Preservation of Quirini on the Coast of Norway, and Residence In the Isle
of Rostoe.
As they had no rope with, which to make fast their boat to the shore and
prevent it from being dashed to pieces, they remained in it the whole
night. Next day at dawn, sixteen weak, miserable and exhausted wretches,
the sad remains of forty-seven who had originally taken refuge in the large
boat, went on shore and laid themselves down in the snow. Hunger, however,
soon obliged them to examine if there might not remain some of the
provisions which they had brought with them from the ship: All they found
was a very small ham, an inconsiderable remnant of cheese, and some biscuit
dust in a bag, mixed with the dung of mice. These they warmed by means of a
small fire, which they made of the boat seats, and in some measure appeased
their hunger. On the following day, having convinced themselves beyond
doubt that the rock on which they then were was quite desert and
uninhabited, they resolved to quit it in hopes of being able to reach some
inhabited island, or part of the adjacent coast of Norway; but, after
filling five small casks with snow water, and getting into the boat to put
their resolution into execution, the water ran in torrents through all the
seams, and the boat went to the bottom immediately, so that they were
forced to get on shore again quite drenched in the sea. During the whole of
the preceding long night, the boat had been beating against the rock, which
had loosened its planks and opened all the seams. Despairing now of any
relief, as they were utterly destitute of any means to repair their boat,
they constructed two small tents of their oars and sails, to shelter
themselves from the weather, and hewed the materials of their boat in
pieces to make a fire to warm themselves. The only food they were able to
procure consisted in a few muscles and other shell-fish, which they picked
up along the shore. Thirteen of the company were lodged in one of the
tents, and three in the other. The smoke of the wet wood caused their faces
and eyes to swell so much that they were afraid of becoming totally blind;
and, what added prodigiously to their sufferings, they were almost devoured
by lice and maggots, which they threw by handfuls into the fire. The
secretary of Quirini had the flesh on his neck eaten bare to the sinews by
these vermin, and died in consequence; besides him, three Spaniards of a
robust frame of body likewise died, who probably lost their lives in
consequence of having drank sea water while in the boat; and so weak were
the thirteen who still remained alive, that during three days they were
unable to drag away the dead bodies from the fire side.
Eleven days after landing on this rock or uninhabited island, Quirini's
servant, having extended his search for shellfish, their only food, quite
to the farthest point of the island, found a small wooden house, both in
and around which he observed some cow-dung.
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