ght to check her, she struck upon a reef of coral rocks
which lies parallel to the shore, and in a few strokes was
bulged.

When the carpenter reported to me, that the water flowed fast
into the hold; I ordered the masts to be cut away, which was
immediately done. There was some chance, when the ship was
lightened of this weight, that by the surges of the sea, which
were very heavy, she might be thrown so far in up the reef, as to
afford some prospect of saving the lives of those on board, if
she should prove strong enough to bear the shocks she received
from every sea.

It was now about eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and after the
masts were gone, all hands were employed in getting out of the
hold such provisions as could be come at, and securing them upon
the gun-deck, that they might be at hand in case any opportunity
offered of floating them on shore.

In the evening the wind freshened still more, and the surf was
considerably increased; in consequence of which, it was strongly
recommended by the gentlemen on shore, who knew the place much
better than we could, that every person should quit the ship: for
this purpose the end of a small rope was floated through the
surf, and over the reef, to the shore, by an empty cask; and by
that rope a seven inch hawser was hauled on shore, with a wooden
heart upon it for a traveller, and the end was made fast to a
tree.

By this traveller I corresponded with those on shore, and
received their opinions. To the traveller three or four sailors
at a time were made fast, and were hauled by the people on shore
through the surf, and over a ragged reef to the land; another
part this evening, and the remainder the next day. The whole crew
were intended to have been landed that night, but when it became
dark the hauling rope of the traveller got often foul of the
rocks, which might have occasioned the drowning of those who were
at such a time on the traveller: for the long scope of hawser
(nearly the length of two hawsers) by the weight of three or four
people, was more than two-thirds of the way in the surf, and the
men on it under water.

The second day after the landing of the crew, the weather
being more moderate, and the surf less dangerous, a few of the
seamen, who could depend, in case of accident, upon their good
swimming, were got on board by the hawser, and the utmost
exertion used to get some part of the provisions sent on shore;
but it was the fifth day before any c