.... and you might have seen
The longings of the cannibal arise
(Although they spoke not) in their wolfish eyes.--BYRON.

They must now either taste human flesh or perish--there was no
alternative.

A young man who had died the previous night was selected to be food
for the rest.[9] Most of them had not power to masticate or to
swallow--

For every tongue, through utter drought,
Was withered at the root.
COLERIDGE (_Ancient Mariner_).


Before evening death had made fearful ravages, and had numbered
amongst its victims Captain Palmer and the first lieutenant.

Another night came on; long and anxiously had they gazed upon the
horizon--in vain had they strained their blood-shot eyes to see some
vessel coming to their relief. The shades of night closed round them,
and sadly they awaited the dawn of another day, resolving that if they
lived to see it they would construct a raft and commit themselves to
the waves, rather than remain to die of hunger and thirst.
Accordingly, at daylight they began to put their plan into execution
by fastening some of the larger spars together, and in a few hours the
raft was completed. The eventful moment for launching it arrived, when
with bitter grief and disappointment they beheld the work of their
hands, which it had cost them so much labour to achieve, dashed to