ead, and we soon felt the cruel certainty that she was
irrecoverably lost.[B3] She bulged in the middle of the night, the keel
broke in two, the helm was unship'd, and held to the stern only by the
chains, which caused it to do dreadful damage; it produced the effect of a
strong horizontal ram, which violently impelled by the waves, continually
struck the poop of the ship; the whole back part of the captain's cabin was
beat in, the water entered in an alarming manner. About eleven o'clock
there was a kind of mutiny, which was afterwards checked by the presence of
the governor and the officers; it was excited by some soldiers, who
persuaded their comrades that it was intended to abandon them on board the
frigate, while the crew escaped in the boats; these alarms were excited by
the imprudence of a young man; some soldiers had already taken their arms,
and had ranged themselves on the deck, all the avenues to which they
occupied.

The raft, impelled by the strength of the current and of the sea, broke the
cable which fastened it to the frigate and began to drive; those who beheld
this accident announced it by their cries, and a boat was immediately sent
after it, which brought it back. This was a distressing night for us all;
agitated by the idea that our frigate was totally lost, and alarmed by the
violent shocks which it received from the waves, we were unable to take a
moment's repose.

At day-break, on the 5th, there were two metres seventy centimetres water
in the hold, and the pumps could no longer work with effect: it was decided
we ought to quit the vessel as soon as possible. The frigate, it was said,
threatened to upset; a childish fear, doubtless; but, what particularly
made it absolutely necessary to abandon her, was, that the water had
already penetrated between decks. A quantity of biscuit was hastily taken
from the store-room; wine and fresh water were also got out; these
provisions were intended to be placed in the boats and on the raft. To
preserve the biscuit from the salt water it was put into strong iron hooped
barrels, which were perfectly fit for the purpose. We are ignorant why
these provisions, so carefully prepared were not embarked either on the
raft or in the boats; the precipitation with which we embarked was the
cause of this negligence, so that some boats did not save above twenty-four
pounds of biscuit, a small cask of water and very little wine: the rest was
abandoned on the deck of the fri