relief, it would be but
reasonable to wait the effect. He concluded with assuring them, that
he would make the signal directly for the trade to lie by them during
the night, which he doubted not they would comply with.

This temperate speech had the desired effect; the firmness and
confidence with which he spoke, and their reliance on his seamanship
and judgment, as well as his constant presence and attention to every
accident, had a wonderful effect upon them; they became pacified, and
returned to their duty and their labors. Since the first disaster, the
admiral had, in fact, scarcely ever quitted the deck; this they had
all observed, together with his diligence in personally inspecting
every circumstance of distress. Knowing his skill and experience they
placed great confidence in them; and he instantly made, according to
his promise, a signal for all the merchantmen.

At this period, it must be confessed, there was great reason for
alarm, and but little for hope; for all the anchors and guns,
excepting one, together with every other matter of weight, had been
thrown overboard, and yet the ship did not seem at all relieved. The
strength of the people was, likewise, so nearly exhausted, having had
no sleep since the first fatal stroke, that one half of the crew were
ordered to bail and the other to repose; so that, although the wind
was much abated, the water still gained upon them, in spite of all
their efforts, and the ship rolled and worked most prodigiously in a
most unquiet sea.

At three in the morning of the 21st, being the fourth night, the well
being quite broken in, the casks, ballast and remaining shot, rushed
together and destroyed the cylinders of the pumps; the frame and
carcase of the ship began to give way in every part, and the whole
crew exclaimed that it was impossible to keep her any longer above
water.

In this extremity the admiral resolved within himself not to lose a
moment in removing the people whenever day-light should arrive, but
told the captain not to communicate any more of his design than that
he intended to remove the sick and lame at day-break; and for this
purpose he should call on board all the boats of the merchantmen. He,
nevertheless, gave private orders to the captain, while this was
doing, to have all the bread brought upon the quarter-deck, with a
quantity of beef, pork and flour, to settle the best distribution of
the people according to the number of the trade ships tha