the thought, that our fire might perhaps be seen in the night, and he taken for a signal of distress; and it was to this circumstance, and to the exertions made by a brave shipmate, that we who now survive, next to Heaven, owe our existence. The boat, that has been mentioned as reported to have escaped, was a small whale boat, which at the time the ship struck was hanging over the quarter, into which the captain’s coxswain (George Smith), an officer, and eight men got; and by immediately lowering themselves into the water, most providentially escaped; they had, however, to toil at their oars for a considerable time, and at length reached the small island of Pora, after having rowed twelve miles against a very high sea, and with the wind blowing exceedingly hard. They found Pora to he scarcely more than a mile in circumference, on which were nothing hut a few sheep and goats that had been placed there by the inhabitants of Cerigo; who in the summer months come over for the breed of those animals, leaving as many as they think sufficient for the returning season. Some rain water in the hole of a rock, was all the fresh water they could find, and that was barely sufficient to last those that afterward remained for four days, although most sparingly used. Our more fortunate companions had not the least idea, that any but themselves could have escaped a destruction which appeared to them so inevitable; but our fire during the night, which they saw, made them conjecture that some had survived. With this idea the coxswain proposed to risk again the boat, and to endeavour to afford those that might be thus left every possible assistance: though this met with some little objection, yet this brave fellow was determined to assist us, and by his persuasions induced four others to accompany him.
“It was about nine o’clock on the morning of Tuesday, the second day of our shipwreck, that we discovered the whale boat coming towards us; when all uttered a cry of joy! If a reprieve gives to the mind of a criminal emotions that may be fatal to him, what must have been our sensations at the sight of our little boat – but alas, many were too, too sanguine, in this expectation: Why had not the rude and boisterous element rather have swallowed up at once those dear fellow-sufferers, who were afterwards doomed to a lingering and melancholy death: Merciful Providence! forgive the agonizing remembrance that inadvertently dared to ask the question. – The writer of this narrative not but with tears recollect their unhappy fate: the remembrance of their looks, their actions, and never-to-be-forgotten friendship are engraven on his heart: The last dying looks of his departed and lamented friends are still before him. It was his first intention to have given a more particular detail of the sufferings of these individuals; but a regard to the feelings of those relatives they have left, prevents him. It would be impossible to describe the surprise which the sight of so many survivors gave to the brave coxswain and his crew; they soon came near us, and we had the happiness to greet our more fortunate shipmates, and to devise a plan for our release: one difficulty occurred, that of their