AN EVENTFUL VOYAGE 235 
they never felt the wind to blow so 4a though they have 
known a much higher sea. 
“The poor natives all came owdiee into the cabin, and 
we anxiously awaited the issue. I managed to get another 
reading of the barometer at 10:45. p. m., and to my horror 
saw that it was down to 28.82. I set the vernier at that, 
but I had no chance to take another reading. I think it 
probable that it fell a little lower than this. We were ex- 
pecting a shift of wind, and Captain Mansell was calling 
out continually: ‘Now then, now, my lads, look out; stand 
by the starboard main braces; look out for a shift;’ while 
the gale seemed to roar and mock at him, and at us all; but 
the good old brig still looked both wind and sea bravely in 
the face, and we were almost beginning to hope that we 
might weather through after all. 
“T had just started to try to get another reading of the 
barometer, when the gale struck her again with fresh fury. 
We felt the vessel give, as it were, a sudden leap from under 
us, and everything that was not lashed and secured broke 
adrift. I narrowly escaped being crushed by the harmo- 
nium, as it gave a mad leap right out of the cleats which 
had held it so long, and was pitched against the side of my 
cabin, which it stove in. The cargo and the ballast all 
shifted to leeward, and the poor ship was forced down un- 
der the water, and lay stricken and trembling there while 
the waters rushed aboard as with a shout of victory to take 
possession of the prize. 
“Never will any one who was on board ever forget that 
fearful sight. We all felt her settling down, and I climbed 
up the companion stairs, preferring to struggle and die in 
the open air rather than in the cabin. The whole of the 
poop deck on the port side up to the sky line and companion 
was under water, brightly phosphorescent in the thick dark- 
ness, and. foaming and hissing under the fury of the gale, 
while all the forepart and main deck of the ship on the same 
side was buried under the sea. No one could stand or face the 
