214 LOSS OF THE MAGPIE. 
of the men grasped their dying officer and placed him in the 
stern sheets. Even now, in almost insupportable agony, that 
gallant fellow forgot his own sufferings, and thought only on 
rescuing the remaining few from the untimely grave which 
awaited them. He told them again of their only hope, de- 
plored their perilous state, and concluded with these words: 
" If any of you survive this fatal night, and return to Jamai- 
ca, tell the admiral (Sir Laurence Halstead) that I was in 
search of the pirate when this lamentable occurrence took 
place ; tell him, I hope I have always done my duty, and that 
I" — here the endeavor of some of the men to get into the 
boat gave her a heel on one side ; the men who were sup- 
porting poor Smith relinquished him for a moment, and he 
rolled overboard and was drowned. His last bubbling cry 
was soon lost amidst the shrieks of his former companions — 
he sunk to rise no more. Could he have been saved, his life 
would have been irksome ; and, but for the time which even 
the best desire to make atonement for the sins and errors of 
early life — to offer their contrite prayers to the throne of grace 
— to implore that salvation we all hope for, and none of them- 
selves can claim — he had better have died as he did, than 
live to be dependent on others ; to hear the peevish complaint 
of his attendants, or to sigh for pleasures he could never en- 
joy, or for comforts he could never obtain. With him died 
every hope., All but two of the crew gave way to loud exe- 
crations and cursings. Some, who had not been so seriously 
injured by the monsters of the deep, endeavored to get upon 
the keel of the boat, which was again upset ; but, worn out 
with excessive fatigue, and smarting under the keen pain, 
they gave up the chance of safety, and were eaten up by the 
sharks ; or, courting death, which appeared inevitable, they 
threw themselves from their only support and were drowned. 
At eight o'clock in the evening the Magpie was upset ; it 
was calculated by the two survivors that their companions 
had all died by nine. The sharks seemed satisfied for the 
moment ; and they with gallant hearts resolved to profit by 
the precious time in order to save themselves. They righted 
the boat, and one getting over the bows and the other over 
the stern, they found themselves, although nearly exhausted, 
yet alive and in comparative security. They began the work 
of bailing, and soon lightened the boat sufficiently not to be 
easily upset, when both sat down to rest. The return of the 
sharks was the signal for their return to labor. The vora- 
cious monsters endeavored to upset the boat. They swam 
