200 
Dr. Currie's Account of the 
Nicholas church-yard, amidst a great crowd of spectators. 
The cook, who was a weakly man, died a few hours before 
the boat reached the wreck, but the two masters had been 
long dead, and this added to the sympathy for their loss, a 
curiosity to inquire into its circumstances and causes. When 
the following particulars came to be known, this curiosity 
was increased. Both the masters were strong and healthy men, 
and one of them a native of Scotland, in the flower of life, 
early inured to cold and hardships, and very vigorous both in 
body and mind. On the other hand, several of the survivors 
were by no means strong men, most of them were natives of 
the warm climate of Carolina, and what was singular enough, 
the person among the whole who seemed to have suffered least 
was a negro. 
What is extraordinary is seldom long unaccounted for in 
one way or other, and the death of the two masters was said 
to have been owing to their having taken possession of a keg 
which had contained cherry-brandy, and which still contained 
the cherries ; — these, it was reported, they had kept to them- 
selves, and eaten in large quantities after the shipwreck ; and 
this having produced intoxication, was supposed to have hast- 
ened their death. Some experienced seamen were satisfied 
with this account, which indeed seemed very rational ; for 
though spirituous liquors may fortify the body against the 
effects of heat combined with moisture, and may perhaps sup- 
port it for a short time under great fatigue, they are, I be- 
lieve, uniformly hurtful when taken under severe and con- 
tinued cold. Pleased to see a doctrine becoming popular which 
has been so ably supported by Dr. Aiken,' * and others, I be- 
* See Transactions of the Philosophical and Literary Society of Manchester, V. I. 
