LOSS OF THE CENTAUR. 161 
my life to preserve them. This, indeed, was a painful con- 
flict, such as, I believe, no man can describe, nor any have a 
just idea of who has not been in a similar situation. 
The love of life prevailed. I called to Mr. Rainy, the mas- 
ter, the only officer upon deck, to follow me, and immediately 
descended into the boat at the after part of the chains, but not 
without great difficulty got the boat clear of the ship, twice 
the number that the boat would carry pushing to get in, and 
many jumpi;»g into the water. Mr. Baylis, a young gentle- 
man fifteen years of age, leaped from the chains, after the 
boat had got ofi*, and was taken in. The boat falling astern, 
became exposed to the sea, and we endeavored to pull her 
bow round to keep her to the break of the sea, and to pass 
to windward of the ship ; but in the attempt she was nearly 
filled, the sea ran too high, and the only probability of living 
was keeping her before the wind. 
It was then that I became sensible how little, if any, better 
our condition was than that of those who remained in the 
ship ; at best, it appeared to be only a prolongation of a mi- 
serable existence. We were, all together, twelve in number, 
in a leaky boat, with one of the gunwales staved, in nearly 
the middle of the Western Ocean, without a compass, without 
quadrant, without sail, without great-coat or cloak, all very 
thinly clothed, in a gale of wind, with a great sea running ! 
It was now five o'clock in the evening, and in half an hour 
\ye lost sight of the ship. Before it was dark a blanket was 
discovered in the boat. This was immediately bent to one of 
the stretches, and under it, as a sail, we scudded all night, in 
expectation of being swallowed up by every wave, it being 
with great difficulty that Ave could sometimes clear the boat of 
the water before the return of the next great sea ; all of us 
half drowned, and sitting, except those who bailed at the bot- 
tom of the boat ; and, without having really perished, I am 
sure no people ever endured more. In the morning the wea- 
ther grew moderate, the wind having shifted to the southward, 
as we discovered by the sun. Having survived the night, we 
began to recollect ourselves, and to think of our future pre- 
servation. 
When we quitted the ship the wind was at N. W. or N. N. 
W. Fayal had borne E. S. E. 250 or 260 leagues. Had 
the wind continued for five or six days, there was a probabili- 
ty that running before the sea, we might have fallen in with 
some one of the Western Islands. The change of wind was 
death to these hopes ; for, should it come to blow, we knew 
11* 
