all laid the brig over. The captain sprang on deck and
shouted--

"All hands shorten sail! You, Peter and Jim, up aloft with you and hand
the main-topgallant-sail."

The blast had passed over and the brig had righted. Jim and I ran aloft
to obey the order.

The rest of the people were still on deck except one man, who had gone
up the fore-rigging, about to let fly the sheets and brail up; but,
nearly worn out with labouring at the pumps, they must have very slowly
obeyed the orders they received, for almost before a sheet was let go,
another furious squall struck the brig. Over, over she heeled.

Jim and I slid down into the main-top.

"Hold on, whatever happens," cried Jim.

The warning was given not a moment too soon. There was a fearful
cracking sound, the mast quivered, it was almost right over the water,
and just as the brig was on her beam-ends it gave way, tearing out the
chain-plates on the weather side, and Jim and I were hurled with it into
the raging sea.

I expected every moment that we should be washed off as the mast was
towed along, and so we must have been had not the lee shrouds given way.

To regain the brig was impossible; the next instant the mast was clear
and the brig drove on. Before she had got a cable's length from us the
foremast also went by the board.

We could see no one on it as it was towed along. A minute or more
passed.

The mast to which we clung rose to the top of a sea, we saw the brig
plunge into another. Again we looked, for one instant we saw her stern,
and the next she was gone.

We were too far off to hear a cry. The foremast must have been drawn
down with her. The boats were securely lashed. Nothing that we could
see remained floating. We knew that our late shipmates had perished.

Our own condition was fearful in the extreme. At any moment we might be
washed from our hold! Now our head were under water! Now we rose to
the top of a sea and looked down into a deep gulf below us.

"Hold on; hold on, Peter," cried Jim, who was clinging on the mast close
to me. "Don't give up. Here, I've cut a piece of rope for you. Lash
yourself on with it. I'll get a piece for myself presently."

I wanted him to secure himself first, but he insisted that I should take
the rope, and I lashed myself with it. He soon afterwards secured
himself in the same way. We might thus prolong our lives; but should we
be able to hold out till a passing vessel might pick us u