*

his generous anxiety for the preservation of every life entrusted to his charge, refused to seek the boat, until he again endeavoured to urge onward the few still around him, who seemed struck dumb and powerless with dismay. But finding all his entreaties fruitless, and hearing the guns, whose tackle was burst asunder by the advancing flames, successively exploding in the hold into which they had fallen, this gallant officer, after having nobly pursued, for the preservation of others, a course of exertion that has been rarely equalled either in its duration or difficulty, at last felt it right to provide for his own safety, by laying hold on the topping-lift, or rope that connects the driver boom with the mizen-top, and thereby getting over the heads of the infatuated men who occupied the boom, unable to go either backward or forward, and ultimately dropping himself into the water.

* Some of those men who were necessarily left behind, having previously conducted themselves with great propriety and courage, I think it but justice to express my belief, that the same difficulties which had nearly proved fatal to Captain Cobb's personal escape, were probably found to be insurmountable by landsmen, whose coolness, unaccompanied with dexterity and experience, might not be available to them in their awful situation.

The means of escape, however, did not cease. to be presented to the unfortunate individuals above referred to, long after Captain Cobb took his departure, since one of the boats persevered in keeping its station under the Kent's stern, not only after all expostulation and entreaty with those on board had failed, but until the flames, bursting forth from the cabin windows, rendered it impossible to remain, without inflicting the greatest cruelty upon the individuals that manned it. But even on the return of the boat in question to the Cambria, with the single soldier who availed himself of it, did Captain Cook, with characteristic jealousy, refuse to allow it to come alongside, until he learned that it was commanded by the spirited young officer, Mr. Thomson, whose indefatigable exertions during the whole day, were to him a sufficient. proof, that all had been done that could be done for the deliverance of those individuals. But the same beneficent Providence which had been so wonderfully exerted for the preservation of hundreds, was pleased, by a still more striking and unquestionable display of power and goodness, to avert the fate of a portion of

* I ought to state that the exertions of Mr. Muir, 3d mate, were also most conspicuous during the whole day.

those few who, we had all too much reason to fear, were doomed to destruction.

It would appear, for the poor men themselves give an extremely confused, though I am persuaded not a wilfully false, account of themselves, that shortly after the departure of the last boat, they were driven by the flames to seek shelter on the chains, where they stood until the masts fell overboard, to which they then clung for some hours, in a state of horror that no language can describe; until they were most providentially, I may say miraculously, discovered and picked up, by the humane master (Bibbey) of the Caroline, a vessel on its passage from Egypt to Liverpool, who happened to see the explosion at a great distance, and instantly made all sail in the direction whence it proceeded. Along with the fourteen men thus miraculously preserved were three others, who had expired before the arrival of the Caroline for their rescue.' *

The men on their return to their regiment expressed themselves in terms of the liveliest gratitude for the affectionate attentions they received on board the Caroline, from Captain Bibbey, who considerately remained till day

* See the Appendix.

light close to the wreck, in the hope that some others might still be found clinging to it;—an act of humanity which, it will appear on the. slightest reflection, would have been madness in Captain Cook, in the peculiar situation of the Cambria, to have attempted.

In reference to this last most melancholy portion of my narrative, I feel it extremely painful to be obliged to hazard an opinion, that if the whole crew of the Kent had put forth, from the beginning, the same generous and seamanlike efforts which several of them undoubtedly did, the few soldiers who were thus left behind would most probably have been safely disposed of before the advance of the flames or their own terror had incapacitated them, in the manner I have endeavoured to describe, from effecting their escape. But if, apart from this grievous consideration, I only recollect the lamentable state of exhaustion to which that portion of the crew were reduced, who unshrinkingly performed to the last their arduous and perilous duties,-and that out of the three boats that remained afloat, one was only prevented from sinking towards the close of the night, by having the hole in its bottom repeatedly stuffed with soldiers' jackets; while the other two were rendered inefficient, the one

.

by having its bow completely stove, and the second by being half filled with water, and the thwarts so torn as to make it necessary to lash the oars to the boat's ribs,-I must believe that, independently of the counteracting circumstances formerly mentioned, all was done that humanity could possibly demand, or intrepidity effect, for the preservation of every individual.

Quitting, for a moment, the subject of the wreck, I would advert to what was in the mean time taking place on board the Cambria. I cannot, however, pretend to give you any adequate idea of the feelings of hope or despair, that alternately flowed, like a tide, in the breasts of the unhappy females on board the brig, during the many hours of torturing suspense in which several of them were unavoidably held, respecting the fate of their husbands;-feelings which were inconceivably excited, rather than soothed, by the idle and erroneous rumours occasionally conveyed to them, regarding the state of the Kent. But still less can I attempt to portray the alternate pictures of awful joy, and of wild distraction, exhibited by the sufferers, (for both parties for the moment seemed equally to suffer,) as the terrible truth was communicated, that they and their children