d with great rigour, not being allowed ever to
get out of this den; and, being obliged to eat, drink, sleep,
and obey the calls of nature here, you may form some idea of
the disagreeable situation I must have been in, unable as I
was to help myself (being deprived of the use of both my legs
and hands), but by no means adequate to the reality.

'On the 9th May we left Otaheite, and proceeded to the
Friendly Islands, and about the beginning of August, got in
among the reefs of New Holland, to endeavour to discover a
passage through them; but it was not effected, for the
_Pandora_, ever unlucky, and as if devoted by heaven to
destruction, was driven by a current upon the patch of a reef,
and on which, there being a heavy surf, she was soon almost
bulged to pieces; but having thrown all the guns on one side
overboard, and the tide flowing at the same time, she beat
over the reef into a basin and brought up in fourteen or
fifteen fathoms; but she was so much damaged while on the
reef, that imagining she would go to pieces every moment, we
had contrived to wrench ourselves out of our irons, and
applied to the captain to have mercy on us, and suffer us to
take our chance for the preservation of our lives; but it was
all in vain--he was even so inhuman as to order us all to be
put in irons again, though the ship was expected to go down
every moment, being scarcely able to keep her under with all
the pumps at work.

'In this miserable situation, with an expected death before
our eyes, without the least hope of relief, and in the most
trying state of suspense, we spent the night, the ship being
by the hand of Providence kept up till the morning. The boats
by this time had all been prepared; and as the captain and
officers were coming upon the poop or roof of our prison, to
abandon the ship, the water being then up to the coamings of
the hatchways, we again implored his mercy; upon which he sent
the corporal and an armourer down to let some of us out of
irons, but three only were suffered to go up, and the scuttle
being then clapped on, and the master-at-arms upon it, the
armourer had only time to let two persons out of irons, the
rest, except three, letting themselves out; two of these three
went down with them on their hands, and the third