eat many
passengers.

Upon inquiry we found it was a French merchant ship of three-hundred
tons, home-bound from Quebec. The master gave us a long account of the
distress of his ship; how the fire began in the steerage by the
negligence of the steersman, which, on his crying out for help, was, as
everybody thought, entirely put out; but they soon found that some sparks
of the first fire had got into some part of the ship so difficult to come
at that they could not effectually quench it; and afterwards getting in
between the timbers, and within the ceiling of the ship, it proceeded
into the hold, and mastered all the skill and all the application they
were able to exert.

They had no more to do then but to get into their boats, which, to their
great comfort, were pretty large; being their long-boat, and a great
shallop, besides a small skiff, which was of no great service to them,
other than to get some fresh water and provisions into her, after they
had secured their lives from the fire. They had, indeed, small hopes of
their lives by getting into these boats at that distance from any land;
only, as they said, that they thus escaped from the fire, and there was a
possibility that some ship might happen to be at sea, and might take them
in. They had sails, oars, and a compass; and had as much provision and
water as, with sparing it so as to be next door to starving, might
support them about twelve days, in which, if they had no bad weather and
no contrary winds, the captain said he hoped he might get to the banks of
Newfoundland, and might perhaps take some fish, to sustain them till they
might go on shore. But there were so many chances against them in all
these cases, such as storms, to overset and founder them; rains and cold,
to benumb and perish their limbs; contrary winds, to keep them out and
starve them; that it must have been next to miraculous if they had
escaped.

In the midst of their consternation, every one being hopeless and ready
to despair, the captain, with tears in his eyes, told me they were on a
sudden surprised with the joy of hearing a gun fire, and after that four
more: these were the five guns which I caused to be fired at first seeing
the light. This revived their hearts, and gave them the notice, which,
as above, I desired it should, that there was a ship at hand for their
help. It was upon the hearing of these guns that they took down their
masts and sails: the sound coming from the w