elapsed since the commencement of the action, without the arrival of a single boat from any one of the squadron, or even a signal being made to her, Captain Willoughby now ordered the feebly maintained fire of the Nereide to cease, and the few survivors of the crew to shelter themselves in the lower part of the ship. He then sent acting Lieutenant William Weiss (a very young man who had not yet served his full time as a midshipman), with one of the two remaining boats, on board the Sirius, “to acquaint Captain Pym with the defenceless state of the ship; leaving it to his judgment, as the senior officer, whether or not it was practicable to tow the Nereide beyond the reach of the enemy’s shot, or to take out the wounded and set her on fire; an act that would have greatly endangered, and might have been the means of destroying the Bellone herself, as well as the whole cluster of grounded ships, the situation of which cannot be better expressed than in the words of Captain Pym himself, – ‘the whole of the enemy on shore in a heap[1].’”
At about 10-46 P.M., a boat from the Sirius, with an officer of that frigate, also Lieutenant Davis of the engineers, and Mr. Weiss, whose boat had been sunk before he got well alongside of the commodore, reached la Nereide, with a message from Captain Pym, requesting her persevering commander to abandon his ship and come on board the Sirius; but, with a feeling that did him honor. Captain Willoughby sent back word that he would not quit her, until every officer and man was first removed[2].
Although Captain Willoughby refused to leave his ship, he ordered all the wounded officers to be taken on board the Sirius, and they, of course, gladly availed themselves of the opportunity, with the exception of the master, who, not being dangerously hurt, remained with his heroic commander. At that period no one on beard la Nereide supposed that the Sirius was in danger of being lost: on the contrary, those who were removed to the latter ship felt happy in having thus escaped being made prisoners, seeing that they had no-
