242 EVIDENCES OF A SIIIPAVRECK. 



bent on to tlic larboard anchor, so as to be ready to 

 let go in case of emergency. In tlio bay we found 

 at anchor the barque Margaret, of Liverpool, from 

 Adelaide for Manritins. She had sprung her miz- 

 zenmast in the recent severe westerly gale, and, the 

 wind being directly in her teeth, she put in here for 

 shelter. On o-ctting into the sound they found that 

 the Prince of Wales had sailed for Callao, and there- 

 fore her crew were at libert}'. Alost of the hangers- 

 on that had composed part of the population, when 

 we last were here, had departed in the American 

 ship Kensington. This ship had as passengers three 

 hundred Chinamen, who intended landing at some 

 port in these colonies; but, on account of a legis- 

 lative enactment forbidding the ingress of these peo- 

 ple into the countr}', she had already met with great 

 difficulty in getting rid of them. 



A day or two before our arrival, the natives came 

 into the town,- with portions of cotton canvass, and 

 numbers of spermaceti candles. They reported that 

 fragments of casks and barrels were strewed around 

 the beach in every direction. The fact of her carry- 

 ins: cotton canvass au<i-urs that the wreck must have 

 been an American vessel, as those of other nations 

 carry hemp almost exclusively. These evidences of 

 shipwreck were found on a part of the coast contigu- 

 ous to the White Top Rocks, which is justly ac- 

 counted a most dangerous locality, and has in more 

 than one instance been the theater of similar dis- 

 asters. 



And now I shall touch on another subject, which 

 reflects but little credit on the parties concerned, 

 either as Americans, or as honest men. It is simply 



