p the pumps going during nearly the whole of each watch.
The weather was very thick, too, and no observations could be taken.
The crew were almost worn out; yet there was no time for rest. The gale
was blowing from the south-west, and the sea running very high, when in
the middle watch the look-out shouted the startling cry of "Land! on the
starboard bow." The yards were at once braced sharply up, and soon
afterwards the captain ordered the ship to be put about. We were
carrying almost more canvas than she could bear, but yet it would not
then do to shorten sail. Just as the ship was in stays, a tremendous
squall struck her, and in an instant the three masts went by the board.

There we lay on a lee shore, without a possibility of getting off it.
The order was at once given to range the cables, that immediately the
water was sufficiently shallow to allow of it we might anchor.

I will not describe that dreadful night. Onward the ship drove towards
the unknown shore. We had too much reason to dread that it was the
western coast of Ireland, fringed by reefs and rugged rocks. As we
drove on it grew more and more fearfully distinct. We fired guns of
distress, in the faint hope that assistance might be sent to us; but no
answering signal came. Too soon the roar of the surf reached our ears,
and it became fearfully probable that the ship and her rich cargo, with
all on board, would become the prey of the waves. I secured the
precious box and case as usual, determined, if I could save my own life,
to preserve them. The lead was continually hove, and at last the
captain ordered the anchors to be let go. They held the ship but for a
few minutes; then a tremendous sea struck her, and sweeping over her
deck, they parted, and again onward she drove. A few minutes more only
elapsed before she struck the rocks, and the crashing and rending sounds
of her timbers warned us that before long she would be dashed into a
thousand fragments. The sea was breaking furiously over the wreck, and
now one, now another of the crew was washed away. I was clinging with
others to a part of the bulwarks, when I felt them loosening beneath us.
Another sea came, and we were borne forward towards the shore. For an
instant I was beneath the boiling surf; when I rose again my companions
were gone, and in a few seconds I found myself dashed against a rock. I
clung to it for my life, then scrambled on, my only thought being to get
away from t