IV 



Shipwreck 8 5 



the reefs in the darkness, we put about with the 

 intention of laying off till the morning. About nine 

 o'clock Pembroke had gone to bed, and I was 

 walking aft in the cabin when I felt the ship strike 

 under my feet, the planking heaving with the blow. 

 I called Pembroke, and we rushed on deck to see, 

 but when we got there see we could not. The night 

 was awful, the seas breaking over us, and when one 

 bigger than usual came, it caught us up and threw 

 us farther on the reef. 



' We were, I must say, all of us as cool as 

 cucumbers. We immediately lowered the boats, 

 with much difficulty getting them over the side of 

 the ship opposite to where the sea was breaking, 

 where, though much knocked about, they were com- 

 paratively safe. Then there was nothing to do but 

 to wait ; and that waiting was not very pleasant, 

 for we feared that we should be driven over the reef 

 into deep water, where the ship would have gone 

 down immediately.^ However, at last the sea seemed 

 to lose its power, having driven us up as far as it 

 could reach, and we went below. It was a miserable 

 sight to see all our countless treasures hurling about 

 in the cabin, and to hear the cracking and crashing 

 of the poor old ship ; but there was no help for it, 

 and we did the best we could till daybreak. When 

 that came we found that we had been thrown about 

 one hundred and fifty yards over the reef, and that 



^ ' The noise of the rollers on the reef where we were wrecked was 

 very like the falling of great trees.' — South Sea Bubbles, p. 287. 



