treated, and this time I was the chief
victim. Kicked and struck on the slightest pretext, and compelled to
perform the most disgusting offices, I soon felt myself a degraded being
both in body and mind; and when I thought of what I had been on board
the _Juno_, and what I now was, I shrunk from making the comparison.
But I was to obtain relief in a way I little expected.

I was in the second mate's watch. Early one morning, about four bells
in the middle watch--that is to say, about two o'clock--I had just been
relieved from my trick at the helm. The weather was thick and squally,
and the night very dark. The look-out was careless, or had bad
eyesight; and the mate, knowing this, was constantly going forward
himself. I was leisurely going along the deck, when I heard him sing
out,--"A sail on the starboard-bow! Luff!--luff all you can!" I sprang
forward. The ship was nearer to us than he supposed. Right stem on she
came, towering like a huge mountain above us. In an instant the brig's
bows were cut down to the water's edge. I sung out to those on deck to
follow me, and clung on to whatever I could first get hold of. It
proved to be the ship's bobstay. I climbed up it on to the bowsprit,
and, as I looked down, I saw her going right over the vessel I had just
left--her decks sinking from sight beneath the dark waters. The tall
masts, and spars, and sails followed: down, down they went, drawn by an
irresistible force! It seemed like some dreadful dream. Before I could
secure myself on the bowsprit, they had disappeared in the unfathomable
abyss. Not a cry or a groan reached my ears from my drowning
shipmates--unwarned, unprepared they died. Such has been many a hapless
seaman's fate. One only escaped. He had hold of the dolphin-striker.
I could just distinguish his form through the darkness as he followed
me. I slid down to help him, and with difficulty hauled him up on the
bowsprit. He seemed horror-struck at what had occurred; and so, indeed,
we might both well be, and thankful that we had been preserved. Such
was the end of the old _Rainbow_.

I now first sung out, and gave notice of our escape to those on board
the ship. Several of the crew had rushed forward, and now helped poor
Mr Sims and me off the bowsprit. We heard, meantime, the officers of
the ship ordering the boats to be lowered; and she being hove up into
the wind, one from each quarter was soon manned and in the water. While
the