ve them, or the
blinding sleet and snow, hid the sun and prevented the officers from
taking sights; and at night no moon or stars by which they could steer
their course were visible in the wild gloom through which they tossed.

When the officers at last found they were out of their bearings, they
tried to persuade the captain to alter the course, but this he refused
to do, as he believed he was making directly for the Island of Socoro,
which was the place arranged for the squadron to meet, and whence it was
intended they should make their first attack upon the Spaniards.

At this time, when all but twelve men on the 'Wager' were disabled by
fatigue or sickness, there loomed against the dull clouds a yet heavier
cloud, which was that of mountainous masses of land. Then Captain Cheap
at last realised their danger, and gave orders to wear ship to the
southward, hoping that they might crowd her off the land.

But the fury of the gale increased as night fell upon them, while to add
to their dismay, as each sail was set with infinite labour, it was set
only to be blown or rent immediately from the yard.

At four o'clock in the morning the ship struck, then again for the
second time more violently; and presently she lay helpless on her beam
ends--while the sea every now and then broke over her.

Everyone who could move rushed to the quarter-deck, but those who were
dying of scurvy and who could not leave their hammocks were drowned in
them.

In the uncertain light of dawn they could see nothing around them but
leaden breakers from whose foam-crested manes the wind swept the
blinding spray. The ship lay in this terrible plight for some little
time, while every soul on board counted each moment as his last.

In this scene of wild disorder the men lost all reason and restraint,
some gave themselves up to death like logs, and were rolled hither and
thither with each jerk and roll of the shivering ship.

One man in the exaltation of his despair stalked about the deck, and
flourished a cutlass over his head, and struck at anyone who came near
him with it--meanwhile shouting that he was the 'king of the country.'

Another, and a brave man, was so overcome by the fury of the seething
waters, that he tried to throw himself from the rails at the
quarter-deck, and to end in death a scene he felt too shocking to look
upon.

The man at the helm still kept his post, though both rudder and tiller
had been carried away; and applied