You see, the oar I grasped when Bruno came to give the alarm proved of inestimable value; and so all through my marvellous years of sojourn among the cannibals an undeniable Providence guided my every action.

But this will be seen from my narrative in a hundred amazing instances.

I climbed aboard the catamaran and paddled it into shallow water; and then, jumping overboard again I pulled it right up on to the beach, and carried the four blacks one by one into my hut.

They were in a most pitiable state of collapse.

Their tongues were swollen and protruding out of their mouths, and for a long time I could get nothing down their throats.
First of all I tried to revive them with cold water, but found they could not swallow.
Then I remembered the rum I had saved from the wreck all this time, and procuring some I rubbed their bodies with it, tied wet bandages round their necks, and rolled them about in wet sails, in the hope that in this way their bodies might absorb the necessary liquid.