170 LOSS, BY FIRE, OF THE PRINCE. 
I am full of water, and it is only a prolongation of my suffer- 
ings." " No, my friend, (said ],) we will die together when 
my strength forsakes me." In his pious company I awaited 
death with perfect resignation. I remained in this situation 
three hours, and saw one of the ladies fall off the mast with 
fatigue, and perish ; she was too far distant for me to give her 
any assistance. 
When I least expected it, I perceived the yawl close to us ; 
it was then five o'clock, P. M. I cried out to the men in 
her that I was their lieutenant, and begged permission to 
share our misfortune Avith them. They gave me leave to 
come on board, upon condition that I would swim lo them. 
It was their interest to have a conductor, in order to discover 
land ; and for this reason my company was too necessary for 
them to refuse my request. The condition they imposed 
upon me was perfectly reasonable ; they acted prudently not 
to approach, as the others would have been equally anxious 
to enter their little bark ; and we should all have been buried 
together in a watery grave. Mustering, therefore, all my 
strength, I was so fortunate as to reach the boat. Soon after- 
ward I observed the pilot and master, whom I had left on the 
main-mast, follow my example ; they swam for the yaAvl, 
and we took them in. This little bark was the means of sav- 
ing the ten persons who alone escaped out of nearly three 
hundred. 
The flames still continued to consume our ship, from which 
we were not more than half a league distant: our too great 
proximity might prove pernicious, and we, therefore, pro- 
ceeded a little to windward. Not long after, the fire commu- 
nicated to the powder-room, and it is impossible to describe 
the noise with which our vessel blew up. A thick cloud in- 
tercepted the light of the sun ; amidst this horrid darkness 
we could perceive nothing but large pieces of flaming wood 
projecting into the air, and whose fall threatened to dash to 
pieces numbers of unhappy vrretches still struggling with the 
agonies of death. We ourselves were not quite out of dan- 
ger ; it was not impossible but that one of the flaming frag- 
ments might reach us, and precipitate our frail vessel to the 
bottom. The Almighty, however, preserved us from that mis- 
fortune ; but what a 'spectacle now presented itself! The 
vessel had disappeared ; its fragments covered the sea to a 
great distance, and floated in all directions with our unfortu- 
nate companions, whose despair and whose lives had been 
terminated together by their fall. We saw some completely 
L 
