d the most piercing
shrieks; some locked themselves in each others arms, while others,
losing all self-command, tore off their caps and bonnets, in the
wildness of despair. A Liverpool pilot, who happened to be in the
packet, now raised his voice and exclaimed, "It is all over--we are
all lost!" At these words there was a universal despairing shriek. The
women and children collected in a knot together, and kept embracing
each other, keeping up, all the time, the most dismal lamentations.
When tired with crying they lay against each other, with their heads
reclined, like inanimate bodies. The steward of the vessel and his
wife, who was on board, lashed themselves to the mast, determined to
spend their last moments in each other's arms. Several husbands and
wives also met their fate locked in each other's arms; whilst parents
clung to their beloved children,--several mothers it is said, having
perished with their dear little ones firmly clasped in their arms. A
party of the passengers, about fifteen or twenty, lowered the boat and
crowded into it. It was impossible for any open boat to live in such a
sea, even though not overloaded, and she immediately swamped and went
to the bottom, with all who had made this last hopeless effort for
self-preservation.

For some time the vessel, though now irrecoverably lost, continued to
resist the action of the waves, and the despairing souls on board
still struggled with their doom. But hope had forever fled; the packet
was beaten and tossed about by the tumultuous waters with a violence
which threatened to dash her into fragments at every shock, and the
sea now made a continual breach over her. The decks were repeatedly
swept by the boiling ocean, and each billow snatched its victims to a
watery grave. The unfortunate captain and his mate were among the
first that perished. About thirty or forty passengers were standing
upon the poop clinging to each other in hopeless agony, and
occasionally uttering the most piteous ejaculations. Whilst trembling
thus upon the brink of destruction, and expecting every moment to
share the fate which had already overtaken so many of their companions
in misery, the poop was discovered to give way; another wave rolled on
with impetuous fury, and the hinder part of the luckless vessel, with
all who sought safety in its frail support, was burst away from its
shattered counterpart, and about forty wretched beings hurried through
the foaming flood into an