LONDON, AND VOYAGE TO SINGAPORE 305 



bundled indiscriminately into the boats, which, having been 

 so long in the sun, were very leaky and soon became half full 

 of water, so that two men in each of them had to be constantly 

 baling out the water with buckets. Blankets, rugs, pillows, 

 and clothes were all soaked, and the boats seemed overloaded, 

 though there was really very little weight in them. All being 

 now prepared, the crew were again employed pouring water 

 in the cabin and hatchway. 



" The cargo of the ship consisted of rubber, cocoa, anatto, 

 balsam-capivi, and piassaba. The balsam was in small casks, 

 twenty stowed in sand, and twenty small kegs in rice-chaff, 

 immediately beneath the cabin floor, where the fire seemed to 

 be. For some time we had heard this bubbling and hissing 

 as if boiling furiously, the heat in the cabin was very great, 

 flame soon broke into the berths and through the cabin floor, 

 and in a few minutes more blazed up through the skylight on 

 deck. All hands were at once ordered into the boats, which 

 were astern of the ship. It was now about twelve o'clock, 

 only three hours from the time the smoke was first discovered. 

 I had to let myself down into the boat by a rope, and being 

 rather weak it slipped through my hands and took the skin 

 off all my fingers, and finding the boat still half full of water 

 I set to baling, which made my hands smart very painfully. 

 We lay near the ship all the afternoon, watching the progress 

 of the flames, which soon covered the hinder part of the ves- 

 sel and rushed up the shrouds and sails in a most magnificent 

 conflagration. Soon afterwards, by the rolling of the ship, 

 the masts broke off and fell overboard, the decks soon burnt 

 away, the ironwork at the sides became red-hot, and last of all 

 the bowsprit, being burnt at the base, fell also. No one had 

 thought of being hungry till darkness came on, when we had 

 a meal of biscuit and raw ham, and then disposed ourselves as 

 well as we could for the night, which, you may be sure, was 

 by no means a pleasant one. Our boats continued very leaky, 

 and we could not cease an instant from baling; there was a 

 considerable swell, though the day had been remarkably fine, 

 and there were constantly floating around us pieces of the 

 burnt wreck, masts, etc., which might have stove in our boats 



