impetuously charioting the trunks of trees. A
kelpie might have dreaded to attempt the passage; we may conceive this
brave but unfortunate and now ruined man to have found a natural joy in
the exposure of his life; and twice that day, coming and going, he braved
the fury of the river. It was possible, in spite of the darkness of the
hurricane and the continual breaching of the seas, to remark human
movements on the _Adler_; and by the help of Samoans, always nobly
forward in the work, whether for friend or enemy, Knappe sought long to
get a line conveyed from shore, and was for long defeated. The shore
guard of fifty men stood to their arms the while upon the beach, useless
themselves, and a great deterrent of Samoan usefulness. It was perhaps
impossible that this mistake should be avoided. What more natural, to
the mind of a European, than that the Mataafas should fall upon the
Germans in this hour of their disadvantage? But they had no other
thought than to assist; and those who now rallied beside Knappe braved
(as they supposed) in doing so a double danger, from the fury of the sea
and the weapons of their enemies. About nine, a quarter-master swam
ashore, and reported all the officers and some sixty men alive but in
pitiable case; some with broken limbs, others insensible from the
drenching of the breakers. Later in the forenoon, certain valorous
Samoans succeeded in reaching the wreck and returning with a line; but it
was speedily broken; and all subsequent attempts proved unavailing, the
strongest adventurers being cast back again by the bursting seas.
Thenceforth, all through that day and night, the deafened survivors must
continue to endure their martyrdom; and one officer died, it was supposed
from agony of mind, in his inverted cabin.

Three ships still hung on the next margin of destruction, steaming
desperately to their moorings, dashed helplessly together. The
_Calliope_ was the nearest in; she had the _Vandalia_ close on her port
side and a little ahead, the _Olga_ close a-starboard, the reef under her
heel; and steaming and veering on her cables, the unhappy ship fenced
with her three dangers. About a quarter to nine she carried away the
_Vandalia's_ quarter gallery with her jib-boom; a moment later, the
_Olga_ had near rammed her from the other side. By nine the _Vandalia_
dropped down on her too fast to be avoided, and clapped her stern under
the bowsprit of the English ship, the fastenings of