hes! I think I
hear faintly the merchant cry of "Yeo-yo--yeo!" but the roar of the
vexed waters beneath our bows, and the eternal singing of the winds
through the frost-stiffened shrouds, prevent my being certain of the
fact. But I tremble excessively--when, behold, a huge, long black mass
is lying lazily before us, and so close that we can almost touch it!

"Hard a-port," I roared out at the top of my voice.

"Hard a-starboard," sang out the captain of the forecastle, equally
loudly.

Vain, vain were the contradictory orders. The frigate seemed to leap at
the object before her as at a prey; and dire was the crash that ensued.
As we may suppose the wrathful lioness springs upon the buffalo, and,
meeting more resistance from its horny bulk than she had suspected,
recoils and makes another spring, so did the _Eos_ strike, rebound, then
strike again. I felt two distinct percussions.

The second stroke divided the obstacle. The _Eos_ passed through it or
over it, and the eye looked in vain for the vast West Indiaman, the
bearer of wealth, and gay hopes, and youth, and infancy, manly strength,
and female beauty. There was a smothered feminine shriek, hushed by the
whirlpool of down-absorbing waves, almost as soon as made. It was not
loud, but it was fearfully distinct, and painfully human. One poor
wretch only was saved, to tell her name and speak of the perished.

As usual, they had kept but a bad look-out. Her officers and her
passengers were making merry in the cabin--the wine-cup was at their
lips, and the song was floating joyously from the mouths of the fair
ones returning to the land of their nativity. The blooming daughters,
the newly-married wife, and two matrons with their innocent ones beside
them, were all in the happiness of their hopes when the Destroyer was
upon them suddenly, truly like a strong man in the darkness of night;
and they were all hurled, in the midst of their uncensurable revelry, to
a deep grave over which no tombstone shall ever tell "of their
whereabout."

Our own jib-boom was snapped off short, and as quickly as is a twig in
frosty weather. Supposing the ship had struck, every soul rushed on
deck. They thanked God it was _only_ the drowning of some forty
fellow-creatures, and the destruction of a fine merchant-ship. We
hauled the single poor fellow that was saved on board. The
consternation among the officers was very great. It blew too hard to
lower the boats: no effort