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By daylight the dead were seen sprawling grotesquely around on the raft The stage was set for the next hideous act of thesailors and soldiers looked on incredulously, the convicts began cutting up and devouring their forhtmare

Ra survivors and was shocked to see that only 78 out of the 231 were still alive In the senseless battle, 109 convicts had perished Five of Sheppard's soldiers had vanished, presumably thrown overboard, and Ra It seemed inconceivable that so few could have subdued so many, but the convicts were not trained for cohened by hard work at sea as Scaggs' crew

The raft rode noticeably higher in the water now that its passenger list was sharply scaled down by 126 or so Those parts of the corpses not eaten by thesharks Unable to stop thes restrained his revulsion and looked the other way as his crewan cutting the flesh from three of the bodies

Dorsett and Betsy and h weakened by the relentless tor themselves to survive on the flesh of others A rain squall caer pangs never let up

Ramsey came over and spoke to Dorsett "The captain would like a ith you"

The highway, his back against the aftup the captain's rib cage with a torn shirt Before the dead were rolled into the sea, the ship's surgeon stripped the bodies of their clothes to use as bandages

Scaggs looked up at Dorsett, his face taut with pain

"I want to thank you, Mr Dorsett, for your ti I daresay the honest people who are still left on this hellish vessel owe their lives to you"

"I've led a wicked life, Captain, but I don'trabble"

"When we reach New South Wales, I'll do overnor to commute your sentence"

"I'rateful to you, Captain I'm under your orders"

Scaggs stared at the small knife that was shoved into Dorsett's belt-sash "Is that your only weapon?"

"Yes, sir It perforht"

"Give hih with those dogs yet"

"I agree," said Dorsett "They'll not have the sains to lead theive up They'll try again after dark