Chapter 22

Father of all! In every age,
In every clime, adored;
By saint, by savage, or by sage--
Jehovah! Jove! or Lord!

Pope.

Feeling the necessity of possessing all my strength I ate a breakfast
before I commenced work. It was with a heavy heart, and but little
appetite, that I took this solitary meal; but I felt that its effects were
good. When finished, I knelt on the deck, and prayed to God, fervently,
asking his divine assistance in my extremity. Why should an old man, whose
race is nearly run, hesitate to own, that in the pride of his youth and
strength, he was made to feel how insufficient we all are for our wants?
Yes, I prayed; and I hope in a fitting spirit, for I felt that this
spiritual sustenance did me even more good than the material of which I
had just before partaken. When I rose from my knees, it was with a sense
of hope, that I endeavoured to suppress a little, as both unreasonable and
dangerous. Perhaps the spirit of my sainted sister was permitted to look
down on me, in that awful strait, and to offer up its own pure petitions
in behalf of a brother she had so warmly loved. I began to feel myself
less alone, and the work advanced the better from this mysterious sort of
consciousness of the presence of the souls of those who had felt an
interest in me, while in the body.

My first measure was to lead the jib-stay, which had parted near the head
of its own mast, to the head of the main-mast. This I did by bending on a
piece of another rope. I then got up the halyards, and loosened and set
the jib; a job that consumed quite two hours. Of course, this sail did not
set very well, but it was the only mode I had of getting forward canvass
on the ship at all. As soon as the jib was set, in this imperfect manner,
I put the helm up, and got the ship before the wind. I then hauled out the
spanker, and gave it sheet. By these means, aided by the action of the
breeze on the hull and spars, I succeeded in getting something like three
knots' way on the ship, keeping off a little northerly, in which
direction I felt sensible it was necessary to proceed in quest of the
spars. I estimated the drift of the wreck at a knot an hour, including the
good and moderate weather; and, allowing for that of the ship itself, I
supposed it must be, by that time, some twelve miles to leeward of
me. These twelve miles I managed to run by noon, when I hauled up
sufficiently to bring the wind abeam, heading northwardly. As
the ship would now steer herself, that is as small as it was necessary for
me to go, I collected some food, took a glass, and went up into the
main-top, to dine, and to examine the ocean.

The anxious, anxious hours I passed in that top! Not an object of any sort
appeared on the