the 63d regiment, under the
command of Captain Barcroft, were on board the Piedmont; also
Lieutenant Ash and Mr. Kelly, surgeon of the same regiment. Of all
these, only Serjeant Richardson, eleven privates, and four seamen,
survived the catastrophe; all the rest perished.

Captain Barcroft's life had passed in the service. While yet a very
young man, he served in America during the war between England and her
colonies; and being then taken prisoner, was severely treated. On
commencement of the war which has so many years desolated Europe, he
raised a company in his native country, and served with it on the
Continent during the campaign of 1794. Under a heavy fire of the
enemy, he was one of the last men who retreated with it along a single
plank, knee-deep in water, from the siege of Nimeguen. In a few months
after the disastrous retreat on the Continent, in the winter 1794, he
was ordered to the West Indies, and, in the outset of his voyage,
perished in the tempest.

Of the few who reached the shore from the Piedmont, there was scarce
one who was not dreadfully bruised, and some had their limbs broken.
An unfortunate veteran of the 63d, though his leg was shockingly
fractured, had sufficient resolution to creep for shelter under a
fishing boat which lay inverted on the further side of the bank. There
his groans were unheard until a young gentleman, Mr. Smith, a
passenger in the Thomas, who had himself been wrecked, and was now
wandering along the shore, discovered him. In this ship, the Thomas,
bound to Oporto, the master, Mr. Brown, his son, and all the crew,
except the mate, three seamen and Mr. Smith, were lost. The last was
on his way to Lisbon; but his preservation was chiefly in consequence
of his remaining on board after all the rest had left the ship, or
were washed away by the waves. She had then drifted high on the bank,
when he leaped out of her and reached the ground.

Though weak and encumbered by his wet clothes, he gained the opposite
side of the bank, but on gazing on the dreary beach around him, he
considered himself cast away on an uninhabited coast. At length he
observed a fishing-boat, and approaching it, heard the groans of the
unfortunate old soldier, whom he attempted to relieve. But alone he
found himself unable to fulfil his intention, and it was a
considerable time before he observed any means of assistance near. At
last, perceiving a man at some distance, he hastened to him, eagerly
inqui