ield to any two
English frigates, but would sooner sink his ship with every soul on
board." The ship was then cleared for action, and we English
prisoners, consisting of three infantry officers, two captains of
merchantmen, two women, and forty-eight seamen and soldiers, were
conducted down to the cabin tier at the foot of the fore-mast.

The action began with opening the lower deck ports, which, however
were soon shut again, on account of the great sea, which occasioned
the water to rush in to that degree that we felt it running on the
cables. I must here observe, that this ship was built on a new
construction, considerably longer than men of war of her rate, and her
lower-deck, on which she mounted thirty-two pounders French, equal to
forty pounders English, was two feet and a half lower than usual. The
situation of the ship, before she struck on the rocks, has been fully
elucidated by Sir Edward Pellow, in his letter of the 17th of January,
to Mr. Nepeau. The awful task is left for me to relate what ensued.

At about four in the morning a dreadful convulsion, at the foot of the
fore-mast, roused us from a state of anxiety for our fate, to the idea
that the ship was sinking. It was the fore-mast that fell over the
side; in about a quarter of an hour an awful mandate from above was
re-echoed from all parts of the ship; Pouvores Anglais! Pouvores
Anglais! Montez bien vite nous sommes tous perdus!--"poor Englishmen!
poor Englishmen! come on deck as fast as you can, we are all lost!"
Every one rather flew than climbed. Though scarcely able to move
before, from sickness, yet I now felt an energetic strength in all my
frame, and soon gained the upper deck, but what a sight! dead, wounded
and living, intermingled in a state too shocking to describe; not a
mast standing, a dreadful loom of the land, and breakers all around
us.--The Indefatigable, on the starboard quarter, appeared standing
off, in a most tremendous sea, from the Penmark rocks, which
threatened her with instant destruction. To the great humanity of her
commander, those few persons who survived the shipwreck, are indebted
for their lives, for had another broadside been fired, the commanding
situation of the Indefatigable must have swept off at least a thousand
men. On the starboard side was seen the Amazon within two miles, just
struck on the shore. Our own fate drew near. The ship struck and
immediately sunk! Shrieks of horror and dismay were heard from all