his friend watched the
foaming masses of water, as they came roaring towards them, with no
little anxiety; but by pulling round to face the larger ones, and by
then rapidly giving way, the boat at length got under the lee of the
islet. To obtain footing on the slippery rock was a work of
considerable difficulty, and still greater was it to climb to the summit
and to convey them the ropes and spars which they had brought with them.
Some of the men remained to take care of the boat, for that alone was
not an easy task, as had she been carried away by the sea, the whole
party might have been starved before assistance could have come to them.
The remainder proceeded, as rapidly as they could, across the island.
With more anxiety than they had often felt, Morton and the captain
hurried towards the edge of the cliff. Before even reaching it the
appearance which the foaming water presented, even some way from the
shore, told them too plainly the destruction which had already occurred;
while the fearful shrieks, which even through the roar of the angry
waters came up from below, warned them that every instant fresh victims
were being added to those who had already fallen a sacrifice to the
tempest.

Among fragments of masts, and spars, and planks, and other parts of the
ship, were seen the forms of numerous human beings, some yet struggling,
but struggling in vain, for life; others floating helplessly among the
pieces of wreck, or clinging to them with a convulsive clutch, while
many, already lifeless, were tossed to and fro in the boiling caldron,
happier than those who were seen every now and then, as they were swept
off, to throw up their arms, and then, with a fearful shriek of despair,
to sink from sight.

On gaining the edge of the cliff, Morton and Captain Mainland threw
themselves on the ground and looked over. The fore part of the vessel
had already been knocked to pieces. A few men still clung to part of
the bulwarks in the waist; but the sea was making a clean breach over
it, and one by one they were torn from their treacherous hold and
carried off by the waves. The only part of the wreck which yet afforded
a precarious shelter was the poop. The mainmast, in falling, had been
washed across it, and the end jamming against the cliff, it formed a
breakwater, within which a group of people yet stood, almost paralysed
with terror and despair, for the precipitous cliff above them afforded
not the slightest prospect