ROLLERS. 
391 
had been given that there was not even time to remove the ship- 
keepers who were on hoard of the slave ships. Some of them 
escaped to other ships in the roadstead ; hut as the Descobrador 
struck the beach broadside on, and sea after sea broke over hei, 
the keeper, with his wife and a Lascar servant, were seen hold- 
ing on by the rails of the vessel, appealing for help. Whi e 
they remained in this perilous position, Mr. Ohatfield, of H.M.S. 
Flying Fish, attempted to gain the vessel with a rope, but was unable 
through the violence of the waves; but, after an unsuccessfu 
attempt to fire a rocket and line across the wreck, an American 
sailor, named Roach, had the satisfaction of reaching it. Wit 1 
a rope he lashed himself and the woman together, and jump- 
ing into the waves both were drawn to the shore. The keepei 
and the Lascar jumped overboard, and in a momentary lull were 
both also saved. Not ten minutes did the whole of this occupy, 
and scarcely was the work of destruction over, when another slaver 
was driven from her anchors on to the shore; and then another, a 
splendid yacht-built schooner, the Jquilla, followed immediately, both 
beim* in the space of one moment shivered into a mass of splinters 
against the rocks. Ere mid-day arrived the rollers increased in size 
all along the leeward coast, the water on the southern side of the 
Island remaining quite undisturbed, and ship after ship shared a 
similar fate Two Brazilian schooners, the Fnfranzia and the tepe- 
rmaa. were engulfed by huge wa.ee sweeping over them ; one of 
them sunk where she was in an instant, while the other drifted out to 
sea a total wreck. But at one o’clock the biggest wave of 
all a tremendous rolling mountain of water, came m toward s e 
shore, with every appearance of sweeping everything, even the 
Island itself, away. So huge was it that all behind it, almost even 
the very light of the sun, was shut out from the terrified spectators. 
The roaring of these waves could be heard for several miles inland ; 
and one gentleman, long resident there, told me that never before in 
his life had he been so frightened as he was when he saw them In 
one of these enormous waves the English brig Socket, of 230 tons, 
was lifted with her hull in a vertical position, her bows up, and her 
stern down, and as the wave broke not a single trace of her was 
seen The scene of devastation was not at sea alone, for the same 
wave came rolling along the wharf, tearing down large iron water- 
tanks and strongly-built iron cranes, one of which it earned fifty 
