“We continued our course till about the 18th in the morning, when we saw a number of birds, but no land. About twelve that day Parr said he was sure we must be past the island, accounting it to be eight hundred miles from St. Helena. We then each of us took our shirt, and with them made a small sprit-sail, and laced our jackets and trowsers together at the waistband, to keep us warm; and then altered our course to W. by N. thinking to make Rio de Janeiro, on the American coast. Provisions running very short, we allowanced ourselves only one ounce of bread for twenty-four hours, and two mouthfuls of water.
“We continued until the 20th, when all our provisions were expended. On the 27th, M’Quinn took a piece of bamboo in his mouth to chew, and we all followed his example. On that night, it being my turn to steer the boat, and remembering to have read of persons eating their shoes, I cut a piece off one of mine; but it being soaked with salt water, I was obliged to spit it out, and take the inside sole, which I ate part of, and distributed to the rest, but found no benefit from it.
“On the 1st of July, Parr caught a dolphin with a graff, that had been left in the boat. We all fell on our knees, and thanked God for his goodness to us. We tore up the fish, and hung it to dry: about four we ate part of it, which agreed with us pretty well. On this fish we subsisted till the 4th, about eleven o’clock, when, finding the whole expended, bones and all, Parr, myself, Brighouse, and Conway, proposed to scuttle the boat, and let her go down, to put us out of our misery. The other two objected, observing, that God who had made man, always found him something to eat.
“On the 5th, about eleven, M’Kinnon proposed, that it would be better to cast lots for one of us to die, in order to save the rest; to which we consented. William Parr, being sick two days before with the spotted fever, was excluded. He wrote the numbers out, and put them in a hat, which we drew out blindfolded, and put them in our pockets. Parr then asked whose lot it was to die—none of us knowing what numbers we had in our pockets—each one praying to God that it might be his lot. It was agreed that No. 5 should die, and the lots being unfolded, M’Kinnon’s was No. 5.