--not wanting in courage certainly, but
without conduct or a knowledge of his profession. The seamen continued
steady to their duty, pushing the soldiers out of the way as they
performed their allotted tasks: and Philip perceiving this, went
down below, leaving Krantz in charge; and by reasoning with the most
collected, by degrees he brought the majority of the troops to a state
of comparative coolness.

The powder had been thrown overboard, and another hole having been cut
in the deck on the other side, the other pump was rigged, and double
the quantity of water poured into the hold; but it was evident to
Philip that the combustion increased. The smoke and steam now burst
through the interstices of the hatchways and the holes cut in the
deck, with a violence that proved the extent of the fire which raged
below, and Philip thought it advisable to remove all the women and
children to the poop and quarter-deck of the ship, desiring the
husbands of the women to stay with them. It was a melancholy sight,
and the tears stood in Philip's eyes as he looked upon the group of
females--some weeping and straining their children to their bosoms;
some more quiet and more collected than the men: the elder children
mute or crying because their mothers cried, and the younger ones,
unconscious of danger, playing with the first object which attracted
their attention, or smiling at their parents. The officers commanding
the troops were two ensigns newly entered, and very young men,
ignorant of their duty and without any authority--for men in cases
of extreme danger will not obey those who are more ignorant than
themselves--and, at Philip's request, they remained with and
superintended the women and children.

So soon as Philip had given his orders that the women and children
should be properly clothed (which many of them were not), he went
again forward to superintend the labour of the seamen, who already
began to show symptoms of fatigue, from the excess of their exertions;
but many of the soldiers now offered to work at the pumps, and their
services were willingly accepted. Their efforts were in vain. In about
half an hour more the hatches were blown up with a loud noise, and a
column of intense and searching flame darted up perpendicularly from
the hold, high as the lower mast-head. Then was heard the loud shriek
of the women, who pressed their children in agony to their breasts,
as the seamen and soldiers who had been working the pu