quarters, while the merciless waves tore from the wreck many early
victims. Day-light appeared, and we beheld the shore lined with people
who could render us no assistance. At low water, rafts were
constructed, and the boats were got in readiness to be hoisted out.
The dusk arrived, and an awful sight ensued. The dawn of the second
day brought with it still severer miseries than the first, for the
wants of nature could scarcely be endured any longer, having been
already near thirty hours without any means of subsistence, and no
possibility of procuring them.

At low water a small boat was hoisted out, and an English captain and
eight sailors succeeded in getting to the shore.--Elated at the
success of these men all thought their deliverance at hand, and many
launched out on their rafts, but, alas! death soon ended their hopes.

Another night renewed our afflictions. The morning of the third,
fraught with still greater evils, appeared; our continued sufferings
made us exert the last effort, and we English prisoners, tried every
means to save as many of our fellow creatures as lay in our power.
Larger rafts were constructed, and the largest boat was got over the
side. The first consideration was to lay the surviving wounded, the
women and helpless men in the boat, but the idea of equality, so
fatally promulgated among the French, destroyed all subordination, and
nearly one hundred and twenty having jumped into the boat, in defiance
of their officers, they sunk her.--The most dreadful sea that I ever
saw seemed at that moment to aggravate our calamity; nothing of the
boat was seen for a quarter of an hour, when the bodies floated in
all directions; then appeared, in all their horrors, the wreck, the
shores, the dying and the drowned! Indefatigable in acts of humanity,
an adjutant general, Renier, launched himself into the sea, to obtain
succours from the shore, and perished in the attempt.

Nearly one half the people had already perished, when the horrors of
the fourth night renewed all our miseries. Weak, distracted, and
destitute of every thing, we envied the fate of those whose lifeless
corpses no longer wanted sustenance.--The sense of hunger was already
lost, but a parching thirst consumed our vitals. Recourse was had to
urine and salt water, which only increased the wants; half a hogshead
of vinegar indeed floated up, of which each had half a wine glass; it
afforded a momentary relief, but soon left us again in the