MEMOIR. 



ing observed a slight smoke blowing toward them from the 

 centre of the boat. She spoke of it, rose/ and said they 

 had better go into the cabin. Her husband replied, no, 

 that they were as safe where they then were as any where. 

 Mrs. Downing, however, went into the cabin where her 

 mother was sitting, knitting, with her daughter by her 

 side. There was little time to say any thing. The smoke 

 rapidly increased ; all who could reach it hurried into the 

 cabin. The thickening smoke poured in after the crowd, 

 who were nearly suffocated. 



The dense mass choked the door, and Mr. Down- 

 ing's party instinctively rushed to the cabin windows to 

 escape. They climbed through them to the narrow pas- 

 sage between the cabin and the bulwarks of the boat, 

 the crowd pressing heavily, shouting, crying, despairing, 

 and suffocating in the smoke that now fell upon them 

 in black clouds. Suddenly Mr. Downing said, " They are 

 running her ashore, and we shall all be taken off." He 

 led them round to the stern of the boat, thinking to escape 

 more readily from the other side, but there saw a person 

 upon the shore waving them back, so they returned to 

 their former place. The flames began now to crackle and 

 roar as they crept along the woodwork from the boiler, and 

 the pressure of the throng toward the stern was frightful. 

 Mr. Downing was seen by his wife to step upon the railing, 

 with his coat tightly buttoned, ready for a spring upon the 

 upper deck. At that moment she was borne away by the 

 crowd and saw him no more. Their friend, who had been 

 conversing with Mr. Downing, was calm but pale with 

 alarm. " What will become of us ? " said one of these 

 women, in this frightful extremity of peril, as they held 

 each other's hands and were removed from all human help. 

 " May God have mercy upon us," answered the other. 



