A child might have read their dismal story, and yet it was not until I touched that actual piece of mankind that the full horror of the charnel ocean burst upon my spirit.

I laid the bone beside the buckle, picked up my clothes, and ran as I was along the rocks towards the human shore.

I could not be far enough from the spot; no fortune was vast enough to tempt me back again.

The bones of the drowned dead should henceforth roll undisturbed by me, whether on tangle or minted gold.

But as soon as I trod the good earth again, and had covered my nakedness against the sun, I knelt down over against the ruins of the brig, and out of the fulness of my heart prayed long and passionately for all poor souls upon the sea.