ersuade any more of the men
to avail themselves of the proffered means of safety, they were
obliged, though very reluctantly, to leave them on the wreck, and they
themselves joined the crew on the rocks.

In the course of an hour or two, however, the party who had stayed by
the wreck, took courage and ventured upon the rope; but as the stump
of the bowsprit, which was over the larboard cathead, rendered it
extremely hazardous to come forward, they did not all get on shore
till daylight. In the morning, Captain Burgess's first care was to
muster his men, and a melancholy spectacle presented itself. Sixteen
were missing, and of those who were gathered around him, many had been
dreadfully bruised and lacerated in their efforts to reach the shore.
Amongst those who perished was a fine spirited lad, the son of Captain
Bingham, late commander of the Thetis. But a few months before,
Captain Bingham himself had been drowned in the Guayaquil: thus father
and son lay far from their native land, beneath the western flood.

The warlike of the isles,
The men of field and wave,
Are not the rocks their funeral piles,
The seas and shores their grave?
Go, stranger! track the deep--
Free, free, the white sail spread;
Wind may not rove, nor billows sweep,
Where rest not England's dead.

The crew of the Thetis had now time to look around them, and to
consider what was next to be done. The prospect was a sad one. Before
them, and almost hidden by the white foam, lay the once noble frigate,
now a complete wreck; the cove into which she had drifted was bound by
lofty and precipitous crags, arising abruptly from the sea, and
varying in height from 80 to 194 feet. The men and officers were
perched in groups on points of the rocks; few of them had clothing
enough to cover them, and scarcely any had shoes. There seemed to be
no means of ascending the precipice; but to do so must be their first
object; and anxiously they sought for some part which might offer a
surer footing, and a less perilous and perpendicular ascent. At last
they succeeded in casting a rope round one of the projecting crags,
and by help of this some of the strongest of the party climbed the
giddy height, and then assisted in hauling up their weaker comrades.

To give some idea of the difficulties which they had to surmount, and
their almost miraculous escape, we subjoin the following description
of the place from the pen of Captain Dicken