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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Meantime the heavy guns,- that had been 

 cast adrift in a vain attempt to throw 

 them overboard to hghten the ship when 

 she grounded, were running riot. With 

 every "send" of the sea the guns rushed 

 madly from side to side, crushing every- 

 thing, animate or inanimate, in their 

 path, and strewing the deck with bloody 

 victims. There is nothing more to be 

 dreaded than a gun on an old-time mount 

 adrift in a seaway; it seems possessed of 

 a demon, and baffles ordinary means of 

 control. Some of the "America's" spars 

 had been carried away and still further 

 lumbered her deck, and. worse than all, 

 fire had broken out near the engine-room 

 and threatened the after powder maga- 

 zine. 



A HEROIC MIDSHIPMAN 



Finding the Peruvians so panic-stricken 

 as to be of no use, our gallant young mid- 

 shipman, only a lad of i8, quickly took 

 command, with his crew of 13 men. Mak- 

 ing a line fast around his waist, he was 

 lowered into the burning hold and flooded 

 the powder magazine ; then by choking 

 the rampant guns with masses of ham- 

 mocks piled on them he soon had them 

 secured, extinguished the fire, and, after 

 quieting the natives, calmly awaited 

 events. 



No one born under our glorious flag 

 could help feeling proud of the courage, 

 discipline, and self-reliance displayed by 

 our officers and men at this awful test of 

 bravery and fidelity to duty. While the 

 crew of the Peruvian ship was simply an 

 ungovernable mob, whose cries pierced 

 the air, our men stood in battle array, 

 grouped around the guns, every man at 

 his station, ready to obey any order given 

 by the keen-eyed first lieutenant ; not a 

 word spoken or a movement made, except 

 when a sharp command called for instant 

 obedience ! 



When men are taught self-discipline 

 and control, as were our sailors during 

 the four years of battle and storm which 

 we had just passed through in our Civil 

 War, not even nature's greatest convul- 

 sions can shake their nerve, and in this 

 awful test of courage they determined 

 if they could not live they would at least 

 emulate the example of the heroes of the 



''Predonia" and show how American 

 sailors could die. 



the; grave;s give; up their dead 



As the last rays of the setting sun fell 

 on the heights of the Andes, we saw to 

 our horror that the graves, where the 

 ancients had entombed their dead, on the 

 sloping side of the mountain, had opened, 

 and in concentric rows, like chairs in an 

 amphitheater, the mummies of the long- 

 buried and forgotten aborigines rose to 

 the surface. They had been buried in a 

 sitting posture, facing the sea. The soil, 

 impregnated with niter, had thoroughly 

 preserved them, and the violent shocks 

 disintegrating the dry earth was now ex- 

 posing this long-buried, frightful city of 

 the dead. W^ords cannot paint the ghast- 

 liness of the scene. In addition to what 

 we had already experienced, to our ex- 

 cited imagination it seemed as if the day 

 of judgment had come, the earth was 

 passing away, and the bitterness of a 

 death so full of terrors as no imagination 

 can conceive was now to befall us. 



It had now been dark for some time 

 and we knew not where we were, the 

 absence of the usual beacon and shore 

 lights adding to our confusion. About 

 8.30 p. m. the lookout hailed the deck 

 and reported a breaker approaching. 

 Looking seaward, we saw, first, a thin line 

 of phosphorescent light, which loomed 

 higher and higher until it seemed to touch 

 the sky ; its crest, crowned with the death 

 light of phosphorescent glow, showing the 

 sullen masses of water below. Heralded 

 by the thundering roar of a thousand 

 breakers combined, the dreaded tidal 

 wave was upon us at last. Of all the 

 horrors of this dreadful time, this seemed 

 the worst. Chained to the spot, helpless 

 to escape, with all the preparations made 

 which human skill could susrs^est, we could 

 but watch the monster wave approach 

 without the sustaining help of action. 

 That the ship could ride through the 

 masses of water about to overwhelm us 

 seemed impossible. We could only grip 

 the life-line and wait the coming catas- 

 trophe. 



AT EAST THE TIDAL WAVE 



With a crash our gallant ship was over- 

 whelmed and buried deep beneath a semi- 



