LOSS OF THE HERCULES. 59 
g-et her head toward the shore, and then to cut the cahle and 
the spring. His orders were obeyed with the greatest promp- 
titude. 
After running until within something less than half a mile 
of the shore, she stuck on a cluster of rocks. The swell at 
this moment was tremendous ; and from the ship's thumping 
so violently, it was scarcely possible for the men to hold on. 
In this situation she remained for about three or four minutes, 
when a sea took her over the rocks, and carried her about a 
cable's length nearer the shore, where she again struck, and 
kept heaving in with a dreadful surf, which every moment 
made a breach over her. 
The lashings that held the raft having given way, and the 
spars carried to a considerable distance from the ship, they 
lost all hope from that quarter. At length one of the crew, 
_who was a black, plunged into the waves, and, by exertions 
which seemed more than human, gained and seated himself 
on the raft. He scarcely remained in that situation for ten 
minutes, when the whole was turned over and the man com- 
pletely enveloped in the sea. In a few moments, however, 
they perceived him in his former seat. Again he endured a 
similar misfortune ; and a third succeeded. Still he buffeted 
the waves and gained the raft until at length, after suffering 
two hours of fatigue, which, until then, the captain could not 
possibly imagine human nature could survive, he drifted on 
The natives, who had kindled several fires, appeared in 
great numbers on the shore. They were mostly clothed in 
skins, armed with spears, and accompanied by a vast number 
of dogs. A party of them seized the man who had landed, 
and conducted him behind the sand-hills that line the coast, 
and which hid him entirely from their view. 
Twelve of the crew now launched themselv^es on different 
spars, and whatever pieces of timber they could find. They 
braved all difficulties, and at last gained the land. No sooner 
had they reached the beach than the natives came down, seiz- 
ed and conducted them behind the sand-hills. As it Vv^as im- 
possible for them who remained on board to discover what 
they were about, and observing several parties of the natives 
appear at different times on the shore, but not accompanied 
by any of the people, they conceived all those who had landed 
were massacred, and that a similar fate awaited the whole of 
them. They who had remained on board the ship were 
obliged to shelter themselves in the forecastle, as the wreck, 
