though we made no
progress, the rafts and various articles which had floated up from the
wreck came drifting down towards us, scattering far and wide over the
tossing ocean. I caught sight of a boat and two or three other rafts,
but they were too far off to enable me, through the gloom, to
distinguish the people on them. The shrieks had gradually ceased; now
and then the cry of some strong swimmer, who had hitherto bravely
buffeted the sea, was heard ere he sank for the last time. Daylight was
just breaking when, as I was standing up in the stern-sheets, I saw a
person clinging to a piece of timber, and I determined, if possible, to
save him. I pointed him out to the English seamen; and two of them,
springing up, seized the oars from the hands of the Lascars, and by
pulling away lustily we got up close to the spot. The man saw us
coming. It was not without difficulty that we managed to haul him on
board so as to avoid striking him or staving in the boat against the
piece of wreck which had kept him up. To my surprise I found that he
was the very gentleman who had assisted in forming the raft before the
ship went down. I knew him by the case, which he still had secured to
his side. He was so exhausted that for some minutes he could not speak,
though he was evidently making an effort to do so. At length, beckoning
me to put my ear down to his mouth, he asked in a low voice whether we
had seen his wife and child, with the nurse. The only comfort I could
afford him was by telling him that I had caught sight of several small
rafts, and possibly they might be upon one of them. He had been washed
away before he could secure himself when the ship foundered; and though
he was carried down with her, on rising to the surface he had caught
hold of the piece of wreck to which we had found him clinging.

"There we were, fourteen human beings in a small boat out in the middle
of the Atlantic, the dark foaming seas surrounding us, without a
particle of food or a drop of fresh water, while our two oars scarcely
enabled us to keep her head to the sea, and save her from being capsized
or swamped.

"I do not like to talk or even to think of the horrors which followed.
Daylight had now come on, but all around was gloom, the dark clouds
appearing like a pall just above our heads, and hanging round on either
side, so as to circumscribe the horizon to the narrowest limits. Here
and there I occasionally thought that I saw a few da