108 BREAKINO-UP OF THE VESSEL. 



passage through the mass of wreck, and being furnished 

 with oars, watched the proper moment and pushed off for 

 the coral reef, which she fortunately gained in safet}", but 

 they were all washed out of her in an instant by a tremen- 

 dous surf; yet out of more than sixty persons whom she 

 contained, only one man was drowned. Our captain, seeing 

 this, wished he had taken advice which was now of no use. 

 Finding I could no longer maintain myself on the same spar, 

 and seeing the captain in a very exhausted state, I en- 

 treated him to return to the wreck ; but he replied that 

 since we must all inevitably perish, I should not think of 

 him, but seek my own preservation. An enormous breaker 

 now burst on us with tremendous violence, so that I scarce- 

 ly knew what had occurred to him afterwards, being washed 

 down by successive seas. 



" At length, after most desperate efforts, I was thrown 

 on the reef, half drowned and severely cut by the sharp 

 coral, when I silently offered up thanks for my preservation^ 

 and crawling up the reef, waved my hand to encourage 

 those who remained behind to make an effort. The cap- 

 tain, however, was not to be seen, and most of the others 

 had returned to the wreck, and were employed in getting 

 the small cutter into the water, which they accomplished, 

 and safely reached the shore. About noon, when we had 

 all left the ship, she was entirely broken up. The whole of 

 the upper works — from the after-part of the forecastle to 

 the break of the poop-deck — had separated, and was driv- 

 ing in towards the reef. Most of the lighter cargo had 

 floated out of her : bales of cloth, cases of wine, puncheons 

 of spirits, barrels of gunpowder, hogsheads of beer, and 

 other articles, lay strewed on the shore, together with a 

 chest of tools. Finding the men beginning to commit the 

 usual excesses, we stove in the heads of the spirit-casks to 

 prevent mischief, and endeavored to direct their attention 

 to the general benefit. The tide was floAving fast and we 



