214? THE UKGKETTED WATCH. 



the frightful scene that we had dreaded and provided against, for our 

 own chance of escape, took place in all its horrors. Shrieks, prayers, 

 and denunciations instantly filled the air, and all for a moment 

 seemed to have forgotten that they had within reach similar means of 

 abandoning the vessel. Many threw themselves into the sea in des- 

 pair, and several swam off in hope of being taken into our boat only 

 oneof whom was allowed to join us, as our complement was even more 

 than exceeded. Not withstanding the exertions of the ere w r we had left on 

 board, seconded by some few of the male emigrants, not to overload 

 the two boats and the rafts, the moment they were launched the rush 

 to them became so general, that down they sank with their unequal 

 burthens, and were only recovered to be instrumental in hastening, 

 instead of preventing, destruction ; until, in the repeated conflicts for 

 life, they were either rendered altogether useless, or borne away un- 

 tenanted by the waves that were now cresting to the morning breeze. 



Destruction to all on board was now inevitable and immediate ; 

 and despair,, in all its innumerable moods and madnesses, now pervaded 

 all, undisguised and uncombatted. But despair, like other varieties 

 of insanity, is not without its cunning cunning which reason and 

 wisdom can neither parallel, comprehend, nor circumvent and infinite 

 were the schemes, individual and in concert, that were every moment 

 being made 'to escape from the doomed vessel, and which were 

 only frustrated by the quickness of detection on the part of others, 

 with less ingenuity, who, by rushing in crowds to seize on the same 

 means of possible salvation, hastened their own destruction, together 

 with that of the projectors, who might, by a possibility, have other- 

 wise, after a time, been picked up in safety from the ocean- desert 

 by some passing vessel, or thrown, by the current, 011 some friendly 

 beach. 



In this manner every barrel, chest, hen-coop, tub, spar, plank, and 

 basket that could be found every thing, in short, that could possibly 

 assist in preserving life upon the waters, had been launched with their 

 burthens, and, like the boats and rafts, immediately swamped by the 

 fatal additional weight of contending strugglers for the last chance of 

 existence. 



The scene that now ensued baffles all conception of the frightful 

 and piteous. Some, under the combined influence of madness and in- 

 toxication from liquor, were singing and dancing in the most grotesque 

 manner others howling up to the sky, or committing horrible excesses 

 at which the soul sickens. Some had arrayed themselves after the most 

 incongruous and fantastic fashion, and were parading the deck in all 

 the abandonment of idiotic vanity. Men, women, and children were 

 alternately screaming and filling their mouths with food. Mothers 

 were holding up their babes to heaven, or clasping them wildly to 

 their bosoms. Husbands and wives, parents and children, were 

 locked in each other's embraces, awaiting the approach of certain 

 and immediate death ; while, every now and then, others, unable 

 longer to endure the horrors of suspense, would throw themselves from 

 the rigging into the sea, seeking the danger they could not avoid. 

 One man, in order to escape a watery death, had hung himself from 

 the end of the broken bowsprit, and his lifeless body was dangling in 



