifteen only seemed likely to live.  A council of war, preceded by the most horrid despair, was held; as the weak consumed a part of the common store, they determined to throw them into the sea.  This sentence was put into immediate execution! and all the arms on board, which now filled their minds with horror, were, with the exception of a single sabre, committed to the deep.  Distress and misery increased with an accelerated ratio; and even after the desperate means of destroying their companions, and eating the most nauseous aliments, the surviving fifteen could not hope for more than a few days’ existence.  A butterfly lighted on their sail the ninth day, and though it was held to be a messenger of good, yet many a greedy eye was cast upon it.

Three days more passed over in inexpressible anguish, when they constructed a smaller and more manageable raft, in the hope of directing it to the shore; but on trial it was found insufficient.  On the seventeenth day, a brig was seen; which, after exciting the vicissitude of hope and fear, proved to be the Argus, sent out in quest of the Medusa.  The inhabitants of the raft were all received on board, and were again very nearly perishing, by a fire which broke out in the night.  The six boats which had so cruelly cast them adrift, reached the coast of Africa in safety; and after many dangers among the Moors, the survivors arrived at St. Louis.

After this, a vessel was dispatched to the wreck of the Medusa, to carry away the money and provisions; after beating about for eight days, she was forced to return.  She again put to sea, but after being away five days, again came back.  Ten days more were lost in repairing her; and she did not reach the spot till fifty-two days after the vessel had been lost; and dreadful to relate, three miserable sufferers were found on board.  Sixty men had been abandoned there by their magnanimous countrymen.  All these had been carried off except seventeen, some of whom were drunk, and others refused to leave the vessel.  They remained at peace as long as their provisions lasted.  Twelve embarked on board a raft, for Sahara, and were never more heard of.  Another put to sea on a hen-coop, and sunk immediately.  Four remained behind, one of whom, exhausted with hunger and fatigue, perished.  The other three lived in separate corners of the wreck, and never met but to run at each other with drawn knives.  They were put on board the vessel, with all that could be saved from the wreck of the Medusa.