64 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. III. 
the upper end reaching to the shore. About the same time 
the strongly built new ship broke in two at the after hatchway, 
and by daylight a small part of the forecastle was all that 
remained visible of the fore part of the ship. The officers 
and crew and some of the passengers had sought refuge in the 
rigging. The rest of the passengers, including the women 
and children, assisted and encouraged by the second and third 
officers, and one of the seamen, remained in great peril from 
the floods of water that poured down into their cabins and 
part of the poop. Here they continued in a state of fearful 
uncertainty until about six o’clock on the following morning, 
when, assisted by the two officers and the sailor already 
mentioned, they passed along by the mast, as by a bridge or 
pathway from the wreck to the shore. Here they found them¬ 
selves upon a mass of fragments of volcanic rock, extending 
from forty to one hundred yards, and terminating in a steep 
inaccessible precipice of rock two or three hundred feet high. 
For the first two nights and days all remained in this exposed 
situation, with only the clothes they happened to have on; 
but a bale of flannel and woollen shirts being washed on 
shore, furnished them with a more ample supply of clothing. 
They also collected amongst the fragments of rock a small 
quantity of damaged provisions, on which they might have 
barely subsisted for a few days. For the first two days a 
biscuit a day was served out to each one, but afterwards their 
supply was limited to half a biscuit, and, so long as they 
lasted, a herring a day. On the third day they removed to a 
spot nearly a mile distant from the place of their wreck, 
where, an ascent to the summit of the cliff being found, a 
rude encampment was formed on the heights. A pole was 
then erected, and a couple of red shirts and some white 
flannel hoisted as a signal of distress. This, • on the fol¬ 
lowing morning, was seen by an American whaler cruising off 
the island, but who was unable for some time, on account of 
the weather, to hold any communication with the shipwrecked 
