96 LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 



lello sailors say, that he had got hold of the captain's hand after he 

 had fallen into the sea, but that the weight was too much for him; 

 and so the poor captain sank to the bottom and perished there. 



" Mr Frederick Massey, first engineer on board of the Pollux, per- 

 formed an act of courage which ought to be made known to the 

 public. He had effected his escape from the sinking vessel into the 

 Monjibello, but reflecting that the boiler of the former might explode 

 and cause additional horrors, he went back to her, and eased the 

 safety-valve, at the time when the engine-room was filling fast with 

 water. Having performed this eminent service, the gallant fellow 

 got safely back again on board the Monjibello. 



" The two steamers were now at a short distance from each other. 

 I kept a steadfast eye on the shattered Pollux, knowing that her 

 final catastrophe must be close at hand. She went down stern fore- 

 most, but she hesitated a while in the act of sinking, as though un- 

 willing to disappear for ever. This momentary and unexpected 

 pause gave us some hopes that she might remain waterlogged ; and 

 I said to a gentleman standing by me, I do not despair of seeing her 

 at to-morrow's dawn. But she tarried only for a few minutes. Her 

 forepart then appeared to rise up perpendicularly. She sank gradu- 

 ally lower and lower. We saw her last light extinguished in the 

 water ; and then all was still, for there was no wind in the heavens \ 

 and so easy was her descent into the ' chambers of the deep,' that 

 it caused no apparent temporary whirlpool on the place which she 

 had just occupied. Thus foundered the Pollux steamer, with all her 

 goods and property on board. Not a spar, not a plank, not a rem- 

 nant of anything was left behind her. Many were of opinion that she 

 floated not more than ten minutes from the time that she received 

 her deathblow ; others again conjectured that she remained a short 

 half hour : probably, some sixteen or eighteen minutes will not be 

 far from the mark. All our hopes of safety now depended upon the 

 Monjibello. But the worst was apprehended, knowing that she her- 

 self must have received a tremendous shock at the time that she ran 

 the Pollux on board. The general perturbation was much increased 

 by a sudden report that the Monjibello was actually sinking, and a 

 demand was immediately made by the passengers to be put on shore 

 at the nearest point of land. 



