lining of the boat, we assisted in moving ourselves slowly through the
water, providentially the sea was comparatively smooth, or our
overloaded boats would have swamped, and we should only have escaped the
flames to have perished in the deep. The wind was light, but variable,
and, acting on the sails, which, being drenched with the rain, did not
soon take fire, drove the burning mass, in terrific grandeur, over the
surface of the ocean, the darkness of which was only illuminated by the
quick glancing of the lightning or the glare of the conflagration. Our
situation was for some time extremely perilous. The vessel neared us
more than once, and apparently threatened to involve us in one common
destruction. The cargo, consisting of dry provisions, spirits, cotton
goods, and other articles equally combustible, burned with great
violence, while the fury of the destroying element, the amazing height
of the flames, the continued storm, amidst the thick darkness of the
night, rendered the scene appalling and terrible. About ten o'clock, the
masts, after swaying from side to side, fell with a dreadful crash into
the sea, and the hull of the vessel continued to burn amidst the
shattered fragments of the wreck, till the sides were consumed to the
water's edge. The spectacle was truly magnificent, could it even have
been contemplated by us without a recollection of our own circumstances.
The torments endured by the dogs, sheep, and other animals on board, at
any other time would have excited our deepest commiseration; but at
present, the object before us, our stately ship, that had for the last
four months been our social home, the scene of our enjoyments, our
labours, and our rest, now a prey to the destroying element; the
suddenness with which we had been hurried from circumstances of comfort
and comparative security, to those of destitution and peril, and with
which the most exhilarating hopes had been exchanged for disappointment
as unexpected as it was afflictive; the sudden death of the two seamen,
our own narrow escape, and lonely situation on the face of the deep, and