an to the falls. La Motte and I, with some
others, leaped into the whale-boat just as the ship sank beneath our
feet. We shouted out to the rest of our shipmates that we would try to
pick them up, but we could see no one. Though I said the sea was calmer
than on the other side of the reef, still we had no little difficulty in
keeping the boat from swamping. We could not tell either in which
direction to pull. All we could do, therefore, was to keep the boat's
head to the sea, and wait till daylight, which we knew was not far off.
At length it came, as it always comes at last to the weary and the
watchful, if they will but patiently wait for it. As the dawn gradually
broke we found that we had been drifted into a bay, and that the shore
was not four hundred fathoms from us. There was a good deal of surf
breaking on it, so that it was necessary to use caution in landing.
Waiting out opportunity, we gave way and drove the boat high up on the
beach. A sad sight met our view; the sand on each side was covered with
portions of the wreck and casks of wine, many of them stove in; but
sadder far it was to see the bodies of our late shipmates hove up dead
on the beach, while one or two were still washing to and fro in the
surf, as if the sea were yet loth to give up its dead. Perhaps there is
no more melancholy sight than that for a seaman to behold. We examined
the bodies; they were all dead; but as we looked about we came upon some
marks of feet in the sand, leading up the beach, and this gave us hopes
that some of our companions had escaped. I saw La Motte looking
inquiringly about him. I asked him if he knew where we were.

"Yes, that I do," he answered. "At no great distance from my home.
Come along with me, Weatherhelm. My family will be glad to welcome an
old shipmate."

Just as the sun got up we saw several people approaching, and were truly
glad to find among them our captain and three of the crew. They took
charge of the men who had been saved with us, while I set off with La
Motte to his home. It was a large farm-house standing by itself. He
looked round the building, and in at one or two of the windows, but
could not make up his mind how to announce himself. "I am afraid of
giving some of them a fright if I were to appear too suddenly," he said.
At last he told me that I must go in and tell them that I was a
shipmate of his, and that he would be there soon. So I opened the door,
and an old lady cam