to the rocks which they had grasped in despair. About two hundred of the
passengers and crew held on to the vessel, although the raging sea was
breaking over her, and every wave washed some of them to a watery grave.
In this manner, kindred were separated, while those who remained could
only expect the same fate to reach them. Things continued in this
condition until four in the afternoon, when the vessel parted amidships,
at the fore part of the main rigging, and immediately between seventy
and a hundred persons were thrown into the waves. Thus the insatiable
ocean swallowed its prey piece-meal. About five, the wreck parted by the
fore-rigging, and so many persons were thrown into the sea, that only
seventy were left on the forecastle, they being lashed to the wreck.
Even these were gradually diminished in number, some giving out from
exhaustion, and others anticipating fate, by drowning themselves.

When day dawned, on the following morning, only about thirty persons
were left alive, and these were almost exhausted. The sea was making a
clean breach into the forecastle, the deck of which was rapidly breaking
up. Parents and children, husbands and wives, were seen floating around
the vessel, many in an embrace, which even the ocean's power could not
sunder. The few who remained alive could only look up to heaven for a
hope of safety. Soon after daylight, the vessel totally disappeared, and
out of four hundred and twenty-three persons who had been on board the
vessel, only nine were saved by being washed on shore, and these were
nearly exhausted.

[Illustration: LOSS OF THE FRANCIS SPAIGHT.]