ward and his wife were to be in the same boat with me, and
I had put her carefully in the sternsheets, for I was her great friend.
Now the steward was called out by the captain to go for something which
had been forgotten; and while he was away the ship was struck by a heavy
sea, which occasioned such a breach over her that all was in confusion,
and, to prevent the small boats from swamping, they were pushed off. The
launch still held on for the captain, who hastened in with the mate and
the steward, for they were the only three left on board; and away we all
went. I mention this as the cause why the steward was separated (only
for a time, as we supposed) from his wife. We had not been clear of the
ship more than five minutes before we found that we, in our boat, could
hardly make head 'gainst the wind and swell, which bore down on the reef
close to us; the launch, which was a heavy-pulling boat and deeply
laden, could not; and in a quarter of an hour we had the misery to see
her in the breakers, swallowed up with all hands, together with all the
provisions and water for our sustenance. I will not attempt to describe
the agony of the steward's wife, who saw her husband perish before her
eyes. She fainted; and it was a long time before she came to again; for
no one could leave his oar for a minute to assist her, as we pulled for
our lives. At last she did come to. Poor thing! I felt for her. Toward
night the wind lulled, and we had every appearance of fine weather
coming on; but we had nothing to eat, and only a barrico of water in the
boat, and we were quite exhausted with fatigue.

"'We knew that we must pull to the northward, and try and fetch the
Bahama Isles, or, perhaps, some of the small quays to the southward of
them, where we might procure turtle, and, perhaps, water; and when the
sea had gone down, which it did very fast, we put the head of our boat
in that direction, pulling all night. At daybreak the other boat was not
to be seen; it was a dead clam, but there was still a long heavy swell.
We shared out some water and rested till the evening, and then we took
to our oars again.

"'We rowed hard till the morning, but when the sun rose it scorched us
up. It was impossible for us to keep to our oars without drinking, and,
there being no one to take the command, our water was all gone, and we
had not gained fifty miles to the northward. On the third morning we
laid down exhausted at the bottom of the boat--we wer