GIGANTIC CUTTLE-FISHES. 105 



I have been told, but cannot vouch for the truth of the report, 

 that De Montfort's propensity to write that which was not true, 

 culminated in his committing forgery, and that he died in the 

 galleys. But he records a statement of Captain Jean Magnus 

 Dens, said to have been a respectable and veracious man, who, 

 after having made several voyages to China as master of a trader, 

 retired from a seafaring life and lived at Dunkirk. He told De 

 Montfort that in one of his voyages, whilst crossing from St. 

 Helena to Cape Negro, he was becalmed, and took advantage of 

 the enforced idleness of the crew to have the vessel scraped and 

 painted. Whilst three of his men were standing on planks slung 

 over the side, an enormous cuttle-fish rose from the water, and 

 threw one of its arms around two of the sailors, whom it tore 

 away, with the scaffolding on VN'hich they stood. With another 

 arm it seized the third man, who held on tightly to the rigging, 

 and screamed for help. His shipmates ran to his assistance, and 

 succeeded in rescuing him by cutting away the creature's arm 



Inglefield, and eleven of her people, in the jDinnace, left her in a sinking state 

 about five o'clock on that evening, and after suffering severely for sixteen da)-s, 

 in the course of which one man, Thomas ]Matthews, quartermaster, died from 

 cold and exposure, they landed at Fayall in an exhausted condition, having 

 made a voyage of more than 750 miles in a open boat. The " Gloriaix''' and 

 the ' ' Viltc di Paris '"' also sank during the gale, and only one man of the crew 

 of the latter vessel was saved, having been picked up on some floating wreck. 

 His name was John Wilson, and he gave evidence at Portsmouth concerning 

 the disaster on the 22nd of March, 1783. The '' Caton," "Canada," 

 *^ Ardent,^^ and ^^ yason^^ escaped v.-ith loss of spars and other damage. The 

 ** Hector^'' was*attacked by two French frigates, left by them in a crippled 

 condition, and sank — many of the crew being saved by the " Hawkesnow," 

 letter of marque. These are well-attested facts. De Montfort's fabulous 

 statement was, that on the night following the battle, the " Ville de Paris''' 

 fired minute guns and made other signals of extreme distress, and that in 

 consequence of this nine other men-of-war bore down to her assistance, con- 

 verging on her as a common focus, and were all simultaneously involved in her 

 mournful fate — that of being dragged beneath the yawning waves by enormous 

 poidpcs. His pretended histoiy, as well as his ingenious, but disingenuous 

 theory, was drawn from his imagination ; and the one is as false as the other is 

 absurd. 



