instant I heard the report of two pistols, followed by a loud and deep gróan! The first and second mates had executed their horrid purpose of mutual destruction, and I drew a dreadful augury from the despair of these experienced sailors. Atota on ve abida, of hesloen wg)“ Language cannot pourtray the horrors of the scene to which I was now doomed to be an agonized witness. Passengers and sailors, men, women, and children, hurried up from below, and rushed to the afterpart of the vessel, where with incredible exertions they succeeded in launching the cutter, and nearly the whole were safely placed within it; when she broke adrift, and ere she had gained two hundred yards from the ship, a single wave whelmed the whole crowded party in the remorseless deep. One fearful and long-protracted shriek, which is still ringing in my ears, and in which the agony of females and children painfully predominated, announced the fatal catastrophe. In a few moments after all was hushed, save the hoarse and horrid triumph of the winds and waves, as they seemed to be growling over their victims.

"From the first moment I had felt convinced that no boat could live in such a sea, and as the state of Agnes, who had fallen into an Thysterical fit at the time of our striking, preIcluded any active exertions for our safety, I resolved to abide by the wreck, and trust to Providence for our final disposal. The few who still remained on board were now clustered at the other extremity of the vessel, endeavouring to detach our last small boat, which had got entangled in the rigging; in which hopeless effort they had not been long engaged, when I saw a black mass hurrying towards us, which proved to be a tremendous wave. For a few seconds it lifted our ship aloft and carried her rapidly forwards, when suddenly subsiding, it dashed her down upon the rocks with such an awful concussion, that our remaining masts went instantly by the board, the vessel broke her back with a hideous crash, her decks opened, the solid beams gave way, and the stern sunk half under water. Most of the survivors were washed away in this mountainous surge, but a few wretches, among whom I recognized

the huge Negro, still clung to the dissevered stern. As if elated, however, by their victory, the waves came rushing to attack it with redoubled fury. Like infuriated wild beasts, bristling up their foaming crests and gnashing their white teeth, they sprang roaring upon their prey, seizing it in their ravening jaws, and lifting it repeatedly up, and dashing it upon the rocks, or shaking it into pieces, until every thing was wrenched asunder and broken up, and the sea covered with wide-scattered frag ments as far as the eye could reach.

“As I witnessed this harrowing spectacle, anticipating my own fate in that of my companions, of whom not a single survivor was now visible, I observed that the portion of the wreck on which we were stationed did not rise and fall with the waves that broke over her, which I attributed to their force and fury being spent upon the separated stern. This being now demolished, I concluded that the forecastle would undergo a similar process from the first heavy surges that should follow, and as the moon, now partially revealed, disclosed

to me the shore at a very little distance, I began to calculate the possibility of reaching it before the wreck should be finally broken up. Agnes was now sufficiently recovered to be enabled to make some little struggle for existence, and her mother was willing to venture upon any experiment, however desperate, provided we all perished, or were saved together. This being exactly consonant to my own desires, I again turned my eyes wistfully to the land, on which the waves broke as if they were tearing it up by the roots, again hurrying back to the sea, down a steep bank, with a hoarse roaring noise. This was an uncheering prospect, even to one who was rendered desperate. I saw that the returning waters would again suck us within their vortex, even if we were happily cast upon the shore, unless we could grapple firmly with the rock. To enable me to do this the more effectually I secured a creese, or long Malay dagger, which one of the Lascars had stuck into the rigging, and having placed Agnes in the middle, and tied our three bodies together by a rope, which however left us the perfect

use of our limbs, "I proposed that we should commit ourselves to the first heavy wave. I instructed my companions to grasp the earth as firmly as they could when they first touched it, and as soon as the receding wave had passed them, to run forward as far and as fast as their strength would allow. Little time was given us for farther deliberation; a dark surge came heaving towards us as we stood at the extreme edge of the vessel, my wife uttered a short prayer, we committed ourselves to the rolling mass, and were instantly whelmed rapidly for wards, deafened with the roar, and giddy with the rush of the foaming waters.

"We were thrown upon the shore with less violence than I had anticipated, when I instantly plunged my dagger into the soil, and grasped it firmly with both hands, by which means, although my wife and daughter who were drawn backwards by the receding waves, dragged fearfully upon me, I was enabled to cling to the ground we had won. Soon as the waters had left us we supported Agnes with our arms, and struggled up the bank with all the energies we

could