20 
AN ACCOUNT OF 
j 7 8 3 ' ill cafe of need; and as the boats did not return till ten 
AUGUST. 
o’clock in the evening, it fpread amongft their companions 
much alarm for their fafety, as the night came on with 
very heavy weather ; nor indeed were their fpirits rendered 
tranquil by their arrival, for the chief mate and crew, who 
returned with the pinnace, brought the melancholy intel¬ 
ligence, that they did not conceive, from the badnefs of the* 
weather, that the fhip could hold together till morning, as- 
jhe was beginning to part, the bends or wales being ftarted 
out of their places. The ideas which had been fondly 
nurfed, that when a calm fucceeded there was a pofiibility 
fhe might be floated and repaired,, fo as to return to Macoa> 
or fome part of China, were by this account totally extin- 
guiflied. The profpedt now darkened round them, fear 
pictured ftrongly every danger, and hope could hardly find 
an inlet through which one ray of confolation might flioot. 
They knew nothing of the inhabitants of that country 
where fate had thrown them ; ignorant of their manners 
and difpofitions, as well as of the hoftile fcenes they might 
have to encounter for their fafety ; they found themfelves, 
by this fudden accident, cut off at once from the reft of the 
world, with little probability of their ever again getting 
away. Each individual threw back his remembrance to 
fome dear objedt that affedtion had rivetted to his heart, 
who might be in vain looking out anxioufiy for the return 
of the father, the hufband, or the friend, whom there was 
fcarcely 
