--he uttered no cry--still he clung to his frail raft. He
could not make up his mind to yield to death. It was truly a painful
sight. We anxiously watched him till we left the raft to which he still
clung far astern. No other person was seen, but other objects were
seen--floating spars, planks, gratings--to prove that we were near a
spot where a tall ship had gone down. "It is better so," observed the
captain; "unless the sea had cast them on our deck we could not have
saved one of them." We rushed on up and down the watery heights, Stubbs
as firmly convinced as ever that the _Flying Dutchman_ had produced the
fearful catastrophe we had witnessed. On we went--the gale in no way
abating. I watched the mountain seas till I grew weary of looking at
them; still I learned to feel perfectly secure--a sensation I was at
first very far from experiencing. Yet much, if not everything, depended
on the soundness of our spars and rigging: a flaw in the wood or rope
might be the cause of our destruction. I went below at meal-time, but I
hurried again on deck, fascinated by the scene, though I would gladly
have shut it out from my sight. At length, towards night, literally
wearied with the exertion of keeping my feet and watching those giant
seas, I went below and turned in. I slept, but the huge white-crested
waves were still rolling before me, and big ships were foundering, and
phantom vessels were sailing in the wind's eye, and I heard the
bulkheads creaking, the wind whistling, and the waves roaring, as loudly
as if I was awake; only I often assigned a wrong sign to the uproar.
Hour after hour this continued, when, as I had at last gone off more
soundly, a crash echoed in my ears, followed by shrieks and cries. It
did not, however, awake me. It seemed a part of the strange dreams in
which I was indulging. I thought that the ship had struck on a rock,
that I escaped to the shore, had climbed up a lofty cliff, on the summit
of which I found a wood fire surrounded by savages. They dragged me to
it--I had the most fearful forebodings of what they were about to do.
Then I heard the cry, "Fire! fire!" That was a reality--the smell of
fire was in my nostrils--I started up--I was alone in the cabin. The
ship was plunging about in an awful manner. I hurried on my clothes and
rushed on deck. Daylight had broke. The ship lately so trim seemed a
perfect wreck. The foremast had been carried away, shivered to the
deck, and h