the
ill-tidings. No sooner were the words out of his mouth, than the
shrieks of mothers, sisters, and babes, resounded through the hitherto
silent cabin in the wildest confusion. Men were aroused from their
dreaming cots to experience the hot air of the approaching fire. The
pilot, being elevated on the hurricane deck, at the instant of
perceiving the flames, put the head of the boat shoreward. She had
scarcely got under good way in that direction, than the tiller ropes
were burnt asunder. Two miles at least, from the land, the vessel took
a sheer, and, borne upon by the current, made several revolutions, until
she struck off across the river. A [sand] bar brought her up for the
moment.

"The flames had now extended fore and aft. At the first alarm several
deck passengers had got in the yawl that hung suspended by the davits.
A cabin passenger, endowed with some degree of courage and presence of
mind, expostulated with them, and did all he could to save the boats for
the ladies. 'Twas useless. One got out his knife and cut away the
forward tackle. The next instant and they were all, to the number of
twenty or more, launched onto the angry waters. They were seen no more.

"The boat being lowered from the other end, filled and was useless. Now
came the trying moment. Hundreds leaped from the burning wreck into the
waters. Mothers were seen standing on the guards with hair dishevelled,
praying for help. The dear little innocents clung to the side of their
mothers and with their tiny hands beat away the burning flames. Sisters
calling out to their brothers in unearthly voices--`Save me, oh save me,
brother!'--wives crying to their husbands to save their children, in
total forgetfulness of themselves,--every second or two a desperate
plunge of some poor victim falling on the appalled ear,--the dashing to
and fro of the horses on the forecastle, groaning audibly from pain of
the devouring element--the continued puffing of the engine, for it still
continued to go, the screaming mother who had leaped overboard in the
desperation of the moment with her only child,--the flames mounting to
the sky with the rapidity of lightning,--shall I ever forget that
scene--that hour of horror and alarm! Never, were I to live till the
memory should forget all else that ever came to the senses. The short
half hour that separated and plunged into eternity two human beings has
been so burnt into the memory that even now I think