THE KRAKEN. 359 



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 state- 

 ment of Captain Jean Magnus Dens, said to have been 



were these ships, left Port Royal for England, under the command of 

 Admiral Graves in the " Ramilies." They encountered several very 

 heavy gales of wind, and on the i6th of September, in lat. 42 15', 

 long. 48 55', a storm set in which lasted several days. About 3 A.M. 

 on the 1 7th, the wind, which had been blowing from S.E., suddenly 

 shifted, and a brief lull was succeeded by a most violent squall, with 

 furious rain from N.N.W., which is described as " exceeding in degree 

 everything of the kind that the oldest seaman in the fleet had ever 

 seen, or had any conception of." The " Ramilies " went to the bottom 

 soon after 4 P.M. on the 2ist. Most of her crew were saved. The 

 " Centaur " foundered on the night of the 23rd, in lat. 48 32', long. 43 20'. 

 Her captain, Inglefield, and eleven of her people, in the pinnace, left 

 her in a sinking state about rive o'clock on that evening, and, after 

 suffering severely for sixteen days, 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 an open boat. The Glorieux and the Ville de 

 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 Jason, escaped with 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, converging 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 poulpes. 

 His pretended history, as well as his ingenious, but disingenuous theory, 

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

 is absurd. 



