we hoped that we might reach
smooth water. The sea no longer broke over us.

"What say you, lads? Let's try to give those poor fellows down there a
chance for their lives," cried Jack.

All agreed to the proposal. There were scarcely any Spaniards left to
stop us; and had there been, I do not think they would have ventured to
interfere. I had observed some axes hung up inside the cabin-door, and
seizing them, we tore off the hatches, and leaped down among the
terror-stricken wretches below. Sandy had bethought him of securing
some lanterns, for in the dark we could do nothing. As soon as he had
brought them, and we had got them lighted, Jack singing out,
"_Amigos_!--_amigos_!--have no fear, my hearties!" we set to work with a
right good will, and knocked the fetters off a considerable number of
the unfortunate negroes. The operation was nearly completed, when we
felt another terrific shock vibrate through the ship. Again and again
she struck. We had just time to spring up the main-hatchway, followed
by the howling terrified blacks, when the sides of the ship seemed to
yawn asunder; a foaming wave rushed towards us, and at the same moment a
vivid flash of lightning showed us the shore, not a hundred yards off.

"There's hope yet," I heard Jack exclaim.

There is, after that, a wild confusion in my mind of shrieks and groans;
of foaming, tossing waters; of pieces of plank driven to and fro; of
arms outstretched; of despairing countenances, some pale or livid, some
of ebon hue, lighted up ever and anon by a flash of lightning. I was
clinging, I found, to a small piece of timber torn from the wreck. Now
I was driven near the sands; now carried out to sea; tossed about on the
tops of the foaming waves, rolled over and over, and almost drowned with
the spray. Still I held on convulsively, half conscious only of my
awful position. It seemed rather like some dreadful dream than a
palpable reality. How long I had been tossing about in this way, I knew
not. Daylight had been stealing on even before the final catastrophe
had occurred. At length I know that I felt myself carried near the
sands, and while I was trying to secure a footing, some black figures
rushed into the water and dragged me on shore. My preservers were, I
discovered, some of the negroes who had escaped from the wreck. I was
too much exhausted to stand; so they carried me up out of the reach of
the waves, and laid me on the sands, while they