posed to the swell. This
retarded their labour, and, in the meantime, the fire was making rapid
progress; the mainmast, which had long been burning, fell over the
side with the lurching of the vessel, and the flames out of the
main-deck ports soon showed their points above the bulwarks,
while volumes of smoke were poured in upon the upper deck,
almost suffocating the numbers which were crowded there; for all
communication with the fore-part of the ship had been, for some time,
cut off by the flames, and everyone had retreated aft. The women and
children were now carried on to the poop; not only to remove them
farther from the suffocating smoke, but that they might be lowered
down to the raft from the stern.

It was about four o'clock in the morning when all was ready, and by
the exertions of Philip and the seamen, notwithstanding the swell,
the women and children were safely placed on the raft, where it was
considered that they would be less in the way, as the men could
relieve each other in pulling when they were tired.

After the women and children had been lowered down, the troops were
next ordered to descend by the ladders; some few were lost in the
attempt, falling under the boat's bottom and not reappearing; but
two-thirds of the men were safely put in the berths they were ordered
to take by Krantz, who had gone down to superintend this important
arrangement. Such had been the vigilance of Philip, who had requested
Captain Barentz to stand over the spirit-room hatch, with pistols,
until the smoke on the main-deck rendered the precaution unnecessary,
that not a single person was intoxicated, and to this might be
ascribed the order and regularity which had prevailed during this
trying scene. But before one-third of the soldiers had descended by
the stern ladder, the fire burst out of the stern windows with a
violence that nothing could withstand; spouts of vivid flame extended
several feet from the vessel, roaring with the force of a blow-pipe;
at the same time, the flames burst through all the after-ports of the
main-deck, and those remaining on board found themselves encircled
with fire, and suffocated with smoke and heat. The stern ladders were
consumed in a minute and dropped into the sea; the boats which had
been receiving the men were obliged, also, to back astern from the
intense heat of the flames; even those on the raft shrieked as they
found themselves scorched by the ignited fragments which fell on them