70 # LOSS OF THE THETIS. Dec. 



hope of further communication with the land was suspended. 

 Every effort that could be made to convey a rope to the shore 

 was attempted in vain, until Mr. Geach, the boatswain, went 

 out on the stump of the bowsprit, and by the help of two 

 belaying-pins, succeeded in throwing the end of a small rope 

 to the rocks, by which a large one was immediately hauled 

 ashore, and then kept as much stretched as the strength of the 

 men wlio had landed would allow. On this larger rope each 

 man was slung, in his turn, and hauled by the small one 

 through the surf to a rough craggy rock. Mr. Geach and 

 John Langley, the captain of the forecastle, were among the 

 last to leave the ship, having almost exhausted themselves in 

 slinging their shipmates. 



As day-light broke, the last man was hauled ashore. Many 

 were terribly bruised and lacerated by the fall of the masts, or 

 during these struggles for life, and twenty-five persons perished. 

 Some of the officers made their way to a small village near 

 Cape Frio, and obtained horses, and a guide who conducted 

 them to Rio de Janeiro, where the melancholy news was com- 

 municated to the commander-in-chief. The captain, the other 

 officers, and the crew, remained near the place of the wreck, 

 waiting for assistance. 



An adequate cause for so great an error in the reckoning of 

 only nineteen hours as that which occasioned the loss of this 

 fine ship and twenty-five souls, besides the personal property of 

 those on board, and a large freight of treasure, is not difficult 

 to find, even without supposing the compasses to have been in 

 error, or affected by local attraction, which, by the way, would 

 in this case have operated in the ship''s favour. 



The vicinity of Cape Frio, one of the most salient promon- 

 tories on the coast of Brazil, cannot be supposed exempt from 

 currents ; set in motion either by temporary causes, such as 

 strong or lasting winds ; or by the varying pressure of the 

 atmosphere upon different portions of the ocean : — or from 

 tidal streams, more or less strong. 



