When I returned again to life , the same uproar , the same confused and violent movements , shook and deafened me ; and presently , to my other pains and distresses , there was added the sickness of an unused landsman on the sea . In that time of my adventurous youth , I suffered many hardships ; but none that was so crushing to my mind and body , or lit by so few hopes , as these first hours aboard the brig. I heard a gun fire , and supposed the storm had proved too strong for us , and we were firing signals of distress . The thought of deliverance , even by death in the deep sea , was welcome to me . Yet it was no such matter ; but -LRB- as I was afterwards told -RRB- a common habit of the captain 's , which I here set down to show that even the worst man may have his kindlier side . We were then passing , it appeared , within some miles of Dysart , where the brig was built , and where old Mrs. Hoseason , the captain 's mother , had come some years before to live ; and whether outward or inward bound , the Covenant was never suffered to go by that place by day , without a gun fired and colours shown . I had no measure of time ; day and night were alike in that ill-smelling cavern of the ship 's bowels where I lay ; and the misery of my situation drew out the hours to double . How long , therefore , I lay waiting to hear the ship split upon some rock , or to feel her reel head foremost into the depths of the sea , I have not the means of computation . But sleep at length stole from me the consciousness of sorrow . I was awakened by the light of a hand-lantern shining in my face . A small man of about thirty , with green eyes and a tangle of fair hair , stood looking down at me . `` Well , '' said he , `` how goes it ? '' I answered by a sob ; and my visitor then felt my pulse and temples , and set himself to wash and dress the wound upon my scalp . `` Ay , '' said he , `` a sore dunt * . What , man ? Cheer up ! The world 's no done ; you 've made a bad start of it but you 'll make a better . Have you had any meat ? '' * Stroke . I said I could not look at it : and thereupon he gave me some brandy and water in a tin pannikin , and left me once more to myself . The next time he came to see me , I was lying betwixt sleep and waking , my eyes wide open in the darkness , the sickness quite departed , but succeeded by a horrid giddiness and swimming that was almost worse to bear .
I ached , besides , in every limb , and the cords that bound me seemed to be of XXXXX .
* Dysart Stroke betwixt colours fire hours landsman night storm