irds of the ship's company were now gone--the captain, the master,
and the major part of the officers and men, being on the quarter-deck
when the ship divided. The cry of the drowning was not heard amidst the
roaring of the elements. The behaviour of the captain and the officers
at this dreadful crisis has not been handed down; but, if we may judge
from what has already been narrated, they met their fate like British
seamen.

The fore part of the ship still held together, and, fortunately for the
survivors, heeled towards the land, so as to afford some protection from
the force of the seas, which dashed over it at each succeeding swell of
the billows. Daylight left them, and darkness added to the despair and
horror of nearly one hundred wretches, who felt, at each shock which
threatened to separate the planks and timbers, as if death was loudly
knocking to claim the residue of his destined victims. Not one word was
exchanged; but, secured with ropes to the belaying-pins, and other parts
of the forecastle where they could pass their lashings, they clung and
huddled together, either absorbed in meditation or wailing with despair.
Occasionally, one who had supported himself in a difficult and painful
position, stimulated with the faint hopes of life, to which we all so
fondly and so foolishly cling, would find that his strength was
exhausted, and that he could hold no longer. After vainly imploring
those near him to allow him to better his condition by a slight personal
sacrifice on their part (an appeal that received no answer), he would
gradually loose his hold, and drop into the surge that was commissioned
by death to receive his prey.

There are situations in human life of such powerful excitement, and in
which the mechanism of the human frame becomes so rapid in its motion,
that the friction of a few days will wear it out. The harrowed feelings
of these poor creatures on the wreck, during the short time that they
remained, had a greater effect in undermining the constitution than many
years of laborious occupation on shore.

Fellow-countrymen, if you are at all interested with the scenes I am now
describing, and which, if you have any feeling, you must be (however
imperfect the description), let the author, a sailor himself, take this
favourable opportunity of appealing to you in behalf of a service at
once your protection and your pride. For its sake, as well as your own,
listen not to those who, expatiating