was followed by a heavy blow,
indicating that the ship had struck. The force of the blow had not
been sufficient to stave in the bottom,--a fortunate fact, for the
hold was full of prisoners. Nevertheless, she was hard and fast
aground, on a ledge of rock that lifted her bow six feet above her
stern. Morris, who had rushed upon deck at the first alarm, was unable
to make out the ship's position, and feared that they were on Cashes
Ledge, a reef so far from the land that it would have been impossible
to save in the boats more than half the crew. He had determined,
however, to instantly lower the boats and send them off in search of
land, when a gust of wind, blowing away the fog, showed a beetling
cliff not a hundred yards away. Rugged and inhospitable as was the
coast thus exposed, it was better than an expanse of ocean; and at
once Morris set to work landing his prisoners, and the sick, of whom
the "Adams" had nearly sixty. With spare sails, tents were put up on
the beach; and, stores having been landed, the comfort of all was
assured, in case the ship should go to pieces. What the desolate shore
was to which they were thus forced to turn for shelter, no one knew.

All hands now turned to at the capstan, in the hopes of getting the
vessel off; and about noon, the tide having reached its flood, she
gradually slid off the ledge into deep water. After trying the pumps,
to see if any serious leak had been started, the difficult task of
taking the ship out of the labyrinth of reefs in which she lay was
begun. For more than two miles their course lay through a narrow and
tortuous channel, bordered on either side with jagged reefs; but the
corvette safely threaded her way between the rocks, and soon lay
floating in deep water. The next morning the fog blew away; and the
voyagers discovered to their astonishment that they were off Mount
Desert, instead of near Portsmouth as they had expected.

To return into the cluster of reefs after the little colony of
invalids and prisoners that had been left behind, would have been mere
folly: so sending two fishing-boats to search out the shore party, and
carry them to the nearest village, the "Adams" continued her course,
intending to put into the Penobscot River. While making for this
point, a sail was sighted, which proved to be the British brig-sloop
"Rifleman." The corvette gave chase, but the Englishman kept well in
the offing; and, as the condition of the American crew was such