r bows, touched
the ground; we had now no hope but from the tide at midnight, and to
prepare for it we carried out our two bower anchors, one on the
starboard quarter, and the other right a-stern, got the blocks and
tackle which were to give us a purchase upon the cables in order, and
brought the falls, or ends of them, in abaft, straining them tight, that
the next effort might operate upon the ship, and by shortening the
length of the cable between that and the anchors, drew her off the ledge
upon which she rested, towards the deep water. About five o'clock in the
afternoon, we observed the tide begin to rise, but we observed at the
same time that the leak increased to a most alarming degree, so that
two, more pumps were manned, but unhappily only one of them, would work;
three of the pumps, however, were kept going, and at nine o'clock the
ship righted, but the leak had gained upon us so considerably, that it
was imagined she must go to the bottom as soon as she ceased to be
supported by the rock: This was a dreadful circumstance, so that we
anticipated the floating of the ship not as an earnest of deliverance,
but as an event that would probably precipitate our destruction. We well
knew that our boats were not capable of carrying us all on shore, and
that when the dreadful crisis should arrive, as all command and
subordination would be at an end, a contest for preference would
probably ensue, that would increase even the horrors of shipwreck, and
terminate in the destruction of us all by the hands of each other; yet
we knew that if any should be left on board to perish in the waves, they
would probably suffer less upon the whole than those who should get on
shore, without any lasting or effectual defence against the natives, in
a country where even nets and fire-arms would scarcely furnish them with
food; and where, if they should find the means of subsistence, they must
be condemned to languish out the remainder of life in a desolate
wilderness, without the possession, or even hope, of any domestic
comfort, and cut off from all commerce with mankind, except the naked
savages who prowled the desert, and who perhaps were some of the most
rude and uncivilized upon the earth.

To those only who have waited in a state of such suspense, Death has
approached in all his tenors; and as the dreadful moment that was to
determine our fate came on, every one saw his own sensations pictured in
the countenances of his companions: