The love of life
was awakened in his breast, and caused him to grasp involuntarily at
the ropes, but he had not strength enough to hold on. He again
sank, and it was only after great exertion that the brave sailors
succeeded in rescuing him from a watery grave. Hardly had he
recovered his senses ere he endeavoured to throw himself in again,
exclaiming that he had no wish to live. The man was raving mad, and
the captain was obliged to have him bound hand and foot, and chained
to the mast. On the following day he was deprived of his office,
and degraded to the rank of subordinate to a new steward.
5th January. Mostly calms. Our cook caught, today, a fish three
feet long, and remarkable for the manner in which it changed colour.
When it came out of the water it was a bright yellow, to which
colour it owes its name of Dorado. At the expiration of one or two
minutes the brilliant yellow changed into a light sky-blue, and
after its death its belly again turned to a beautiful light yellow,
but the back was a brownish green. It is reckoned a great delicacy,
but, for my own part, I found its flesh rather dry.
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