The survivors were moving skeletons, more shadows and ghosts than
living men, with scarce strength left them to draw a rope or handle a
tiller. In some ships there was no water for fourteen days. The weather
in the lower latitudes lost part of its violence, or not one of them
would have seen Spain again. As it was they drifted on outside Scilly
and into the Bay of Biscay, and in the second week in September they
dropped in one by one. Recalde, with better success than the rest, made
Corunna. The Duke, not knowing where he was, found himself in sight of
Corunna also. The crew of the _San Martin_ were prostrate, and could not
work her in. They signalled for help, but none came, and they dropped
away to leeward to Bilbao. Oquendo had fallen off still farther to
Santander, and the rest of the sixty arrived in the following days at
one or other of the Biscay ports. On board them, of the thirty thousand
who had left those shores but two months before in high hope and
passionate enthusiasm, nine thousand only came back alive--if alive they
could be called. It is touching to read in a letter from Bilbao of their
joy at warm Spanish sun, the sight of the grapes on the white walls, and
the taste of fresh home bread and water again.
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