ors being too small to hold any more.

Stewart assured that the slippery surface of the rock where he had
stood when fastening the rope, would not afford sufficient space for
all on board, even to stand upon, was half in despair, but just at the
moment however, that the boat containing the colonel's wife, her two
children, and the surgeon of the regiment, pushed off from the ship,
the fog lifted and parting at the coast, showed another rock of
greater height and broader extent a few yards distant from the one on
which he stood. The boat almost touched the one first reached--he gave
the sailors a sign--it was understood, and they rowed to the second
rock where the surf was much less dangerous, and the breakers small in
comparison with those that beat against the other. A better landing
was to be obtained here, and without the loss of a single life or any
untoward occurrence, the women and children reached this place of
safety if not of comfort Whilst this was being done, they made a
running noose to slip along on the rope that Stewart had fastened to
the rock on which he now stood, which rope as we before have said
reached to the ship. By this contrivance the officers and most of the
soldiers attained the smaller rock, and in the course of two or three
hours all on board were safely rescued. By a merciful Providence the
ship groaning, creaking, tottering, and gradually sinking, just kept
above the water until the last man was taken off; then a surging wave
dashed over her, and she was seen no more--a few circling eddies alone
showed the spot where she went down.

When the men who, as we have said had landed on the smaller rock had
assembled, they found it incapable of holding so many--all could not
stand in the narrow space its surface afforded, and too closely
crowded, they could not resist the pressure of the waves that
sometimes broke over it. The higher rock where the women and children
were landed showed that there was still room for many more of the
shipwrecked; the colonel, therefore, proposed that the officers should
be rowed thither in the boat, but to this the soldiers would not
listen. With death staring them in the face, they declared all
subordination was at an end--that preference on account of rank and
birth was not to be thought of--all were now on an equality, life was
as dear to the meanest soldier as to the highest in command; no! no
preference should be given--it must be decided by lot, who should go