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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the
+Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay
+       Narrated in a Letter to a Friend
+
+Author: Duncan McGregor
+
+Release Date: March 3, 2008 [EBook #24745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOSS OF THE KENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ESCAPING FROM THE BURNING SHIP.]
+
+   THE LOSS
+   OF THE
+   KENT EAST INDIAMAN
+   IN THE BAY OF BISCAY.
+
+   NARRATED IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND
+
+   BY
+
+   GENERAL SIR DUNCAN MACGREGOR, K.C.B.
+
+   _NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS._
+
+   THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
+   56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;
+   AND 164, PICCADILLY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE.
+
+The older I grow, and I am now in my 94th year, I am the more convinced
+of the special interposition of Divine Providence in the winter
+recorded, in the following Tract.
+
+The Author
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE LOSS OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.
+
+
+MY DEAR E----,
+
+You are aware that the _Kent_, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of
+1,350 tons, bound to Bengal and China, left the Downs on the 19th of
+February, with 20 officers, 344 soldiers, 43 women, and 66 children,
+belonging to the 31st regiment; with 20 private passengers, and a crew
+(including officers) of 148 men--in all, 641 persons on board.
+
+The bustle attendant on a departure for India is calculated to subdue
+the force of those deeply painful sensations to which few men can refuse
+to yield, in the immediate prospect of a long and distant separation
+from the land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With my
+gallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is remarkably
+characteristic of the professions to which they belonged, hope appeared
+greatly to predominate over sadness. Surrounded as they were by every
+circumstance that could render their voyage propitious, and in the ample
+enjoyment of every necessary that could contribute either to their
+health or their comfort, their hearts seemed to beat high with
+contentment and gratitude towards that country which they zealously
+served, and whose interests they were cheerfully going forth to defend.
+
+With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately _Kent_, in
+bearing down the Channel, speedily passed many a well-known spot on the
+coast dear to our remembrance; and on the evening of the 23rd we took
+our last view of happy England, and entered the wide Atlantic, without
+the expectation of again seeing land until we reached the shores of
+India.
+
+With slight interruptions of bad weather, we continued to make way until
+the night of Monday, the 28th, when we were suddenly arrested in lat.
+47° 30´, long. 10°, by a violent gale from the south-west, which
+gradually increased during the whole of the following morning.
+
+To those who have never "gone down to the sea in ships, and seen the
+wonders of the Lord in the great deep," or even to such as have never
+been exposed in a westerly gale to the tremendous swell in the Bay of
+Biscay, I am sensible that the most sober description of the magnificent
+spectacle of "watery hills in full succession flowing" would appear
+sufficiently exaggerated. But it is impossible, I think, for the
+inexperienced mariner, however unreflecting he may try to be, to view
+the effects of the increasing storm, as he feels his solitary vessel
+reeling to and fro under his feet, without involuntarily raising his
+thoughts, with a secret confession of helplessness and veneration that
+he may never before have experienced, towards that Being whose power,
+under ordinary circumstances, we may have disregarded, and whose
+incessant goodness we are prone to requite with ingratitude.
+
+The activity of the officers and seamen of the _Kent_ appeared to keep
+ample pace with that of the gale. Our larger sails were speedily taken
+in or closely reefed; and about ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st of
+March, after having struck our top-gallant yards, we were lying to,
+under a triple-reefed maintop-sail only, with the deadlights in, and
+with the whole watch of soldiers attached to the life lines, that were
+run along the deck for this purpose.
+
+The rolling of the ship, which was vastly increased by a dead weight of
+some hundred tons of shots and shell that formed a part of its lading,
+became so great about half-past eleven or twelve o'clock, that our main
+chains were thrown by every lurch considerably under water; and the best
+cleated articles of furniture in the cabins and the cuddy were dashed
+about with so much noise and violence as to excite the liveliest
+apprehensions of individual danger.
+
+It was a little before this period that one of the officers of the ship,
+with the well-meant intention of ascertaining that all was fast below,
+descended with two of the sailors into the hold, where they carried with
+them, for safety, a light in the patent lantern; and seeing that the
+lamp burned dimly, the officer took the precaution to hand it up to the
+orlop deck to be trimmed. Having afterwards discovered one of the spirit
+casks to be adrift, he sent the sailors for some billets of wood to
+secure it; but the ship in their absence having made a heavy lurch, the
+officer unfortunately dropped the light; and letting go his hold of the
+cask in his eagerness to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and the
+spirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was instantly in a
+blaze.
+
+I know not what steps were then taken. I myself had been engaged during
+the greater part of the morning in double-lashing and otherwise securing
+the furniture in my cabin, and in occasionally going to the cuddy, where
+the marine barometers were suspended, to mark their varying indications
+during the gale, in my journal; and it was on one of those occasions,
+after having read to Mrs. ----, at her request, the twelfth chapter of
+St. Luke, which so beautifully declares and illustrates the minute and
+tender providence of God, and so solemnly urges on all the necessity of
+continual watchfulness and readiness for the "coming of the Son of man,"
+that I received from Captain Spence, the captain of the day, the
+alarming information that the ship was on fire in the afterhold. On
+hastening to the hatchway, whence smoke was slowly ascending, I found
+Captain Cobb and other officers giving orders, which seemed to be
+promptly obeyed by the seamen and troops, who used every exertion by
+means of the pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, hammocks, &c., to
+extinguish the flames.
+
+With a view to excite among the ladies as little alarm as possible, in
+conveying this intelligence to Colonel Fearon, the commanding officer of
+the troops, I knocked gently at his cabin door, and expressed a wish to
+speak with him; but whether my countenance betrayed the state of my
+feelings, or the increasing noise and confusion upon deck created
+apprehensions amongst them that the storm was assuming a more serious
+aspect, I found it difficult to pacify some of the ladies by repeated
+assurances that no danger whatever was to be apprehended from the gale.
+As long as the devouring element appeared to be confined to the spot
+where the fire originated, and which we were assured was surrounded on
+all sides by the water casks, we ventured to cherish hopes that it might
+be subdued; but no sooner was the light blue vapour that at first arose
+succeeded by volumes of thick, dingy smoke--which speedily ascending
+through all the four hatchways, rolled over every part of the ship--than
+all further concealment became impossible, and almost all hope of
+preserving the vessel was abandoned. "The flames have reached the cable
+tier," was exclaimed by some individuals, and the strong pitchy smell
+that pervaded the deck confirmed the truth of the exclamation.
+
+In these awful circumstances, Captain Cobb, with an ability and decision
+that seemed to increase with the imminence of the danger, resorted to
+the only alternative now left him, of ordering the lower decks to be
+scuttled, the combings of the hatches to be cut, and the lower ports to
+be opened, for the free admission of the waves.
+
+These instructions were speedily executed by the united efforts of the
+troops and seamen; but not before some of the sick soldiers, one woman,
+and several children, unable to gain the upper deck, had perished. On
+descending to the gun deck with Colonel Fearon, Captain Bray, and one or
+two other officers of the 31st regiment, to assist in opening the ports,
+I met, staggering towards the hatchway, in an exhausted and nearly
+senseless state, one of the mates, who informed us that he had just
+stumbled over the dead bodies of some individuals who must have died
+from suffocation, to which it was evident that he himself had almost
+fallen a victim. So dense and oppressive was the smoke, that it was with
+the utmost difficulty we could remain long enough below to fulfil
+Captain Cobb's wishes; which were no sooner accomplished, than the sea
+rushed in with extraordinary force, carrying away, in its resistless
+progress to the hold, the largest chests, bulk-heads, etc.
+
+Such a sight, under any other conceivable circumstances, was well
+calculated to have filled us with horror; but in our natural solicitude
+to avoid the more immediate peril of explosion, we endeavoured to cheer
+each other, as we stood up to our knees in water, with the faint hope
+that by these violent means we might be speedily restored to safety. The
+immense quantity of water that was thus introduced into the hold had
+indeed the effect, for a time, of checking the fury of the flames; but
+the danger of sinking having increased as the risk of explosion was
+diminished, the ship became water-logged, and presented other
+indications of settling previous to her going down.
+
+Death in two of its most awful forms now encompassed us, and we seemed
+left to choose the terrible alternative. But always preferring the more
+remote, though equally certain crisis, we tried to shut the ports again,
+to close the hatches, and to exclude the external air, in order, if
+possible, to prolong our existence, the near and certain termination of
+which appeared inevitable.
+
+The scene of horror that now presented itself baffles all description;--
+
+   "Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;
+   Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave."
+
+The upper deck was covered with between six and seven hundred human
+beings, many of whom, from previous sea-sickness, were forced, on the
+first alarm, to flee from below almost in a state of nakedness, and were
+now running about in quest of husbands, children, or parents. While some
+were standing in silent resignation, or in stupid insensibility to their
+impending fate, others were yielding themselves up to the most frantic
+despair. Some on their knees were earnestly imploring, with significant
+gesticulations and in noisy supplications, the mercy of Him whose arm,
+they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite them; others were to
+be seen hastily crossing themselves, and performing the various external
+acts required by their peculiar persuasion; while a number of the older
+and more stout-hearted soldiers and sailors sullenly took their seats
+directly over the magazine; hoping, as they stated, that by means of the
+explosion which they every instant expected, a speedier termination
+might be put to their sufferings.[1] Several of the soldiers' wives and
+children, who had fled for temporary shelter into the after cabins on
+the upper decks, were engaged in prayer and in reading the Scriptures
+with the ladies; some of whom were enabled, with wonderful
+self-possession, to offer to others those spiritual consolations which a
+firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world appeared at this
+awful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment of
+two young ladies,[2] in particular, formed a specimen of natural
+strength of mind, finely modified by Christian feeling, that failed not
+to attract the notice and admiration of every one who had an opportunity
+of witnessing it. On the melancholy announcement being made to them that
+all hope must be relinquished, and that death was rapidly and inevitably
+approaching, one of the ladies above referred to, calmly sinking down on
+her knees, and clasping her hands together, said, "Even so, come, Lord
+Jesus," and immediately proposed to read a portion of the Scriptures to
+those around her. Her sister with nearly equal composure and
+collectedness of mind selected the forty-sixth and other appropriate
+Psalms, which were accordingly read, with intervals of prayer, by those
+ladies alternately to the assembled females.
+
+One young gentleman, of whose promising talents and piety I dare not now
+make further mention, having calmly asked me my opinion respecting the
+state of the ship, I told him that I thought we should be prepared to
+sleep that night in eternity; and I shall never forget the peculiar
+fervour with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, "My heart
+is filled with the peace of God;" adding, "yet, though I know it is
+foolish, I dread exceedingly the last struggle."
+
+Amongst the numerous objects that struck my observation at this period I
+was much affected with the appearance and conduct of some of the dear
+children, who, quite unconscious, in the cuddy cabins, of the perils
+that surrounded them, continued to play as usual with their little toys
+in bed, or to put the most innocent and unseasonable questions to those
+around them. To some of the older children, who seemed fully alive to
+the reality of the danger, I whispered, "Now is the time to put in
+practice the instructions you used to receive at the Regimental School,
+and to think of that Saviour of whom you have heard so much." They
+replied, as the tears ran down their cheeks, "Oh, sir, we are trying to
+remember them, and we are praying to God."
+
+The passive condition to which we were all reduced by the total failure
+of our most strenuous exertions, while it was well calculated, and
+probably designed, to convince us afterwards that our deliverance was
+effected, not by our own might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord,
+afforded us ample room at the moment for deep and awful reflection,
+which, it is to be earnestly wished, may have been improved, as well by
+those who were eventually saved as by those who perished.
+
+It has been observed by the author of the Retrospect, that "in the heat
+of battle, it is not only possible but easy to forget death, and cease
+to think; but in the cool and protracted hours of a shipwreck, where
+there is often nothing to engage the mind but the recollection of tried
+and unsuccessful labours, and the sight of unavoidable and increasing
+harbingers of destruction, it is not easy or possible to forget
+ourselves or a future state."
+
+The general applicability of the latter part of this proposition I am
+disposed to doubt; for if I were to judge of the feelings of all on
+board by those of the number who were heard to express them, I should
+apprehend that a large majority of those men, whose previous attention
+has never been fairly and fully directed to the great subject of
+religion, approach the gates of death, it may be with solemnity, or with
+terror, but without any definable or tangible conviction of the fact
+that after death cometh the judgment.
+
+Several there were who vowed in loud and piteous cries, that if the Lord
+God would spare their lives, they would thenceforward dedicate all their
+powers to His service; and not a few were heard to exclaim, in the
+bitterness of remorse, that the judgments of the Most High were justly
+poured out upon them for their neglected Sabbaths, and their profligate
+or profane lives; but the number of those was extremely small who
+appeared to dwell either with lively hope or dread on the view of an
+opening eternity. And as a further evidence of the truth of this
+observation, I may mention that when I afterwards had occasion to mount
+the mizen shrouds, I there met with a young man, who had brought me a
+letter of introduction from our excellent friend, Dr. G--n, to whom I
+felt it my duty, while we were rocking on the mast, quietly to propose
+the great question, "What must we do to be saved?" and this young
+gentleman has since informed Mr. P. that though he was at that moment
+fully persuaded of the certainty of immediate death, yet the subject of
+eternity, in any form, had not once flashed upon his mind previous to my
+conversation.
+
+While we thus lay in a state of physical inertion, but with all our
+mental faculties in rapid and painful activity--with the waves lashing
+furiously against the sides of our devoted ship, as if in anger with the
+hostile element for not more speedily performing its office of
+destruction,--the binnacle, by one of those many lurches which were
+driving everything movable from side to side of the vessel, was suddenly
+wrenched from its fastenings, and all the apparatus of the compass
+dashed to pieces upon the deck; on which one of the young mates,
+emphatically regarding it for a moment, cried out with the emotion so
+natural to a sailor under such circumstances, "What! is the _Kent's_
+compass really gone?" leaving the bystanders to form, from that omen,
+their own conclusions. One promising young officer of the troops was
+seen thoughtfully removing from his writing-case a lock of hair, which
+he composedly deposited in his bosom; and another officer procuring
+paper and pens, addressed a short communication to his father, which was
+afterwards carefully enclosed in a bottle, in the hope that it might
+eventually reach its destination, with the view, as he stated, of
+relieving him from the long years of fruitless anxiety and suspense
+which our melancholy fate would awaken, and of bearing his humble
+testimony, at a moment when his sincerity could scarcely be questioned,
+to the faithfulness of that God in whose mercy he trusted, and whose
+peace he largely enjoyed in the tremendous prospect of immediate
+dissolution.[3] It was at this appalling instant, when "all hope that we
+should be saved was then taken away," and when the letter referred to
+was about being committed to the waves, that it occurred to Mr. Thomson,
+the fourth mate, to send a man to the fore-top, rather with the ardent
+wish than the expectation, that some friendly sail might be
+discovered on the face of the waters. The sailor, on mounting, threw his
+eyes round the horizon for a moment--a moment of unutterable
+suspense--and waving his hat exclaimed, "A sail on the lee bow!" The
+joyful announcement was received with deep-felt thanksgivings, and with
+three cheers, upon deck. Our flags of distress were instantly hoisted,
+and our minute guns fired; and we endeavoured to bear down under our
+three top-sails and fore-sail upon the stranger, which afterwards proved
+to be the _Cambria_,[4] a small brig of 200 tons burden, Captain Cook,
+bound to Vera Cruz, having on board twenty or thirty Cornish miners, and
+other agents of the Anglo-Mexican Company.
+
+[Illustration: The ship the Kent Indiaman is on fire--Elizabeth Joanna &
+myself commit our spirits into the hands of our blessed Redeemer.
+
+His grace enables us to be quite composed in the awful prospect of
+entering eternity D MacGregor 1st March 1825----Bay of Biscay]
+
+For ten or fifteen minutes we were left in doubt whether the crew of the
+brig perceived our signals, or perceiving them, were either disposed or
+able to lend us any assistance. From the violence of the gale, it seems
+that the report of our guns was not heard; but the ascending volumes of
+smoke from the ship sufficiently announced the dreadful nature of our
+distress; and we had the satisfaction, after a short period of dark
+suspense, to see the brig hoist British colours, and crowd all sail to
+hasten to our relief.
+
+Although it was impossible, and would have been improper, to repress the
+rising hopes that were pretty generally diffused amongst us by the
+unexpected sight of the _Cambria_, yet I confess, that when I reflected
+on the long period our ship had been already burning--on the tremendous
+sea that was running--on the extreme smallness of the brig, and the
+immense number of human beings to be saved, I could only venture to hope
+that a few might be spared; but I durst not for a moment contemplate the
+possibility of my own preservation.
+
+[Illustration: SAVED FROM THE WRECK.]
+
+While Captain Cobb, Colonel Fearon, and Major MacGregor of the 31st
+regiment, were consulting together, as the brig was approaching us, on
+the necessary preparations for getting out the boats, etc., one of the
+officers asked Major MacGregor in what order it was intended the
+officers should move off; to which the other replied, "Of course in
+funeral order;" which injunction was instantly confirmed by Colonel
+Fearon, who said, "Most undoubtedly, the juniors first; but see that any
+man is cut down who presumes to enter the boats before the means of
+escape are presented to the women and children."
+
+To prevent the rush to the boats as they were being lowered, which, from
+certain symptoms of impatience manifested both by soldiers and sailors,
+there was reason to fear, some of the military officers were stationed
+over them with drawn swords. But from the firm determination which these
+exhibited, and the great subordination observed, with few exceptions, by
+the troops, this proper precaution was afterwards rendered unnecessary.
+
+Arrangements having been made by Captain Cobb for placing in the first
+boat, previous to letting it down, all the ladies, and as many of the
+soldiers' wives as it could safely contain, they hurriedly wrapped
+themselves up in whatever articles of clothing could be found; and I
+think about two, or half-past two o'clock, a most mournful procession
+advanced from the after cabins to the starboard cuddy port, outside of
+which the cutter was suspended. Scarcely a word was uttered--not a
+scream was heard--even the infants ceased to cry, as if conscious of the
+unspoken and unspeakable anguish that was at that instant rending the
+hearts of their parting parents; nor was the silence of voices in any
+way broken, except in one or two cases, where the ladies plaintively
+entreated permission to be left behind with their husbands. But on being
+assured that every moment's delay might occasion the sacrifice of a
+human life, they successively suffered themselves to be torn from the
+tender embrace, and with that fortitude which never fails to
+characterize and adorn their sex on occasions of overwhelming trial,
+were placed, without a murmur, in the boat, which was immediately
+lowered into a sea so tempestuous as to leave us only to hope against
+hope that it should live in it for a single moment. Twice the cry was
+heard from those on the chains that the boat was swamping. But He who
+enabled the apostle Peter to walk on the face of the deep, and was
+graciously attending to the earnest aspirations of those on board, had
+decreed its safety.
+
+Although Captain Cobb had used every precaution to diminish the danger
+of the boat's descent, by stationing a man with an axe to cut away the
+tackle from either extremity, should the slightest difficulty occur in
+unhooking it; yet the peril attending the whole operation, which can
+only be adequately estimated by nautical men, had very nearly proved
+fatal to its numerous inmates.
+
+After one or two unsuccessful attempts to place the little frail bark
+fairly upon the surface of the water, the command was at length given to
+unhook; the tackle at the stern was, in consequence, immediately
+cleared; but the ropes at the bow having got foul, the sailor found it
+impossible to obey the order. In vain was the axe applied to the
+entangled tackle; the moment was inconceivably critical, as the boat,
+which necessarily followed the motion of the ship, was gradually rising
+out of the water, and must, in another instant, have been hanging
+perpendicularly by the bow, and its helpless passengers launched into
+the deep, had not a most providential wave suddenly struck and lifted up
+the stern, so as to enable the seamen to disengage the tackle. The boat
+being thus dexterously cleared from the ship, was seen after a while
+from the poop, battling with the billows,--now raised, in its progress
+to the brig, like a speck on their summit, and then disappearing for
+several seconds, as if engulfed "in the horrid vale" between them.[5]
+
+The _Cambria_ having prudently lain to at some distance from the _Kent_,
+lest she should be involved in her explosion, or exposed to the fire
+from her guns, which, being all shotted, afterwards went off as the
+flames successively reached them, the men had a considerable way to row;
+and the success of this first experiment seeming to be the measure of
+our future hopes, the movements of this precious boat--incalculably
+precious, without doubt, to the agonized husbands and fathers
+immediately connected with it--were watched with intense anxiety by all
+on board.
+
+The better to balance the boat in the raging sea through which it had to
+pass, and to enable the seamen to ply their oars, the women and children
+were stowed promiscuously under the seats, and consequently exposed to
+the risk of being drowned by the continual dashing of the spray over
+their heads, which so filled the boat during the passages that before
+their arrival at the brig the poor females were sitting up to the waist
+in water, and their children kept with the greatest difficulty above it.
+
+However, in the course of twenty minutes the little cutter was seen
+alongside the ark of refuge; and the first human being that happened to
+be admitted, out of the vast assemblage that ultimately found shelter
+there, was the infant son of Major MacGregor, a child of only a few
+weeks old, who was caught from his mother's arms and lifted into the
+brig by Mr. Thomson, the fourth mate of the _Kent_, the officer who had
+been ordered to take charge of the ladies' boat.[6]
+
+But the extreme difficulty and danger presented to the women and
+children in getting into the _Cambria_ seemed scarcely less imminent
+than that which they had previously encountered; for to prevent the boat
+from swamping or being stove against the side of the brig, while its
+passengers were disembarking, required no ordinary exercise of skill
+and perseverance on the part of the sailors, and of self-possession and
+effort on that of the females themselves. On coming alongside of the
+_Cambria_, Captain Cook very judiciously called first for the children,
+who were successively thrown or handed up from the boat. The women were
+then urged to avail themselves of every favourable heave of the sea by
+springing towards the many friendly arms that were extended from the
+vessel to receive them; and, notwithstanding the deplorable
+consequence of making a false step under such critical circumstances,
+not a single accident occurred to any individual belonging to the first
+boat. Indeed, the only one whose life appears to have been placed in
+extreme jeopardy alongside was one of the ladies, who, in attempting to
+spring from the boat, came short of the hand that was held out to her,
+and would certainly have perished, had she not most happily caught hold
+at the instant of a rope that happened to be hanging over the
+_Cambria's_ side, to which she clung for some moments, until she was
+dragged into the vessel.
+
+I have reason to know that the feelings of oppressive delight,
+gratitude, and praise experienced by the married officers and soldiers
+on being assured of the comparative safety of their wives and children,
+so entirely abstracted their minds from their own situation as to render
+them for a little while totally insensible either to the storm that beat
+upon them, or to the active and gathering volcano that threatened every
+instant to explode under their feet.
+
+It being impossible for the boats, after the first trip, to come
+alongside the _Kent_, a plan was adopted for lowering the women and
+children by ropes from the stern, by tying them two and two together.
+But from the heaving of the ship, and the extreme difficulty in dropping
+them at the instant the boat was underneath, many of the poor creatures
+were unavoidably plunged repeatedly under water; and much as humanity
+may rejoice that no woman was eventually lost by this process, yet it
+was as impossible to prevent, as it was deplorable to witness, the great
+sacrifice thus occasioned of the younger children--the same violent
+means which only reduced the parents to a state of exhaustion or
+insensibility, having entirely extinguished the vital spark in the
+feebler frames of the infants that were fastened to them.
+
+Amid the conflicting feelings and dispositions manifested by the
+numerous actors in this melancholy drama, many affecting proofs were
+elicited of parental and filial affection, or of disinterested
+friendship, that seemed to shed a momentary halo around the gloomy
+scene.
+
+Two or three soldiers, to relieve their wives of a part of their
+families, sprang into the water with their children, and perished in
+their endeavours to save them. One young lady, who had resolutely
+refused to quit her father, whose sense of duty kept him at his post,
+was near falling a sacrifice to her filial devotion, not having been
+picked up by those in the boats until she had sunk five or six times. A
+man, who was reduced to the frightful alternative of losing his wife or
+his children, hastily decided in favour of his duty to the former. His
+wife was accordingly saved, but his four children, alas! were left to
+perish. A fine fellow, a soldier, who had neither wife nor child of his
+own, but who evinced the greatest solicitude for the safety of those of
+others, insisted on having three children lashed to him, with whom he
+plunged into the water; not being able to reach the boat, he was again
+drawn into the ship with his charge, but not before two of the children
+had expired. One man fell down the hatchway into the flames, and another
+had his back so completely broken as to have been observed quite doubled
+falling overboard. These spectacles of individual loss and suffering
+were not confined to the entrance upon the perilous voyage between the
+two ships. One man, who fell between the boat and brig, had his head
+literally crushed to pieces; and some others were lost in their attempts
+to ascend the side of the _Cambria_.
+
+Seeing that the tardy means employed for the escape of the women and
+children necessarily consumed a great deal of time that might be partly
+devoted to the general preservation, orders were given that along with
+the females, each of the boats should also admit a certain portion of
+the soldiers, several of whom, in their impatience to take advantage of
+this permission, flung themselves overboard, and sank in their
+ill-judged and premature efforts for deliverance.
+
+One poor fellow of this number, a very respectable man, had actually
+reached the boat, and was raising his hand to lay hold on the gunwale,
+when the bow of the boat, by a sudden pitch, struck him on the head,
+and he instantly went down. There was a peculiarity attending this man's
+case that deserves notice. His wife, to whom he was warmly attached, not
+having been of the allotted number of women to accompany the regiment
+abroad, resolved in her anxiety to follow her husband, to defeat this
+arrangement, and accordingly repaired with the detachment to Gravesend,
+where she ingeniously managed, by eluding the vigilance of the sentries,
+to get on board, and conceal herself for several days; and although she
+was discovered, and sent ashore at Deal, she contrived a second time,
+with true feminine perseverance, to get between decks, where she
+continued to secrete herself until the morning of the fatal disaster.
+
+While the men were thus bent in various ways on self-preservation, one
+of the sailors, who had taken his post with many others over the
+magazine, awaiting with great patience the dreaded explosion, at last
+cried out, as if in ill-humour that his expectation was likely to be
+disappointed, "Well, if she won't blow up, I'll see if I can't get away
+from her;" and jumping up, he made his way to the boats, which he
+reached in safety.
+
+I ought to state that three of the six boats we originally possessed
+were either completely stove or swamped in the course of the day, one of
+them with men in it, some of whom were seen floating in the water for a
+moment before they disappeared; and it is suspected that one or two of
+those who went down must have sunk under the weight of their spoils, the
+same individuals having been seen eagerly plundering the cuddy cabins.
+
+As the day was rapidly drawing to a close, and the flames were slowly
+but perceptibly extending, Colonel Fearon and Captain Cobb evinced an
+increasing anxiety to relieve the remainder of the gallant men under
+their charge.
+
+To facilitate this object a rope was suspended from the extremity of the
+spanker-boom, along which the men were recommended to proceed, and
+thence slide down by the rope into the boats. But as, from the great
+swell of the sea, and the constant heaving of the ship, it was
+impossible for the boats to preserve their station for a moment, those
+who adopted this course incurred so great a risk of swinging for some
+time in the air, and of being repeatedly plunged under water, or dashed
+against the sides of the boats underneath, that many of the landsmen
+continued to throw themselves out of the stern window on the upper deck,
+preferring what appeared to me the more precarious chance of reaching
+the boats by swimming. Rafts made of spars, hencoops, etc., were also
+ordered to be constructed, for the twofold purpose of forming an
+intermediate communication with the boats--a purpose, by the bye, which
+they very imperfectly answered--and of serving as a last point of
+retreat, should the further extension of the flames compel us at once to
+desert the vessel. Directions were at the same time given that every man
+should tie a rope round his waist, by which he might afterwards attach
+himself to the rafts, should he be suddenly forced to take to the water.
+While the people were busily occupied in adopting this recommendation, I
+was surprised, I had almost said amused, by the singular delicacy of one
+of the Irish recruits, who, in searching for a rope in one of the
+cabins, called out to me that he could find none except the cordage
+belonging to an officer's cot, and wished to know whether there would be
+any harm in his appropriating it to his own use.
+
+The gradual removal of the officers was at the same time commenced, and
+was marked by a discipline the most rigid, and an intrepidity the most
+exemplary; none appearing to be influenced by a vain and ostentatious
+bravery, which, in cases of extreme peril, affords rather a presumptive
+proof of secret timidity than of fortitude; nor any betraying an unmanly
+or unsoldierlike impatience to quit the ship; but, with the becoming
+deportment of men neither paralyzed by, nor profanely insensible to, the
+accumulating dangers that encompassed them, they progressively departed
+in the different boats with their soldiers; those who happened to
+proceed first leaving behind them an example of coolness that could not
+be unprofitable to those who followed.
+
+But the finest illustration of their conduct was displayed in that of
+their chief, whose ability and presence of mind, under the complicated
+responsibility and anxiety of a commander, husband, and father, were
+eminently calculated, throughout this dismal day, to inspire all others
+with composure and fortitude. Never for one moment did Colonel Fearon
+seem to forget the authority with which his sovereign had invested him,
+nor did any of his officers--as far as my observation went--cease to
+remember the relative situations in which they were severally placed.
+Even in the gloomiest moments of that dark season, when the dissolution
+of every earthly distinction seemed near at hand, the decision and
+confidence with which orders were issued on the one hand, and the
+promptitude and respect with which they were obeyed on the other,
+offered the best proofs of the stability of the well-connected system of
+discipline established in the 31st regiment, and the most unquestionable
+ground for the high and flattering commendation which his Royal
+Highness, the Commander-in-chief, has been pleased to bestow upon it.
+
+I should, however, be guilty of injustice and unkindness if I here
+omitted to bear my humble testimony to the manly behaviour of the East
+India Company's cadets, and other private passengers on board, who
+emulated the best conduct of the officers of the ship and of the troops,
+and equally participated with them in all the hardships and exertions of
+the day.
+
+As an agreeable proof, too, of the subordination and good feeling that
+governed the poor soldiers in the midst of their sufferings, I ought to
+state that towards evening, when the melancholy groups who were
+passively seated on the poop, exhausted by previous fatigue, anxiety,
+and fasting, were beginning to experience the pain of intolerable
+thirst, a box of oranges was accidentally discovered by some of the men,
+who, with a degree of mingled consideration, respect, and affection,
+that could hardly have been expected at such a moment, refused to
+partake of the grateful beverage until they had offered a share of it to
+their officers.
+
+I regret that the circumstances under which I write do not allow me
+sufficient time for recalling to my recollection all the busy thoughts
+that engaged my own mind on that eventful day, or the various
+conjectures which I ventured to form of what was passing in the minds of
+others.
+
+But one idea was forcibly suggested to me,--that instead of being able
+to trace amongst my numerous associates that diversity of fortitude
+which I should have expected would mark their conduct--forming, as it
+were, a descending series, from the decided heroism exhibited by some,
+down to the lowest degree of pusillanimity and frenzy discoverable in
+others,--I remarked that the mental condition of my fellow-sufferers was
+rather divided by a broad but, as it afterwards appeared, not impassable
+line; on the one side of which were ranged all whose minds were greatly
+elevated by the excitement above their ordinary standard; and on the
+other was to be seen the incalculably smaller but more conspicuous
+group, whose powers of acting and thinking became absolutely paralyzed,
+or were driven into delirium, by the unusual character and pressure of
+the danger.
+
+Nor was it uninteresting to observe the curious interchange, at least
+externally, of strength and weakness that obtained between those two
+discordant parties, during the day. Some whose agitation and timidity
+had, in the earlier part of it, rendered them objects of pity or
+contempt, afterwards rose, by some great internal effort, into positive
+distinction for the opposite qualities; while others, remarkable at
+first for calmness and courage, suddenly giving way, without any fresh
+cause of despair, seemed afterwards to cast their minds as they did
+their bodies, prostrate before the danger.
+
+It would not, perhaps, be difficult to account for these apparent
+anomalies; but I shall content myself with simply stating the facts,
+adding to them one of a similar description that sensibly affected my
+own mind.
+
+Some of the soldiers near me having casually remarked that the sun was
+setting, I looked round, and never can I forget the intensity with which
+I regarded his declining rays. I had previously felt deeply impressed
+with the conviction that that night the ocean was to be my bed; and had,
+I imagined, sufficiently realized to my mind, both the last struggles
+and the consequences of death. But as I continued solemnly watching the
+departing beams of the sun, the thought that that was really the very
+last I should ever behold, gradually expanded into reflections the most
+tremendous in their import. It was not, I am persuaded, either the
+retrospect of a past life, or the direct fear of death or of judgment,
+that occupied my mind at the period I allude to; but a broad,
+illimitable view of eternity itself, altogether abstracted from the
+misery or felicity that flows through it--a sort of painless,
+pleasureless, sleepless eternity. I know not whither the overwhelming
+thought would have hurried me, had I not speedily seized, as with the
+grasp of death, on some of those sweet promises of the gospel which give
+to an immortal existence its only charms; and that naturally enough led
+back my thoughts, by means of the brilliant object before me, to the
+contemplation of that blessed city, "which hath no need of the sun,
+neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten
+it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."
+
+I have been the more particular in recording my precise feelings at the
+period in question, because they tend to confirm an opinion which I have
+long entertained--in common, I believe, with others,--that we very
+rarely realize even those objects that seem, in our every-day
+speculations, to be the most interesting to our hearts. We are so much
+in the habit of uttering the awful words 'Almighty,' 'heaven,' 'hell,'
+'eternity,' 'divine justice,' 'holiness,' etc., without attaching to
+them, in all their magnitude, the ideas of which such words are the
+symbols, that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment that
+accompanies a new and alarming discovery if, at any time, the ideas
+themselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is,
+probably, this vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whose
+minds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, that
+enables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the very
+brink of that precipice which divides the world of time from the regions
+of eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded,
+with real tranquillity. How much it is to be lamented that we do not
+keep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that our
+indifference or blindness to danger, whether it be temporal or eternal,
+cannot possibly remove or diminish the extent of that danger.
+
+Some time after the shades of night had enveloped us, I descended to the
+cuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; and
+the scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy in
+the extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had been
+the seat of kindly intercourse and of social gaiety, was now entirely
+deserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched in
+irrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about, like beasts
+of prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other articles
+of furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought and
+pains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered in
+confusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped from
+their confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig,
+wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large in
+undisturbed possession of the Brussels carpet that covered one of the
+cabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, and
+rendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, I
+returned to the poop, where I again found, amongst the few officers that
+remained, Capt. Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieuts. Ruxton, Booth, and Evans,
+superintending, with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidly
+diminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived to carry them
+off.
+
+The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as the
+night advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fed
+as much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid as by the
+real and evident approach of the fatal crisis itself. With a view to
+ensure a greater probability of being discovered by those in the boats,
+some of the more collected and hardy soldiers (for I think almost all
+the sailors had already effected their escape) took the precaution to
+tie towels and such like articles round their heads, previously to their
+committing themselves to the water.
+
+As the boats were nearly three-quarters of an hour absent between each
+trip--which period was necessarily spent by those in the wreck in a
+state of fearful inactivity--abundant opportunity was afforded for
+collecting the sentiments of many of the unhappy men around me; some of
+whom, after remaining perhaps for a while in silent abstraction, would
+suddenly burst forth, as if awakened from some terrible dream to a still
+more frightful reality, into a long train of loud and desponding
+lamentation, that gradually subsided into its former stillness.
+
+It was during those trying intervals of rest that religious instruction
+and consolation appeared to be the most required and the most
+acceptable. Some there were who endeavoured to dispense it agreeably to
+the visible wants and feelings of the earnest hearers. On one of those
+occasions, especially, the officer to whom I have already alluded was
+entreated to pray. His prayer was short, but was frequently broken by
+the exclamations of assent to some of its confessions, that were wrung
+from the afflicted hearts of his auditors.
+
+I know not in what manner, under those circumstances, spiritual hope or
+comfort could have been ministered to my afflicted companions by those
+who regard works, either wholly or partly, as the means of propitiating
+divine justice, rather than the evidence and fruits of that faith which
+pacifies the conscience and purifies the heart. But in some few cases,
+at least, where the individuals deplored the want of time for repentance
+and good works, I well remember that no arguments tended to soothe their
+troubled minds but those which went directly to assure them of the
+freeness and fulness of that grace which is not refused, even in the
+eleventh hour, to the very chief of sinners. And if any of those to whom
+I now allude have been spared to read this record of their feelings in
+the prospect of death, it will be well for them to keep solemnly in mind
+the vows they then took upon them, and to seek to improve that season of
+probation which they so earnestly besought, and which has been so
+mercifully extended to them,--by humbly and incessantly applying for
+accessions of that faith which they are sensible removed the terrors of
+their awakened consciences, and can alone enable them henceforward to
+live in a sober, righteous, and godly manner, and thereby give the only
+unquestionable proof of their love to God, and their interest in the
+great salvation of His Son Jesus Christ.
+
+If, on reading this imperfect narrative,[7] any persons beyond the
+immediate circle of my companions in misery (for within it I can safely
+declare that there were no indications of ridicule) should affect to
+despise, as contemptible or unsoldierlike, the humble devotional
+exercises to which I have now referred, I should like to assure them,
+that although they were undoubtedly commenced and prosecuted much more
+with an eternal than a temporal object in view, yet they also subserved
+the important purpose of restoring order and composure amongst a certain
+limited class of soldiers, at moments when mere military appeals had
+ceased to operate.
+
+I must state that, in general, it was not those most remarkable for
+their fortitude who evinced either a precipitancy to depart, or a desire
+to remain very long behind--the older and cooler soldiers appearing to
+possess too much regard for their officers, as well as for their
+individual credit, to take their hasty departure at a very early period
+of the day, and too much wisdom and resolution to hesitate to the very
+last.
+
+But it was not till the close of this mournful tragedy that
+backwardness, rather than impatience, to adopt the perilous and only
+means of escape that offered, became generally discernible on the part
+of the unhappy remnant still on board, and that made it not only
+imperative on Captain Cobb to reiterate his threats, as well as his
+entreaties, that not an instant should be lost, but seemed to render it
+expedient for one of the officers of the troops, who had expressed his
+intention of remaining to the last, to limit, in the hearing of those
+around him, the period of his own stay. Seeing, however, between nine
+and ten o'clock, that some individuals were consuming the precious
+moments by obstinately hesitating to proceed, while others were making
+the inadmissible request to be lowered down as the women had been,
+learning from the boatmen that the wreck, which was already nine or ten
+feet below the ordinary water mark, had sunk two feet lower since their
+last trip; and calculating, besides, that the two boats then under the
+stern, with that which was in sight on its return from the brig, would
+suffice for the conveyance of all who seemed in a condition to remove;
+the three remaining officers of the 31st regiment seriously prepared to
+take their departure.
+
+As I cannot perhaps convey to you so correct an idea of the condition of
+others as by describing my own feelings and situation under the same
+circumstances, I shall make no apology for detailing the manner of my
+individual escape, which will sufficiently mark that of many hundreds
+that preceded it. The spanker-boom of so large a ship as the _Kent_,
+which projects, I should think, 16 or 18 feet over the stern, rests on
+ordinary occasions about 19 or 20 feet above the water; but in the
+position in which we were placed, from the great height of the sea, and
+the consequent pitching of the ship, it was frequently lifted to a
+height not less than 30 or 40 feet from the surface.
+
+To reach the rope, therefore, that hung from its extremity was an
+operation that seemed to require the aid of as much dexterity of hand as
+steadiness of head. For it was not only the nervousness of creeping
+along the boom itself, or the extreme difficulty of afterwards seizing
+on and sliding down by the rope that we had to dread, and that had
+occasioned the loss of some valuable lives by deterring men from
+adopting this mode of escape; but as the boat, which one moment was
+probably close under the boom, might be carried the next, by the force
+of the waves, 15 or 20 yards away from it, the unhappy individual, whose
+best calculations were thus defeated, was generally left swinging for
+some time in mid-air, if he was not repeatedly plunged several feet
+under water, or dashed with dangerous violence against the sides of the
+returning boat--or, what not unfrequently happened, was forced to let go
+his hold of the rope altogether. As there seemed, however, no
+alternative, I did not hesitate, notwithstanding my comparative
+inexperience and awkwardness in such a situation, to throw my legs
+across the perilous spar; and with a heart extremely grateful that such
+means of deliverance, dangerous as they appeared, were still extended to
+me; and more grateful still that I had been enabled, in common with
+others, to discharge my honest duty to my sovereign and to my
+fellow-soldiers, I proceeded,--after confidently committing my spirit,
+the great object of my solicitude, into the keeping of Him who had
+formed and redeemed it,--to creep slowly forward, feeling at every step
+the increasing difficulty of my situation. On getting nearly to the end
+of the boom, the young officer whom I followed and myself were met with
+a squall of wind and rain so violent as to make us fain to embrace
+closely the slippery stick (without attempting for some minutes to make
+any progress), and to excite our apprehension that we must relinquish
+all hope of reaching the rope. But our fears were disappointed; and
+after resting for a little while at the boom end, while my companion was
+descending to the boat, which he did not find until he had been plunged
+once or twice over head in the water, I prepared to follow; and instead
+of lowering myself, as many had imprudently done, at the moment when the
+boat was inclining towards us--and consequently being unable to descend
+the whole distance before it again receded,--I calculated that while the
+boat was retiring I ought to commence my descent, which would probably
+be completed by the time the returning wave brought it underneath; by
+which means I was, I believe, almost the only officer or soldier who
+reached the boat without being either severely bruised or immersed in
+the water.
+
+But my good friend Colonel Fearon had not been so fortunate; for after
+swinging for some time, and being repeatedly struck against the side of
+the boat, and at one time drawn completely under it, he was at last so
+utterly exhausted that he must instantly have let go his hold of the
+rope and perished, had not some one in the boat seized him by the hair
+of the head, and dragged him into it, almost senseless and alarmingly
+bruised.
+
+Captain Cobb, in his resolution to be the last, if possible, to quit his
+ship, and in 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.[8] 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.
+
+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 foiled, but until the flames, bursting forth
+from the cabin windows, rendered it impossible to remain without
+inflicting the greatest cruelty on 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,[9] 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.
+
+[Illustration: THE MAGAZINE EXPLODED.]
+
+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 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 Captain Bibbey, the humane commander 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_ to their rescue.[10]
+
+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 daylight 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.
+
+But when I 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, by those who
+thus laboured, 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 meantime 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 were indeed left husbandless and fatherless;
+or as the objects from whom they had feared they were for ever severed,
+suddenly rushed into their arms. But these feelings of delight, whatever
+may have been their intensity, were speedily chastened, and the
+attention of all arrested, by the last tremendous spectacle of
+destruction.
+
+After the arrival of the last boat the flames, which had spread along
+the upper deck and poop, ascended with the rapidity of lightning to the
+masts and rigging, forming one general conflagration, that illumined the
+heavens to an immense distance, and was strongly reflected by several
+objects on board the brig. The flags of distress, hoisted in the
+morning, were seen for a considerable time waving amid the flames, until
+the masts to which they were suspended successively fell like stately
+steeples over the ship's side. At last, about half-past one o'clock in
+the morning, the devouring element having communicated to the magazine,
+the explosion was seen, and the blazing fragments of the once
+magnificent _Kent_ were instantly hurried, like so many rockets, high
+into the air;[11] leaving, in the comparative darkness that succeeded,
+the deathful scene of that disastrous day floating before the mind like
+some feverish dream.
+
+Shortly afterwards, the brig, which had been gradually making sail, was
+running at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour towards the nearest
+port. I would here endeavour to render my humble tribute of admiration
+and gratitude to that gallant and excellent individual, who, under God,
+was undoubtedly the chief instrument of our deliverance; if I were not
+sensible that testimony has been already borne to his heroic and humane
+efforts, in a manner much more commensurate with, and from quarters
+reflecting infinitely greater honour upon his merits, than the feeble
+expressions of them which I should be able to record.[12] I trust you
+will keep in mind that Captain Cook's generous intentions and exertions
+must have proved utterly unavailing for the preservation of so many
+lives, had they not been most nobly and unremittingly supported by those
+of his mate and crew, as well as of the numerous passengers on board his
+brig. While the former, only eight in number, were usefully and
+necessarily employed in working the vessel, the sturdy Cornish miners
+and Yorkshire smelters, on the approach of the different boats, took
+their perilous stations on the chains, where they put forth the great
+muscular strength with which Heaven had endowed them, in dexterously
+seizing, at each successive heave of the sea, on some of the exhausted
+people, and dragging them up on deck.
+
+Nor did their kind assistance terminate there. They and the gentlemen
+connected with them cheerfully opened their ample stores of clothes and
+provisions, which they liberally dispensed to the naked and famished
+sufferers; they surrendered their beds to the helpless women and
+children, and seemed, in short, during the whole of our passage to
+England, to take no other delight than in ministering to all our wants.
+
+Although, after the first burst of mutual gratulation, and of becoming
+acknowledgment of the divine mercy for our unlooked-for deliverance, had
+subsided, none of us felt disposed to much interchange of thought, each
+being rather inclined to wrap himself up in his own reflections; yet we
+did not, during the first night, view with the alarm it warranted, the
+extreme misery and danger to which we were still exposed, by being
+crowded together, in a gale of wind, with upwards of 600 human beings,
+in a small brig of 200 tons, at a distance, too, of several hundred
+miles from any accessible port. Our little cabin, which was only
+calculated, under ordinary circumstances, for the accommodation of eight
+or ten persons, was now made to contain nearly eighty individuals, many
+of whom had no sitting room, and even some of the ladies no room to lie
+down. Owing to the continued violence of the gale, and to the bulwarks
+on one side of the brig having been driven in, the sea beat so
+incessantly over our deck as to render it necessary that the hatches
+should only be lifted up between the returning waves, to prevent
+absolute suffocation below, where the men were so closely packed
+together that the steam arising from their respiration excited at one
+time an apprehension that the vessel was on fire; while the impurity of
+the air they were inhaling became so marked, that the lights
+occasionally carried down amongst them were almost instantly
+extinguished. Nor was the condition of the hundreds who covered the deck
+less wretched than that of their comrades below; since they were
+obliged night and day to stand shivering, in their wet and nearly naked
+state, ankle deep in water:[13]--some of the older children and females
+were thrown into fits, while the infants were piteously crying for that
+nourishment which their nursing mothers were no longer able to give
+them.[14]
+
+Our only hope amid these great and accumulating miseries was that the
+same compassionate Providence which had already so marvellously
+interposed in our behalf would not permit the favourable wind to abate
+or change until we reached some friendly port; for we were all convinced
+that a delay of a very few days longer at sea must inevitably involve us
+in famine, pestilence, and a complication of the most dreadful evils.
+Our hopes were not disappointed. The gale continued with even increasing
+violence; and our able captain, crowding all sail, at the risk of
+carrying away his masts, so nobly urged his vessel onward, that in the
+afternoon of Thursday, the 3rd, the delightful exclamation from aloft
+was heard, "Land ahead!" In the evening we descried the Scilly lights;
+and running rapidly along the Cornish coast, we joyfully cast anchor in
+Falmouth harbour, at about half-past twelve o'clock at night.
+
+On reviewing the various proximate causes to which so many human beings
+owed their deliverance from a combination of dangers as remarkable for
+their duration as they were appalling in their aspect, it is impossible,
+I think, not to discover and gratefully acknowledge, in the beneficence
+of their arrangement, the overruling providence of that blessed Being,
+who is sometimes pleased, in His mysterious operations, to produce the
+same effect from causes apparently different; and on the other hand, as
+in our own case, to bring forth results the most opposite, from one and
+the same cause. For there is no doubt that the heavy rolling of our
+ship, occasioned by the violent gale, which was the real origin of all
+our disasters, contributed also most essentially to our subsequent
+preservation; since, had not Captain Cobb been enabled, by the
+greatness of the swell, to introduce speedily through the gun ports the
+immense quantity of water that inundated the hold, and thereby checked
+for so long a time the fury of the flames, the _Kent_ must
+unquestionably have been consumed before many, perhaps before any, of
+those on board could have found shelter in the _Cambria_.[15]
+
+But it is unnecessary to dwell on an insulated fact like this, amidst a
+concatenation of circumstances, all leading to the same conclusion, and
+so closely bound together as to force us to confess, that if a single
+link in the chain had been withdrawn or withheld, we must all most
+probably have perished.
+
+The _Cambria_, which had been, it seems, unaccountably detained in port
+nearly a month after the period assigned for her departure, was early on
+the morning of the fatal calamity pursuing at a great distance ahead of
+us the same course with ourselves; but her bulwarks on the weather side
+having been suddenly driven in, by a heavy sea breaking over her
+quarter, Captain Cook, in his anxiety to give ease to his labouring
+vessel, was induced to go completely out of his course by throwing the
+brig on the opposite tack, by which means alone he was brought in sight
+of us. Not to dwell on the unexpected, but not unimportant facts of the
+flames having been mercifully prevented, for eleven hours, from either
+communicating with the magazine forward, or the great spirit room abaft,
+or even coming into contact with the tiller ropes--any of which
+circumstances would evidently have been fatal,--I would remark that,
+until the _Cambria_ hove in sight, we had not discovered any vessel
+whatever for several days previous; nor did we afterwards see another
+until we entered the chops of the Channel. It is to be remembered, too,
+that had the _Cambria_, with her small crew, been homeward instead of
+outward bound, her scanty remainder of provisions, under such
+circumstances, would hardly have sufficed to form a single meal for our
+vast assemblage; or if, instead of having her lower deck completely
+clear, she had been carrying out a full cargo, there would not have been
+time, under the pressure of the danger and the violence of the gale, to
+throw the cargo overboard, and certainly, with it, not sufficient space
+in the brig to contain one-half of our number.
+
+When I reflect, besides, on the disastrous consequences that must have
+followed if, during our passage home, which was performed in a period
+most unusually short, the wind had either veered round a few points, or
+even partially subsided--which must have produced a scene of horror on
+board more terrible if possible than that from which we had escaped; and
+above all, when I recollect the extraordinary fact, and that which seems
+to have the most forcibly struck the whole of us, that we had not been
+above an hour in Falmouth harbour, when the wind, which had all along
+been blowing from the south-west, suddenly chopped round to the opposite
+quarter of the compass, and continued uninterruptedly for several days
+afterwards to blow strongly from the north-east,--one cannot help
+concluding that he who sees nothing of a Divine Providence in our
+preservation must be lamentably and wilfully blind to "the majesty of
+the Lord."
+
+In the course of the morning we all prepared, with thankful and joyful
+hearts, to place our feet on the shores of Old England.
+
+The ladies, always destined to form our vanguard, were the first to
+disembark, and were met on the beach by immense crowds of the
+inhabitants, who appeared to have been attracted thither less by idle
+curiosity than from the sincerest desire to alleviate in every possible
+manner their manifest sufferings.
+
+The sailors and soldiers, cold, wet, and almost naked, quickly followed;
+the whole forming, in their haggard looks and the endless variety of
+their costume, an assemblage at once as melancholy and grotesque as it
+is possible to conceive. So eager did the people appear to be to pour
+out upon us the full current of their sympathies, that shoes, hats, and
+other articles of urgent necessity were presented to several of the
+officers and men before they had even quitted the point of
+disembarkation. And in the course of the day, many of the officers and
+soldiers, and almost all of the females, were partaking, in the private
+houses of individuals, of the most liberal and needful hospitality.
+
+But this flow of compassion and kindness did not cease with the impulse
+of the more immediate occasion that had called it forth. For a meeting
+of the inhabitants was afterwards held, where subscriptions in clothes
+and money to a large amount were collected for the relief of the
+numerous sufferers. The women and children, whose wants seemed to demand
+their first care, were speedily furnished with comfortable clothing, and
+the poor widows and orphans with decent mourning. Depositories of
+shirts, shoes, stockings, etc., were formed for the supply of the
+officers and private passengers; and the sick and wounded in the
+hospital were made the recipients, not only of all those kindly
+attentions and medical assistance that could remove or soothe their
+temporal suffering, but were also invited to partake freely of the most
+judicious spiritual consolation and instruction. This march of charity
+was conducted by the ladies of Falmouth, who were zealously accompanied
+on it by the whole body, in the vicinity, of that peculiar sect of
+Christians, who have ever been as remarkable for their unassuming
+pretensions and consistent conduct, as for unostentatiously standing in
+the front ranks of every good work. And so strong is the reason which I,
+in particular, have to associate in my mind all that is sincere,
+considerate, and charitable with the society of Friends, that the very
+badge of Quakerism will, I trust, henceforward prove a full and
+sufficient passport to the best feelings of my heart.
+
+On the first Sunday after our arrival, Colonel Fearon, followed by all
+his officers and men, and accompanied by Captain Cobb, and the officers
+and private passengers of his late ship, hastened to prostrate
+themselves before the throne of the Heavenly grace, to pour out the
+public expression of their thanksgiving to their almighty Preserver. The
+scene was deeply impressive; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many a
+poor fellow who listened, perhaps for the first time in his life, with
+unquestionable sincerity and humility to the voice of instruction, will
+be found steadily prosecuting, in the strength of God, the good
+resolutions that he may on that solemn occasion have formed, until he be
+able to say, as one of the greatest generals of antiquity did, that "it
+was good for him to have been afflicted; for before he was afflicted he
+went astray, but that afterwards he was not ashamed to keep God's word."
+
+In the course of a few days the private passengers and most of the
+sailors of our party were dispersed in various directions; and the
+troops, after having incurred to the excellent inhabitants of Falmouth,
+and the adjacent towns, a debt of gratitude which none of them can ever
+hope to repay, were embarked for Chatham.
+
+I think you must be already sensible that the circumstances of our
+situation on board the _Kent_ did not enable us conscientiously to save
+a single article, either of public or private property, from the flames;
+indeed, the only thing I preserved--with the exception of forty or fifty
+sovereigns, which I hastily tied up in my pocket handkerchief, and put
+into my wife's hands, at the moment she was lifted into the boat, as a
+provision for herself and her companions against the temporary want to
+which they might be exposed on some foreign shore--was the pocket
+compass, which you yourself presented to me.[16]
+
+But I would have you to be assured, that the total abandonment of
+individual interests on the part of the officers of the ship, and of the
+31st regiment, was occasioned by no want of self-possession, nor even,
+in all cases, of opportunities to attend to them; but to a sincere
+desire to avoid even the appearance of selfishness, at moments when the
+valuable lives of their sailors and soldiers were at stake. And this
+observation applies with still greater force to the senior officers in
+both services, whose cabins being upon the upper deck were accessible
+during the whole day; and where many portable articles of value were
+deposited, which could have been very easily carried off, had those
+officers been disposed to devote to their own concerns even a portion of
+that precious time, and of those active exertions, which they
+unremittingly applied to the performance of their professional duty.
+
+Notwithstanding the unexpected length to which I have already extended
+this narrative, I cannot allow myself to close it without offering to my
+late companions on board the _Kent_, into whose hands it may possibly
+fall, a few very plain and simple observations, which I think worthy of
+their serious consideration, and the importance of which I desire to
+have deeply impressed upon my own mind. None of those soldiers who were
+in the habit of reading their Bibles can have failed to notice that
+faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is therein made the great pivot
+on which the salvation of man hinges; that the whole human race, without
+distinction of rank, nation, age, or sex, being justly exposed to the
+wrath of Almighty God, nothing but the precious blood of Christ, which
+was shed on the cross, can possibly atone for their sins; and that faith
+in this atonement can alone pacify the conscience, and awaken confidence
+towards God as a reconciled Father. If, therefore, "he that believeth in
+Christ shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned," be
+the unequivocal language of Jehovah, either expressly declared or
+obviously implied in every page of that record which He has vouchsafed
+to us of His Son; is it not a question of the deepest concernment to
+every one professing any regard for divine revelation, whether he really
+understands and believes that record, and whether he is able to give,
+not only to others, but to himself, a reason of this hope that is in
+him?
+
+From the influence of education or example, the absence of serious
+reflection, an attention to the outward ordinances of religion, a regard
+to many of the proprieties and decencies of life, and a forgetfulness
+that the religion of the Bible is a religion of motives rather than one
+of observances, minds easily satisfied on such subjects may persuade
+themselves that they are spiritually alive while they are dead--that
+they are amongst the sincere disciples of the blessed Redeemer, and
+fully interested in His salvation, while they may have neither part nor
+lot in the matter. But if, at the hour of death, when all external
+support shall slide away, the soul shall be awakened to the
+consciousness of its real condition; if it should be made to see, on the
+one hand, the spirituality and exceeding breadth of the divine law, and
+be quickened, on the other, to a sense of its unnumbered transgressions;
+if the mercy of God out of Christ, in which so many vainly and vaguely
+trust, should become obscured by the inflexible justice and spotless
+holiness of His character and if the solitary spirit, as it is dragged
+towards the mysterious precipice, is made to hear, from a voice which it
+can no longer mistake, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
+things which are written in the book of the law to do them,"--how
+unspeakably miserable must be the condition of the man who thus
+discovers, for the first time, that the sand which he had all his
+lifetime been mistaking for the "Rock of Ages" is now giving way under
+his feet, and that his soul must speedily sink into that state in which,
+"where the tree falleth, there it shall be;" where "he that is unjust,
+let him be unjust still;" and where there is "no work, nor device, nor
+knowledge," nor repentance.
+
+But that I may not be misunderstood, or be supposed to favour principles
+of barren speculation, more delusive and dangerous to their possessors,
+and to the best interests of society, than absolute ignorance itself--I
+would remind the gallant men to whom I am now more especially addressing
+myself, that that faith which saves the soul not only "worketh"
+invariably "by love," and gradually "overcometh the world," but that "it
+is the gift of God," implanted in the heart by His Holy Spirit, even by
+that Spirit which is freely given to every one that earnestly asketh.
+And however unable the simple soldier may be to explain either the
+nature or the manner of its operation, he must not deceive himself into
+the persuasion that he is possessed of this precious grace unless he
+feels it bringing forth in his life and conversation the abundant fruits
+that necessarily spring from it, and that cannot indeed be produced
+without it. He will be steady and zealous in the performance of duty,
+patient under fatigue and privation, sober amid temptation, calm but
+firm in the hour of danger, and respectfully obedient to his officers;
+he will honour his king, be content with his wages, and do harm to no
+man. His piety will be ardent but sober, his prayers will be earnest and
+frequent, but rather in secret than before men; he will not be
+contentious or disputatious, but rather desirous of instructing others
+by his example than by his precepts; letting his light so shine before
+them, in the simplicity of his motives, the uprightness of his actions,
+in his readiness to oblige, and by the whole tenor of his life, that
+they, seeing his good works, may be led, by the divine blessing, to
+acknowledge the reality and power and beauty of religion, and be induced
+in like manner to glorify his heavenly Father. In short, in comparison
+with his thoughtless comrades, he must not only aspire to become a
+better man, but, from the constraining motives of the gospel, struggle
+to be also in every essential respect a better soldier.
+
+In conclusion, I would observe that if any class of men, more than
+another, ought to be struck with awe and gratitude by the goodness and
+providence of God, it is they who go down to the sea in ships, and see
+His wonders in the great deep; or if any ought to familiarize their
+minds with death and its solemn consequences, it is surely soldiers,
+"whose very business it is to die." May all those then, especially, who
+thus possessed the privilege, but rarely granted, of being allowed, in
+the full vigour of health, and in the absence of all the bustle and
+excitement of battle, to contemplate, from the very brink of eternity,
+the awful realities that reign within it, as many of their departing
+comrades were hurried through its dreadful portals, be now led, in the
+respite which has been given them, to remember that this alone is the
+accepted time, and this the day of salvation; for while some may defer
+the subject "to a more convenient season," the message may come forth,
+at an hour when it is least expected, "This night thy soul shall be
+required of thee." The foregoing narrative may be fitly supplemented by
+some particulars[17] of the events occurring after the departure of the
+_Cambria_ from the scene of the wreck:--
+
+"About twelve o'clock the watch of the barque _Caroline_, on her passage
+from Alexandria to Liverpool, observed a light on the horizon, and knew
+it at once to be a ship on fire. There was a heavy sea on, but the
+captain, instantly setting his maintop-gallant-sail, ran down towards
+the spot. About one, the sky becoming brighter, a sudden jet of vivid
+light shot up; but they were too distant to hear the explosion. In
+half-an-hour the _Caroline_ could see the wreck of a large vessel lying
+head to the wind. The ribs and frame timbers, marking the outlines of
+double ports and quarter-galleries, showed that the burning skeleton was
+that of a first-class Indiaman. Every other external feature was gone;
+she was burnt nearly to the water's edge, but still floated, pitching
+majestically as she rose and fell on the long rolling swell of the bay.
+The vessel looked like an immense cage of charred basket-work filled
+with flame, that here and there blazed brighter at intervals. Above,
+and far to leeward, there was a vast drifting cloud of curling smoke
+spangled with millions of sparks and burning flakes, and scattered by
+the wind over the sky and waves.
+
+"As the _Caroline_ approached, part of a mast and some spars, rising and
+falling, were observed grinding under the weather-quarter of the wreck,
+having got entangled with the keel or rudder irons, and thus attaching
+it to the hull of the vessel. The _Caroline_, coming down swift before
+the wind, was in a few minutes brought across the bows of the _Kent_. At
+that moment a shout was heard as if from the very centre of the fire,
+and the same instant several figures were observed clinging to a mast.
+The sea was heavy, and the wreck threatened every moment to disappear.
+The _Caroline_ was hove-to to leeward, in order to avoid the showers of
+flakes and sparks, and to intercept any boats or rafts. The mate and
+four seamen pushed off in the jolly-boat, through a sea covered with
+floating spars, chests, and furniture, that threatened to crush or
+overwhelm the boat. When within a few yards of the stern, they caught
+sight of the first living thing--a wretched man clinging to a spar
+close under the ship's counter. Every time the stern-frame rose with the
+swell he was suspended above the water, and scorched by the long keen
+tongues of pure flame that now came darting through the gun-room ports.
+Each time this torture came the man shrieked with agony; the next moment
+the surge came and buried him under the wave, and he was silent. The
+_Caroline's_ men, defying the fire, pulled close to him, but just as
+their hands were stretching towards him (latterly the poor wretch had
+been silent), the rope or spar was snapped by the fire, and he sank for
+ever.
+
+"The men then, carefully backing, carried off six other of the nearest
+men from the mast. The small boat, only eighteen feet long, would not
+hold more than eleven persons, and indeed, as it was, was nearly swamped
+by a heavy wave. In half-an-hour the boat bravely returned, and took off
+six more.
+
+"The mate, fearing the vessel was going down, and that the masts would
+be swallowed in the vortex, redoubled his efforts to get a third time to
+the wreck. While struggling with a head sea, and before the boat could
+reach the mast, the end came. The fiery mass settled like a red-hot
+coal into the waves, and disappeared for ever. The sky grew instantly
+dark, a dense shroud of black smoke lingered over the grave of the ship,
+and instead of the crackle of burning timbers and the flutter of flames,
+there spread the ineffable stillness of death.
+
+"As the last gleam flickered out, Mr. Wallen, the mate of the
+_Caroline_, with great quickness of thought set the spot by a star.
+Then, in spite of the danger in the darkness of floating wreck, he
+resolved to wait quietly till daylight, and ordered his men to shout
+repeatedly to cheer any who might be still floating on stray spars. For
+a long time no one answered; at last a feeble cry came, and the
+_Caroline's_ sailors returned it loudly and gladly. What joy that faint
+cry must have brought to those friendly ears! With what joy must the
+boatmen's shout have been received!
+
+[Illustration: WHEN DAY BROKE THE MAST WAS VISIBLE.]
+
+"When the day broke the mast was visible, and four motionless men could
+be seen among its cordage and top-work. They seemed dead, but as the
+boat neared, two of them feebly raised their heads and stretched out
+their arms. When taken into the boat, they were found to be faint and
+almost dead from the cold and wet, and the many hours they had been
+half under water. The other two were stone dead. One had bound himself
+firmly to the spar, and lay as if asleep, with his arms around it, and
+his head upon it, as if it had been a pillow. The other stood half
+upright between the cheeks of the mast, his face fixed in the direction
+of the boat, his arms still extended. They were both left on the spar.
+One of the Indiaman's empty boats was also found drifting a short
+distance off. The wind beginning to freshen and a gale coming on, it was
+all the jolly-boat could do to rejoin the _Caroline_. There could be no
+doubt that when the _Caroline_ hove-to and luffed under the lee of the
+_Kent_, it must have passed men drifting to leeward on detached spars.
+They of course all perished in the rising storm.
+
+"A piece of plate was presented to Captain Cook, of the _Cambria_, by
+the officers and passengers of the _Kent_, and the Duke of York publicly
+thanked him for his humane zeal and promptitude. The Secretary of War
+(Lord Palmerston) authorized a sum of five hundred pounds to be given to
+the captain and crew of the _Cambria_, and the agents of the ship were
+also paid two hundred and eighty-seven pounds for provisions, two
+hundred and eighty-seven pounds for passengers' diet, and five hundred
+pounds for demurrage. The East India Company awarded six hundred pounds
+to Captain Cook, one hundred pounds to the first mate, fifty pounds to
+the second mate, ten pounds each to the nine men of the crew, fifteen
+pounds each to the twenty-six miners, and one hundred pounds to the ten
+chief miners for extra stores, to make their voyage out more
+comfortable. The Royal Exchange Assurance gave Captain Cook fifty
+pounds, and his officers and crew fifty pounds. The subscribers to
+Lloyds voted him a present of one hundred pounds; the Royal Humane
+Society awarded him an honorary medallion; and the underwriters at
+Liverpool were also prominent in their liberality."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Captain Cobb, with great forethought, ordered the deck to
+be scuttled forward, with a view to draw the fire in that direction,
+knowing that between it and the magazine were several tiers of
+water-casks; while he hoped that the wet sails, etc., thrown into the
+after-hold, would prevent the fire from communicating with the
+spirit-room abaft.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The late Lady MacGregor, and the late Mrs. Pringle, of
+Yair, Whytbank, Selkirk, N.B., who are also mentioned in the letter on
+page 23.]
+
+[Footnote 3: This bottle, left in the cabin, was cast into the sea by
+the explosion that destroyed the _Kent_. About nineteen months
+afterwards the following notice appeared in a Barbadoes (West Indian)
+newspaper:--
+
+"A bottle was picked up on Saturday, the 30th September, at Bathsheba (a
+bathing-place on the west of Barbadoes), by a gentleman who was bathing
+there, who, on breaking it, found the melancholy account of the fate of
+the ship _Kent_, contained in a folded paper written with pencil, but
+scarcely legible." The words of the letter were then given, and a
+facsimile of it will be found on the next page. The letter itself, taken
+from the bottle thickly encrusted with shells and seaweed, was returned
+to the writer when he arrived, shortly after its discovery, at
+Barbadoes, as Lieut.-Colonel of the 93rd Highlanders, and the
+interesting relic is still preserved by his son (at that time called
+"little Rob Roy"), who is not mentioned in the letter, but was saved as
+related in page 33.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Two shipwrights, dismissed from their situation because
+they would not work on Sunday, were employed by the father of a friend
+of the writer. He engaged them to build their first vessel, the
+_Cambria_, and this was her first voyage, starting from Deptford before
+the _Kent_ sailed from Gravesend.
+
+Captain Cook many years afterwards commanded in the disastrous "Niger
+Expedition." He was a splendid sailor, and a humble Christian, whose
+death-bed, long years after, was attended by the youngest passenger he
+had helped to save from the burning _Kent_.]
+
+[Footnote 5: I was afterwards informed by one of the passengers on board
+the _Cambria_--for from the great height of the Indiaman we had not the
+opportunity of making a similar observation--that when both vessels
+happened to be at the same time in the trough of the sea, the _Kent_ was
+entirely concealed by the intervening waves from the deck of the
+_Cambria_.]
+
+[Footnote 6: "The _Rob Roy_ Canoe on the Jordan" (Murray) gives some
+other experiences of watery dangers in after life.]
+
+[Footnote 7: This narrative has been translated into the French,
+Spanish, Swedish, Italian, German, and Russian languages, and the author
+(born March 16, 1787) still enjoys good health (1880) while writing the
+preface to this edition, of which a _facsimile_ is given at the
+beginning of the book.]
+
+[Footnote 8: 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.]
+
+[Footnote 9: I ought to state that the exertions of Mr. Muir, third
+mate, were also most conspicuous during the whole day.]
+
+[Footnote 10: See page 83.--One of the men saved after the
+explosion (which had burned off both his feet) was met thirty years
+afterwards by the individual who was first saved in the _Cambria_. This
+man was wheeling himself in a go-cart on the race-ground at Lanark,
+dressed in sailor's costume, and selling papers with a picture of the
+_Kent_ upon them and some doggerel verses below. As honorary secretary
+of the "Open-Air Mission" (which provides preachers for streets in
+towns, and for races and fairs in the country), the "first saved" from
+the wreck and burning then preached the Gospel to the "last saved" from
+the scorched embers, and to a large and motley crowd, all of whom will
+assuredly meet once more "at that day."]
+
+[Footnote 11: Besides 500 barrels of gunpowder, there was on board
+several hundredweight of highly explosive percussion powder. The brig
+was about three miles distant when the _Kent_ exploded.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Captain Cook afterwards rendered distinguished services in
+the Niger expedition, and died in London a true Christian sailor, after
+several visits from one he had helped to save.]
+
+[Footnote 13: In addition to those who were naked on board the _Kent_ at
+the moment the alarm of fire was heard, several individuals afterwards
+threw off their clothes to enable them the more easily to swim to the
+boats.]
+
+[Footnote 14: One of the soldiers' wives was delivered of a child about
+an hour or two after her arrival on board the brig. Both survived, and
+the child received the appropriate name of "Cambria."]
+
+[Footnote 15: There were lost in the destruction of the _Kent_, 54
+soldiers, 1 woman, and 20 children, belonging to the 31st Regiment; 1
+seaman and 5 boys--total, 81 individuals.]
+
+[Footnote 16: A little Testament was also saved. Only one officer's
+sword was saved, and that belonged to him who afterwards led the 31st
+regiment in the battles on the Sutlej.]
+
+[Footnote 17: From _All the Year Round_.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman,
+in the Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor
+
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+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
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+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+  <head>
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Loss of the Kent East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay,
+       by General Sir Duncan MacGregor.
+    </title>
+    <style type="text/css">
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+
+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the
+Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay
+       Narrated in a Letter to a Friend
+
+Author: Duncan McGregor
+
+Release Date: March 3, 2008 [EBook #24745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOSS OF THE KENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<img src="images/i002.jpg" width="650" height="390" alt="ESCAPING FROM THE BURNING SHIP." title="" />
+<span class="caption">ESCAPING FROM THE BURNING SHIP.</span>
+</div>
+
+
+   <h1>THE LOSS<br />
+   OF THE<br />
+   KENT EAST INDIAMAN<br />
+   IN THE BAY OF BISCAY.</h1>
+
+   <h3>NARRATED IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND</h3>
+
+   <h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2><span class="smcap">General Sir</span> DUNCAN MACGREGOR, K.C.B.</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS.</i><br />
+
+THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,<br />
+<span class="smcap">56, Paternoster Row; 65, St. Paul's Churchyard;<br />
+and 164, Piccadilly.</span></p>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<div class="centerbox">
+<h3>AUTHOR'S NOTE.</h3>
+
+<p>The older I grow, and I am now in my 94th year, I am the more convinced
+of the special interposition of Divine Providence in the winter
+recorded, in the following Tract.</p>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p><p class="author">The Author</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i005tb.jpg" width="500" height="485" alt="" title="Author&#39;s note" />
+<br /><span class="link"><a href="images/i005.jpg">View larger image</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i007.jpg" width="400" height="130" alt="" title="decoration" />
+</div>
+
+<h2><a name="THE_LOSS_OF_THE_KENT_EAST_INDIAMAN" id="THE_LOSS_OF_THE_KENT_EAST_INDIAMAN"></a>THE LOSS OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.</h2>
+
+
+<p><span class="smcap"  style="margin-left: 2em;">My Dear E&mdash;&mdash;</span>,</p>
+
+<p>You are aware that the <i>Kent</i>, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of
+1,350 tons, bound to Bengal and China, left the Downs on the 19th of
+February, with 20 officers, 344 soldiers, 43 women, and 66 children,
+belonging to the 31st regiment; with 20 private passengers, and a crew
+(including officers) of 148 men&mdash;in all, 641 persons on board.</p>
+
+<p>The bustle attendant on a departure for India is calculated to subdue
+the force of those deeply painful sensations to which few men can refuse
+to yield, in the immediate prospect of a long and distant separation
+from the land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With my
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>gallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is remarkably
+characteristic of the professions to which they belonged, hope appeared
+greatly to predominate over sadness. Surrounded as they were by every
+circumstance that could render their voyage propitious, and in the ample
+enjoyment of every necessary that could contribute either to their
+health or their comfort, their hearts seemed to beat high with
+contentment and gratitude towards that country which they zealously
+served, and whose interests they were cheerfully going forth to defend.</p>
+
+<p>With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately <i>Kent</i>, in
+bearing down the Channel, speedily passed many a well-known spot on the
+coast dear to our remembrance; and on the evening of the 23rd we took
+our last view of happy England, and entered the wide Atlantic, without
+the expectation of again seeing land until we reached the shores of
+India.</p>
+
+<p>With slight interruptions of bad weather, we continued to make way until
+the night of Monday, the 28th, when we were suddenly arrested in lat.
+47&deg; 30&acute;, long. 10&deg;, by a violent gale from the south-west, which
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>gradually increased during the whole of the following morning.</p>
+
+<p>To those who have never "gone down to the sea in ships, and seen the
+wonders of the Lord in the great deep," or even to such as have never
+been exposed in a westerly gale to the tremendous swell in the Bay of
+Biscay, I am sensible that the most sober description of the magnificent
+spectacle of "watery hills in full succession flowing" would appear
+sufficiently exaggerated. But it is impossible, I think, for the
+inexperienced mariner, however unreflecting he may try to be, to view
+the effects of the increasing storm, as he feels his solitary vessel
+reeling to and fro under his feet, without involuntarily raising his
+thoughts, with a secret confession of helplessness and veneration that
+he may never before have experienced, towards that Being whose power,
+under ordinary circumstances, we may have disregarded, and whose
+incessant goodness we are prone to requite with ingratitude.</p>
+
+<p>The activity of the officers and seamen of the <i>Kent</i> appeared to keep
+ample pace with that of the gale. Our larger sails were speedily taken
+in or closely reefed; and about ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st of
+March, after having struck our top-gallant yards, we were lying to,
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>under a triple-reefed maintop-sail only, with the deadlights in, and
+with the whole watch of soldiers attached to the life lines, that were
+run along the deck for this purpose.</p>
+
+<p>The rolling of the ship, which was vastly increased by a dead weight of
+some hundred tons of shots and shell that formed a part of its lading,
+became so great about half-past eleven or twelve o'clock, that our main
+chains were thrown by every lurch considerably under water; and the best
+cleated articles of furniture in the cabins and the cuddy were dashed
+about with so much noise and violence as to excite the liveliest
+apprehensions of individual danger.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little before this period that one of the officers of the ship,
+with the well-meant intention of ascertaining that all was fast below,
+descended with two of the sailors into the hold, where they carried with
+them, for safety, a light in the patent lantern; and seeing that the
+lamp burned dimly, the officer took the precaution to hand it up to the
+orlop deck to be trimmed. Having afterwards discovered one of the spirit
+casks to be adrift, he sent the sailors for some billets of wood to
+secure it; but the ship in their absence having made a heavy lurch, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+officer unfortunately dropped the light; and letting go his hold of the
+cask in his eagerness to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and the
+spirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was instantly in a
+blaze.</p>
+
+<p>I know not what steps were then taken. I myself had been engaged during
+the greater part of the morning in double-lashing and otherwise securing
+the furniture in my cabin, and in occasionally going to the cuddy, where
+the marine barometers were suspended, to mark their varying indications
+during the gale, in my journal; and it was on one of those occasions,
+after having read to Mrs. &mdash;&mdash;, at her request, the twelfth chapter of
+St. Luke, which so beautifully declares and illustrates the minute and
+tender providence of God, and so solemnly urges on all the necessity of
+continual watchfulness and readiness for the "coming of the Son of man,"
+that I received from Captain Spence, the captain of the day, the
+alarming information that the ship was on fire in the afterhold. On
+hastening to the hatchway, whence smoke was slowly ascending, I found
+Captain Cobb and other officers giving orders, which seemed to be
+promptly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> obeyed by the seamen and troops, who used every exertion by
+means of the pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, hammocks, &amp;c., to
+extinguish the flames.</p>
+
+<p>With a view to excite among the ladies as little alarm as possible, in
+conveying this intelligence to Colonel Fearon, the commanding officer of
+the troops, I knocked gently at his cabin door, and expressed a wish to
+speak with him; but whether my countenance betrayed the state of my
+feelings, or the increasing noise and confusion upon deck created
+apprehensions amongst them that the storm was assuming a more serious
+aspect, I found it difficult to pacify some of the ladies by repeated
+assurances that no danger whatever was to be apprehended from the gale.
+As long as the devouring element appeared to be confined to the spot
+where the fire originated, and which we were assured was surrounded on
+all sides by the water casks, we ventured to cherish hopes that it might
+be subdued; but no sooner was the light blue vapour that at first arose
+succeeded by volumes of thick, dingy smoke&mdash;which speedily ascending
+through all the four hatchways, rolled over every part of the ship&mdash;than
+all further<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> concealment became impossible, and almost all hope of
+preserving the vessel was abandoned. "The flames have reached the cable
+tier," was exclaimed by some individuals, and the strong pitchy smell
+that pervaded the deck confirmed the truth of the exclamation.</p>
+
+<p>In these awful circumstances, Captain Cobb, with an ability and decision
+that seemed to increase with the imminence of the danger, resorted to
+the only alternative now left him, of ordering the lower decks to be
+scuttled, the combings of the hatches to be cut, and the lower ports to
+be opened, for the free admission of the waves.</p>
+
+<p>These instructions were speedily executed by the united efforts of the
+troops and seamen; but not before some of the sick soldiers, one woman,
+and several children, unable to gain the upper deck, had perished. On
+descending to the gun deck with Colonel Fearon, Captain Bray, and one or
+two other officers of the 31st regiment, to assist in opening the ports,
+I met, staggering towards the hatchway, in an exhausted and nearly
+senseless state, one of the mates, who informed us that he had just
+stumbled over<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> the dead bodies of some individuals who must have died
+from suffocation, to which it was evident that he himself had almost
+fallen a victim. So dense and oppressive was the smoke, that it was with
+the utmost difficulty we could remain long enough below to fulfil
+Captain Cobb's wishes; which were no sooner accomplished, than the sea
+rushed in with extraordinary force, carrying away, in its resistless
+progress to the hold, the largest chests, bulk-heads, etc.</p>
+
+<p>Such a sight, under any other conceivable circumstances, was well
+calculated to have filled us with horror; but in our natural solicitude
+to avoid the more immediate peril of explosion, we endeavoured to cheer
+each other, as we stood up to our knees in water, with the faint hope
+that by these violent means we might be speedily restored to safety. The
+immense quantity of water that was thus introduced into the hold had
+indeed the effect, for a time, of checking the fury of the flames; but
+the danger of sinking having increased as the risk of explosion was
+diminished, the ship became water-logged, and presented other
+indications of settling previous to her going down.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Death in two of its most awful forms now encompassed us, and we seemed
+left to choose the terrible alternative. But always preferring the more
+remote, though equally certain crisis, we tried to shut the ports again,
+to close the hatches, and to exclude the external air, in order, if
+possible, to prolong our existence, the near and certain termination of
+which appeared inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>The scene of horror that now presented itself baffles all description;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">"Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1.5em;">Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave."</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>The upper deck was covered with between six and seven hundred human
+beings, many of whom, from previous sea-sickness, were forced, on the
+first alarm, to flee from below almost in a state of nakedness, and were
+now running about in quest of husbands, children, or parents. While some
+were standing in silent resignation, or in stupid insensibility to their
+impending fate, others were yielding themselves up to the most frantic
+despair. Some on their knees were earnestly imploring, with significant
+gesticulations and in noisy supplications, the mercy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> of Him whose arm,
+they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite them; others were to
+be seen hastily crossing themselves, and performing the various external
+acts required by their peculiar persuasion; while a number of the older
+and more stout-hearted soldiers and sailors sullenly took their seats
+directly over the magazine; hoping, as they stated, that by means of the
+explosion which they every instant expected, a speedier termination
+might be put to their sufferings.<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a> Several of the soldiers' wives and
+children, who had fled for temporary shelter into the after cabins on
+the upper decks, were engaged in prayer and in reading the Scriptures
+with the ladies; some of whom were enabled, with wonderful
+self-possession, to offer to others those spiritual consolations which a
+firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world appeared at this
+awful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment of
+two young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> ladies,<a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a> in particular, formed a specimen of natural
+strength of mind, finely modified by Christian feeling, that failed not
+to attract the notice and admiration of every one who had an opportunity
+of witnessing it. On the melancholy announcement being made to them that
+all hope must be relinquished, and that death was rapidly and inevitably
+approaching, one of the ladies above referred to, calmly sinking down on
+her knees, and clasping her hands together, said, "Even so, come, Lord
+Jesus," and immediately proposed to read a portion of the Scriptures to
+those around her. Her sister with nearly equal composure and
+collectedness of mind selected the forty-sixth and other appropriate
+Psalms, which were accordingly read, with intervals of prayer, by those
+ladies alternately to the assembled females.</p>
+
+<p>One young gentleman, of whose promising talents and piety I dare not now
+make further mention, having calmly asked me my opinion respecting the
+state of the ship, I told him that I thought we should be prepared to
+sleep that night in eternity; and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> shall never forget the peculiar
+fervour with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, "My heart
+is filled with the peace of God;" adding, "yet, though I know it is
+foolish, I dread exceedingly the last struggle."</p>
+
+<p>Amongst the numerous objects that struck my observation at this period I
+was much affected with the appearance and conduct of some of the dear
+children, who, quite unconscious, in the cuddy cabins, of the perils
+that surrounded them, continued to play as usual with their little toys
+in bed, or to put the most innocent and unseasonable questions to those
+around them. To some of the older children, who seemed fully alive to
+the reality of the danger, I whispered, "Now is the time to put in
+practice the instructions you used to receive at the Regimental School,
+and to think of that Saviour of whom you have heard so much." They
+replied, as the tears ran down their cheeks, "Oh, sir, we are trying to
+remember them, and we are praying to God."</p>
+
+<p>The passive condition to which we were all reduced by the total failure
+of our most strenuous exertions, while it was well calculated, and
+probably designed, to convince us afterwards that our deliverance was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
+effected, not by our own might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord,
+afforded us ample room at the moment for deep and awful reflection,
+which, it is to be earnestly wished, may have been improved, as well by
+those who were eventually saved as by those who perished.</p>
+
+<p>It has been observed by the author of the Retrospect, that "in the heat
+of battle, it is not only possible but easy to forget death, and cease
+to think; but in the cool and protracted hours of a shipwreck, where
+there is often nothing to engage the mind but the recollection of tried
+and unsuccessful labours, and the sight of unavoidable and increasing
+harbingers of destruction, it is not easy or possible to forget
+ourselves or a future state."</p>
+
+<p>The general applicability of the latter part of this proposition I am
+disposed to doubt; for if I were to judge of the feelings of all on
+board by those of the number who were heard to express them, I should
+apprehend that a large majority of those men, whose previous attention
+has never been fairly and fully directed to the great subject of
+religion, approach the gates of death, it may be with solemnity, or with
+terror, but without any definable or tangible conviction of the fact
+that after death cometh the judgment.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Several there were who vowed in loud and piteous cries, that if the Lord
+God would spare their lives, they would thenceforward dedicate all their
+powers to His service; and not a few were heard to exclaim, in the
+bitterness of remorse, that the judgments of the Most High were justly
+poured out upon them for their neglected Sabbaths, and their profligate
+or profane lives; but the number of those was extremely small who
+appeared to dwell either with lively hope or dread on the view of an
+opening eternity. And as a further evidence of the truth of this
+observation, I may mention that when I afterwards had occasion to mount
+the mizen shrouds, I there met with a young man, who had brought me a
+letter of introduction from our excellent friend, Dr. G&mdash;n, to whom I
+felt it my duty, while we were rocking on the mast, quietly to propose
+the great question, "What must we do to be saved?" and this young
+gentleman has since informed Mr. P. that though he was at that moment
+fully persuaded of the certainty of immediate death, yet the subject of
+eternity, in any form, had not once flashed upon his mind previous to my
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>While we thus lay in a state of physical<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> inertion, but with all our
+mental faculties in rapid and painful activity&mdash;with the waves lashing
+furiously against the sides of our devoted ship, as if in anger with the
+hostile element for not more speedily performing its office of
+destruction,&mdash;the binnacle, by one of those many lurches which were
+driving everything movable from side to side of the vessel, was suddenly
+wrenched from its fastenings, and all the apparatus of the compass
+dashed to pieces upon the deck; on which one of the young mates,
+emphatically regarding it for a moment, cried out with the emotion so
+natural to a sailor under such circumstances, "What! is the <i>Kent's</i>
+compass really gone?" leaving the bystanders to form, from that omen,
+their own conclusions. One promising young officer of the troops was
+seen thoughtfully removing from his writing-case a lock of hair, which
+he composedly deposited in his bosom; and another officer procuring
+paper and pens, addressed a short communication to his father, which was
+afterwards carefully enclosed in a bottle, in the hope that it might
+eventually reach its destination, with the view, as he stated, of
+relieving him from the long years of fruitless anxiety and suspense<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
+which our melancholy fate would awaken, and of bearing his humble
+testimony, at a moment when his sincerity could scarcely be questioned,
+to the faithfulness of that God in whose mercy he trusted, and whose
+peace he largely enjoyed in the tremendous prospect of immediate
+dissolution.<a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a> It was at this appalling instant, when "all hope that we
+should be saved was then taken away," and when the letter referred to
+was about being committed to the waves, that it occurred to Mr. Thomson,
+the fourth mate, to send a man to the fore-top, rather with the ardent
+wish than the expectation, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> some friendly sail might be
+discovered on the face of the waters. The sailor, on mounting, threw his
+eyes round the horizon for a moment&mdash;a moment of unutterable
+suspense&mdash;and waving his hat exclaimed, "A sail on the lee bow!" The
+joyful announcement was received with deep-felt thanksgivings, and with
+three cheers, upon deck. Our flags of distress were instantly hoisted,
+and our minute guns fired; and we endeavoured to bear down under our
+three top-sails and fore-sail upon the stranger, which afterwards proved
+to be the <i>Cambria</i>,<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a> a small brig of 200 tons burden, Captain Cook,
+bound to Vera Cruz, having on board twenty or thirty Cornish miners, and
+other agents of the Anglo-Mexican Company.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 370px;">
+<img src="images/i023tb.jpg" width="370" height="600" alt="" title="" />
+<span class="link"><a href="images/i023.jpg">View larger image</a></span>
+</div>
+
+<p>For ten or fifteen minutes we were left in doubt whether the crew of the
+brig perceived our signals, or perceiving them, were either<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> disposed or
+able to lend us any assistance. From the violence of the gale, it seems
+that the report of our guns was not heard; but the ascending volumes of
+smoke from the ship sufficiently announced the dreadful nature of our
+distress; and we had the satisfaction, after a short period of dark
+suspense, to see the brig hoist British colours, and crowd all sail to
+hasten to our relief.</p>
+
+<p>Although it was impossible, and would have been improper, to repress the
+rising hopes that were pretty generally diffused amongst us by the
+unexpected sight of the <i>Cambria</i>, yet I confess, that when I reflected
+on the long period our ship had been already burning&mdash;on the tremendous
+sea that was running&mdash;on the extreme smallness of the brig, and the
+immense number of human beings to be saved, I could only venture to hope
+that a few might be spared; but I durst not for a moment contemplate the
+possibility of my own preservation.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 401px;">
+<img src="images/i028.jpg" width="401" height="650" alt="SAVED FROM THE WRECK." title="" />
+<span class="caption">SAVED FROM THE WRECK.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>While Captain Cobb, Colonel Fearon, and Major MacGregor of the 31st
+regiment, were consulting together, as the brig was approaching us, on
+the necessary preparations for getting out the boats, etc., one of the
+officers asked Major MacGregor in what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> order it was intended the
+officers should move off; to which the other replied, "Of course in
+funeral order;" which injunction was instantly confirmed by Colonel
+Fearon, who said, "Most undoubtedly, the juniors first; but see that any
+man is cut down who presumes to enter the boats before the means of
+escape are presented to the women and children."</p>
+
+<p>To prevent the rush to the boats as they were being lowered, which, from
+certain symptoms of impatience manifested both by soldiers and sailors,
+there was reason to fear, some of the military officers were stationed
+over them with drawn swords. But from the firm determination which these
+exhibited, and the great subordination observed, with few exceptions, by
+the troops, this proper precaution was afterwards rendered unnecessary.</p>
+
+<p>Arrangements having been made by Captain Cobb for placing in the first
+boat, previous to letting it down, all the ladies, and as many of the
+soldiers' wives as it could safely contain, they hurriedly wrapped
+themselves up in whatever articles of clothing could be found; and I
+think about two, or half-past two o'clock, a most mournful pro<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>cession
+advanced from the after cabins to the starboard cuddy port, outside of
+which the cutter was suspended. Scarcely a word was uttered&mdash;not a
+scream was heard&mdash;even the infants ceased to cry, as if conscious of the
+unspoken and unspeakable anguish that was at that instant rending the
+hearts of their parting parents; nor was the silence of voices in any
+way broken, except in one or two cases, where the ladies plaintively
+entreated permission to be left behind with their husbands. But on being
+assured that every moment's delay might occasion the sacrifice of a
+human life, they successively suffered themselves to be torn from the
+tender embrace, and with that fortitude which never fails to
+characterize and adorn their sex on occasions of overwhelming trial,
+were placed, without a murmur, in the boat, which was immediately
+lowered into a sea so tempestuous as to leave us only to hope against
+hope that it should live in it for a single moment. Twice the cry was
+heard from those on the chains that the boat was swamping. But He who
+enabled the apostle Peter to walk on the face of the deep, and was
+graciously attending to the earnest aspirations of those on board, had
+decreed its safety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Although Captain Cobb had used every precaution to diminish the danger
+of the boat's descent, by stationing a man with an axe to cut away the
+tackle from either extremity, should the slightest difficulty occur in
+unhooking it; yet the peril attending the whole operation, which can
+only be adequately estimated by nautical men, had very nearly proved
+fatal to its numerous inmates.</p>
+
+<p>After one or two unsuccessful attempts to place the little frail bark
+fairly upon the surface of the water, the command was at length given to
+unhook; the tackle at the stern was, in consequence, immediately
+cleared; but the ropes at the bow having got foul, the sailor found it
+impossible to obey the order. In vain was the axe applied to the
+entangled tackle; the moment was inconceivably critical, as the boat,
+which necessarily followed the motion of the ship, was gradually rising
+out of the water, and must, in another instant, have been hanging
+perpendicularly by the bow, and its helpless passengers launched into
+the deep, had not a most providential wave suddenly struck and lifted up
+the stern, so as to enable the seamen to disengage the tackle. The boat
+being thus dexterously cleared from the ship,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> was seen after a while
+from the poop, battling with the billows,&mdash;now raised, in its progress
+to the brig, like a speck on their summit, and then disappearing for
+several seconds, as if engulfed "in the horrid vale" between them.<a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cambria</i> having prudently lain to at some distance from the <i>Kent</i>,
+lest she should be involved in her explosion, or exposed to the fire
+from her guns, which, being all shotted, afterwards went off as the
+flames successively reached them, the men had a considerable way to row;
+and the success of this first experiment seeming to be the measure of
+our future hopes, the movements of this precious boat&mdash;incalculably
+precious, without doubt, to the agonized husbands and fathers
+immediately connected with it&mdash;were watched with intense anxiety by all
+on board.</p>
+
+<p>The better to balance the boat in the raging sea through which it had to
+pass, and to enable the seamen to ply their oars, the women and children
+were stowed promis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>cuously under the seats, and consequently exposed to
+the risk of being drowned by the continual dashing of the spray over
+their heads, which so filled the boat during the passages that before
+their arrival at the brig the poor females were sitting up to the waist
+in water, and their children kept with the greatest difficulty above it.</p>
+
+<p>However, in the course of twenty minutes the little cutter was seen
+alongside the ark of refuge; and the first human being that happened to
+be admitted, out of the vast assemblage that ultimately found shelter
+there, was the infant son of Major MacGregor, a child of only a few
+weeks old, who was caught from his mother's arms and lifted into the
+brig by Mr. Thomson, the fourth mate of the <i>Kent</i>, the officer who had
+been ordered to take charge of the ladies' boat.<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a></p>
+
+<p>But the extreme difficulty and danger presented to the women and
+children in getting into the <i>Cambria</i> seemed scarcely less imminent
+than that which they had previously encountered; for to prevent the boat
+from swamping or being stove against the side of the brig, while its
+passengers were disem<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>barking, required no ordinary exercise of skill
+and perseverance on the part of the sailors, and of self-possession and
+effort on that of the females themselves. On coming alongside of the
+<i>Cambria</i>, Captain Cook very judiciously called first for the children,
+who were successively thrown or handed up from the boat. The women were
+then urged to avail themselves of every favourable heave of the sea by
+springing towards the many friendly arms that were extended from the
+vessel to receive them; and, notwithstanding the deplorable
+consequence of making a false step under such critical circumstances,
+not a single accident occurred to any individual belonging to the first
+boat. Indeed, the only one whose life appears to have been placed in
+extreme jeopardy alongside was one of the ladies, who, in attempting to
+spring from the boat, came short of the hand that was held out to her,
+and would certainly have perished, had she not most happily caught hold
+at the instant of a rope that happened to be hanging over the
+<i>Cambria's</i> side, to which she clung for some moments, until she was
+dragged into the vessel.</p>
+
+<p>I have reason to know that the feelings of oppressive delight,
+gratitude, and praise<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> experienced by the married officers and soldiers
+on being assured of the comparative safety of their wives and children,
+so entirely abstracted their minds from their own situation as to render
+them for a little while totally insensible either to the storm that beat
+upon them, or to the active and gathering volcano that threatened every
+instant to explode under their feet.</p>
+
+<p>It being impossible for the boats, after the first trip, to come
+alongside the <i>Kent</i>, a plan was adopted for lowering the women and
+children by ropes from the stern, by tying them two and two together.
+But from the heaving of the ship, and the extreme difficulty in dropping
+them at the instant the boat was underneath, many of the poor creatures
+were unavoidably plunged repeatedly under water; and much as humanity
+may rejoice that no woman was eventually lost by this process, yet it
+was as impossible to prevent, as it was deplorable to witness, the great
+sacrifice thus occasioned of the younger children&mdash;the same violent
+means which only reduced the parents to a state of exhaustion or
+insensibility, having entirely extinguished the vital spark in the
+feebler frames of the infants that were fastened to them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Amid the conflicting feelings and dispositions manifested by the
+numerous actors in this melancholy drama, many affecting proofs were
+elicited of parental and filial affection, or of disinterested
+friendship, that seemed to shed a momentary halo around the gloomy
+scene.</p>
+
+<p>Two or three soldiers, to relieve their wives of a part of their
+families, sprang into the water with their children, and perished in
+their endeavours to save them. One young lady, who had resolutely
+refused to quit her father, whose sense of duty kept him at his post,
+was near falling a sacrifice to her filial devotion, not having been
+picked up by those in the boats until she had sunk five or six times. A
+man, who was reduced to the frightful alternative of losing his wife or
+his children, hastily decided in favour of his duty to the former. His
+wife was accordingly saved, but his four children, alas! were left to
+perish. A fine fellow, a soldier, who had neither wife nor child of his
+own, but who evinced the greatest solicitude for the safety of those of
+others, insisted on having three children lashed to him, with whom he
+plunged into the water; not being able to reach the boat, he was again
+drawn<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> into the ship with his charge, but not before two of the children
+had expired. One man fell down the hatchway into the flames, and another
+had his back so completely broken as to have been observed quite doubled
+falling overboard. These spectacles of individual loss and suffering
+were not confined to the entrance upon the perilous voyage between the
+two ships. One man, who fell between the boat and brig, had his head
+literally crushed to pieces; and some others were lost in their attempts
+to ascend the side of the <i>Cambria</i>.</p>
+
+<p>Seeing that the tardy means employed for the escape of the women and
+children necessarily consumed a great deal of time that might be partly
+devoted to the general preservation, orders were given that along with
+the females, each of the boats should also admit a certain portion of
+the soldiers, several of whom, in their impatience to take advantage of
+this permission, flung themselves overboard, and sank in their
+ill-judged and premature efforts for deliverance.</p>
+
+<p>One poor fellow of this number, a very respectable man, had actually
+reached the boat, and was raising his hand to lay hold on the gunwale,
+when the bow of the boat,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> by a sudden pitch, struck him on the head,
+and he instantly went down. There was a peculiarity attending this man's
+case that deserves notice. His wife, to whom he was warmly attached, not
+having been of the allotted number of women to accompany the regiment
+abroad, resolved in her anxiety to follow her husband, to defeat this
+arrangement, and accordingly repaired with the detachment to Gravesend,
+where she ingeniously managed, by eluding the vigilance of the sentries,
+to get on board, and conceal herself for several days; and although she
+was discovered, and sent ashore at Deal, she contrived a second time,
+with true feminine perseverance, to get between decks, where she
+continued to secrete herself until the morning of the fatal disaster.</p>
+
+<p>While the men were thus bent in various ways on self-preservation, one
+of the sailors, who had taken his post with many others over the
+magazine, awaiting with great patience the dreaded explosion, at last
+cried out, as if in ill-humour that his expectation was likely to be
+disappointed, "Well, if she won't blow up, I'll see if I can't get away
+from her;" and jumping up, he made his way to the boats, which he
+reached in safety.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I ought to state that three of the six boats we originally possessed
+were either completely stove or swamped in the course of the day, one of
+them with men in it, some of whom were seen floating in the water for a
+moment before they disappeared; and it is suspected that one or two of
+those who went down must have sunk under the weight of their spoils, the
+same individuals having been seen eagerly plundering the cuddy cabins.</p>
+
+<p>As the day was rapidly drawing to a close, and the flames were slowly
+but perceptibly extending, Colonel Fearon and Captain Cobb evinced an
+increasing anxiety to relieve the remainder of the gallant men under
+their charge.</p>
+
+<p>To facilitate this object a rope was suspended from the extremity of the
+spanker-boom, along which the men were recommended to proceed, and
+thence slide down by the rope into the boats. But as, from the great
+swell of the sea, and the constant heaving of the ship, it was
+impossible for the boats to preserve their station for a moment, those
+who adopted this course incurred so great a risk of swinging for some
+time in the air, and of being repeatedly plunged under water, or dashed
+against the sides of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> the boats underneath, that many of the landsmen
+continued to throw themselves out of the stern window on the upper deck,
+preferring what appeared to me the more precarious chance of reaching
+the boats by swimming. Rafts made of spars, hencoops, etc., were also
+ordered to be constructed, for the twofold purpose of forming an
+intermediate communication with the boats&mdash;a purpose, by the bye, which
+they very imperfectly answered&mdash;and of serving as a last point of
+retreat, should the further extension of the flames compel us at once to
+desert the vessel. Directions were at the same time given that every man
+should tie a rope round his waist, by which he might afterwards attach
+himself to the rafts, should he be suddenly forced to take to the water.
+While the people were busily occupied in adopting this recommendation, I
+was surprised, I had almost said amused, by the singular delicacy of one
+of the Irish recruits, who, in searching for a rope in one of the
+cabins, called out to me that he could find none except the cordage
+belonging to an officer's cot, and wished to know whether there would be
+any harm in his appropriating it to his own use.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The gradual removal of the officers was at the same time commenced, and
+was marked by a discipline the most rigid, and an intrepidity the most
+exemplary; none appearing to be influenced by a vain and ostentatious
+bravery, which, in cases of extreme peril, affords rather a presumptive
+proof of secret timidity than of fortitude; nor any betraying an unmanly
+or unsoldierlike impatience to quit the ship; but, with the becoming
+deportment of men neither paralyzed by, nor profanely insensible to, the
+accumulating dangers that encompassed them, they progressively departed
+in the different boats with their soldiers; those who happened to
+proceed first leaving behind them an example of coolness that could not
+be unprofitable to those who followed.</p>
+
+<p>But the finest illustration of their conduct was displayed in that of
+their chief, whose ability and presence of mind, under the complicated
+responsibility and anxiety of a commander, husband, and father, were
+eminently calculated, throughout this dismal day, to inspire all others
+with composure and fortitude. Never for one moment did Colonel Fearon
+seem to forget the authority with which his sovereign had invested him,
+nor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> did any of his officers&mdash;as far as my observation went&mdash;cease to
+remember the relative situations in which they were severally placed.
+Even in the gloomiest moments of that dark season, when the dissolution
+of every earthly distinction seemed near at hand, the decision and
+confidence with which orders were issued on the one hand, and the
+promptitude and respect with which they were obeyed on the other,
+offered the best proofs of the stability of the well-connected system of
+discipline established in the 31st regiment, and the most unquestionable
+ground for the high and flattering commendation which his Royal
+Highness, the Commander-in-chief, has been pleased to bestow upon it.</p>
+
+<p>I should, however, be guilty of injustice and unkindness if I here
+omitted to bear my humble testimony to the manly behaviour of the East
+India Company's cadets, and other private passengers on board, who
+emulated the best conduct of the officers of the ship and of the troops,
+and equally participated with them in all the hardships and exertions of
+the day.</p>
+
+<p>As an agreeable proof, too, of the subordination and good feeling that
+governed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> poor soldiers in the midst of their sufferings, I ought to
+state that towards evening, when the melancholy groups who were
+passively seated on the poop, exhausted by previous fatigue, anxiety,
+and fasting, were beginning to experience the pain of intolerable
+thirst, a box of oranges was accidentally discovered by some of the men,
+who, with a degree of mingled consideration, respect, and affection,
+that could hardly have been expected at such a moment, refused to
+partake of the grateful beverage until they had offered a share of it to
+their officers.</p>
+
+<p>I regret that the circumstances under which I write do not allow me
+sufficient time for recalling to my recollection all the busy thoughts
+that engaged my own mind on that eventful day, or the various
+conjectures which I ventured to form of what was passing in the minds of
+others.</p>
+
+<p>But one idea was forcibly suggested to me,&mdash;that instead of being able
+to trace amongst my numerous associates that diversity of fortitude
+which I should have expected would mark their conduct&mdash;forming, as it
+were, a descending series, from the decided heroism exhibited by some,
+down to the lowest degree of pusillanimity<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> and frenzy discoverable in
+others,&mdash;I remarked that the mental condition of my fellow-sufferers was
+rather divided by a broad but, as it afterwards appeared, not impassable
+line; on the one side of which were ranged all whose minds were greatly
+elevated by the excitement above their ordinary standard; and on the
+other was to be seen the incalculably smaller but more conspicuous
+group, whose powers of acting and thinking became absolutely paralyzed,
+or were driven into delirium, by the unusual character and pressure of
+the danger.</p>
+
+<p>Nor was it uninteresting to observe the curious interchange, at least
+externally, of strength and weakness that obtained between those two
+discordant parties, during the day. Some whose agitation and timidity
+had, in the earlier part of it, rendered them objects of pity or
+contempt, afterwards rose, by some great internal effort, into positive
+distinction for the opposite qualities; while others, remarkable at
+first for calmness and courage, suddenly giving way, without any fresh
+cause of despair, seemed afterwards to cast their minds as they did
+their bodies, prostrate before the danger.</p>
+
+<p>It would not, perhaps, be difficult to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> account for these apparent
+anomalies; but I shall content myself with simply stating the facts,
+adding to them one of a similar description that sensibly affected my
+own mind.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the soldiers near me having casually remarked that the sun was
+setting, I looked round, and never can I forget the intensity with which
+I regarded his declining rays. I had previously felt deeply impressed
+with the conviction that that night the ocean was to be my bed; and had,
+I imagined, sufficiently realized to my mind, both the last struggles
+and the consequences of death. But as I continued solemnly watching the
+departing beams of the sun, the thought that that was really the very
+last I should ever behold, gradually expanded into reflections the most
+tremendous in their import. It was not, I am persuaded, either the
+retrospect of a past life, or the direct fear of death or of judgment,
+that occupied my mind at the period I allude to; but a broad,
+illimitable view of eternity itself, altogether abstracted from the
+misery or felicity that flows through it&mdash;a sort of painless,
+pleasureless, sleepless eternity. I know not whither the overwhelming
+thought would have hurried me, had I not speedily seized, as with the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
+grasp of death, on some of those sweet promises of the gospel which give
+to an immortal existence its only charms; and that naturally enough led
+back my thoughts, by means of the brilliant object before me, to the
+contemplation of that blessed city, "which hath no need of the sun,
+neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten
+it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."</p>
+
+<p>I have been the more particular in recording my precise feelings at the
+period in question, because they tend to confirm an opinion which I have
+long entertained&mdash;in common, I believe, with others,&mdash;that we very
+rarely realize even those objects that seem, in our every-day
+speculations, to be the most interesting to our hearts. We are so much
+in the habit of uttering the awful words 'Almighty,' 'heaven,' 'hell,'
+'eternity,' 'divine justice,' 'holiness,' etc., without attaching to
+them, in all their magnitude, the ideas of which such words are the
+symbols, that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment that
+accompanies a new and alarming discovery if, at any time, the ideas
+themselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is,
+probably, this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whose
+minds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, that
+enables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the very
+brink of that precipice which divides the world of time from the regions
+of eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded,
+with real tranquillity. How much it is to be lamented that we do not
+keep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that our
+indifference or blindness to danger, whether it be temporal or eternal,
+cannot possibly remove or diminish the extent of that danger.</p>
+
+<p>Some time after the shades of night had enveloped us, I descended to the
+cuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; and
+the scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy in
+the extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had been
+the seat of kindly intercourse and of social gaiety, was now entirely
+deserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched in
+irrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about, like beasts
+of prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> articles
+of furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought and
+pains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered in
+confusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped from
+their confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig,
+wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large in
+undisturbed possession of the Brussels carpet that covered one of the
+cabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, and
+rendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, I
+returned to the poop, where I again found, amongst the few officers that
+remained, Capt. Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieuts. Ruxton, Booth, and Evans,
+superintending, with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidly
+diminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived to carry them
+off.</p>
+
+<p>The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as the
+night advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fed
+as much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid as by the
+real and evident approach of the fatal crisis itself. With a view to
+ensure a greater probability of being discovered by those in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> the boats,
+some of the more collected and hardy soldiers (for I think almost all
+the sailors had already effected their escape) took the precaution to
+tie towels and such like articles round their heads, previously to their
+committing themselves to the water.</p>
+
+<p>As the boats were nearly three-quarters of an hour absent between each
+trip&mdash;which period was necessarily spent by those in the wreck in a
+state of fearful inactivity&mdash;abundant opportunity was afforded for
+collecting the sentiments of many of the unhappy men around me; some of
+whom, after remaining perhaps for a while in silent abstraction, would
+suddenly burst forth, as if awakened from some terrible dream to a still
+more frightful reality, into a long train of loud and desponding
+lamentation, that gradually subsided into its former stillness.</p>
+
+<p>It was during those trying intervals of rest that religious instruction
+and consolation appeared to be the most required and the most
+acceptable. Some there were who endeavoured to dispense it agreeably to
+the visible wants and feelings of the earnest hearers. On one of those
+occasions, especially, the officer to whom I have already alluded was
+entreated to pray. His prayer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> was short, but was frequently broken by
+the exclamations of assent to some of its confessions, that were wrung
+from the afflicted hearts of his auditors.</p>
+
+<p>I know not in what manner, under those circumstances, spiritual hope or
+comfort could have been ministered to my afflicted companions by those
+who regard works, either wholly or partly, as the means of propitiating
+divine justice, rather than the evidence and fruits of that faith which
+pacifies the conscience and purifies the heart. But in some few cases,
+at least, where the individuals deplored the want of time for repentance
+and good works, I well remember that no arguments tended to soothe their
+troubled minds but those which went directly to assure them of the
+freeness and fulness of that grace which is not refused, even in the
+eleventh hour, to the very chief of sinners. And if any of those to whom
+I now allude have been spared to read this record of their feelings in
+the prospect of death, it will be well for them to keep solemnly in mind
+the vows they then took upon them, and to seek to improve that season of
+probation which they so earnestly besought, and which has been so
+mercifully extended to them,&mdash;by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> humbly and incessantly applying for
+accessions of that faith which they are sensible removed the terrors of
+their awakened consciences, and can alone enable them henceforward to
+live in a sober, righteous, and godly manner, and thereby give the only
+unquestionable proof of their love to God, and their interest in the
+great salvation of His Son Jesus Christ.</p>
+
+<p>If, on reading this imperfect narrative,<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a> any persons beyond the
+immediate circle of my companions in misery (for within it I can safely
+declare that there were no indications of ridicule) should affect to
+despise, as contemptible or unsoldierlike, the humble devotional
+exercises to which I have now referred, I should like to assure them,
+that although they were undoubtedly commenced and prosecuted much more
+with an eternal than a temporal object in view, yet they also subserved
+the important purpose of restoring order and composure amongst a certain
+limited class of soldiers, at moments when mere military appeals had
+ceased to operate.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I must state that, in general, it was not those most remarkable for
+their fortitude who evinced either a precipitancy to depart, or a desire
+to remain very long behind&mdash;the older and cooler soldiers appearing to
+possess too much regard for their officers, as well as for their
+individual credit, to take their hasty departure at a very early period
+of the day, and too much wisdom and resolution to hesitate to the very
+last.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not till the close of this mournful tragedy that
+backwardness, rather than impatience, to adopt the perilous and only
+means of escape that offered, became generally discernible on the part
+of the unhappy remnant still on board, and that made it not only
+imperative on Captain Cobb to reiterate his threats, as well as his
+entreaties, that not an instant should be lost, but seemed to render it
+expedient for one of the officers of the troops, who had expressed his
+intention of remaining to the last, to limit, in the hearing of those
+around him, the period of his own stay. Seeing, however, between nine
+and ten o'clock, that some individuals were consuming the precious
+moments by obstinately hesitating to proceed, while others were making
+the inadmissible request<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> to be lowered down as the women had been,
+learning from the boatmen that the wreck, which was already nine or ten
+feet below the ordinary water mark, had sunk two feet lower since their
+last trip; and calculating, besides, that the two boats then under the
+stern, with that which was in sight on its return from the brig, would
+suffice for the conveyance of all who seemed in a condition to remove;
+the three remaining officers of the 31st regiment seriously prepared to
+take their departure.</p>
+
+<p>As I cannot perhaps convey to you so correct an idea of the condition of
+others as by describing my own feelings and situation under the same
+circumstances, I shall make no apology for detailing the manner of my
+individual escape, which will sufficiently mark that of many hundreds
+that preceded it. The spanker-boom of so large a ship as the <i>Kent</i>,
+which projects, I should think, 16 or 18 feet over the stern, rests on
+ordinary occasions about 19 or 20 feet above the water; but in the
+position in which we were placed, from the great height of the sea, and
+the consequent pitching of the ship, it was frequently lifted to a
+height not less than 30 or 40 feet from the surface.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>To reach the rope, therefore, that hung from its extremity was an
+operation that seemed to require the aid of as much dexterity of hand as
+steadiness of head. For it was not only the nervousness of creeping
+along the boom itself, or the extreme difficulty of afterwards seizing
+on and sliding down by the rope that we had to dread, and that had
+occasioned the loss of some valuable lives by deterring men from
+adopting this mode of escape; but as the boat, which one moment was
+probably close under the boom, might be carried the next, by the force
+of the waves, 15 or 20 yards away from it, the unhappy individual, whose
+best calculations were thus defeated, was generally left swinging for
+some time in mid-air, if he was not repeatedly plunged several feet
+under water, or dashed with dangerous violence against the sides of the
+returning boat&mdash;or, what not unfrequently happened, was forced to let go
+his hold of the rope altogether. As there seemed, however, no
+alternative, I did not hesitate, notwithstanding my comparative
+inexperience and awkwardness in such a situation, to throw my legs
+across the perilous spar; and with a heart extremely grateful that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> such
+means of deliverance, dangerous as they appeared, were still extended to
+me; and more grateful still that I had been enabled, in common with
+others, to discharge my honest duty to my sovereign and to my
+fellow-soldiers, I proceeded,&mdash;after confidently committing my spirit,
+the great object of my solicitude, into the keeping of Him who had
+formed and redeemed it,&mdash;to creep slowly forward, feeling at every step
+the increasing difficulty of my situation. On getting nearly to the end
+of the boom, the young officer whom I followed and myself were met with
+a squall of wind and rain so violent as to make us fain to embrace
+closely the slippery stick (without attempting for some minutes to make
+any progress), and to excite our apprehension that we must relinquish
+all hope of reaching the rope. But our fears were disappointed; and
+after resting for a little while at the boom end, while my companion was
+descending to the boat, which he did not find until he had been plunged
+once or twice over head in the water, I prepared to follow; and instead
+of lowering myself, as many had imprudently done, at the moment when the
+boat was inclining towards us&mdash;and consequently being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> unable to descend
+the whole distance before it again receded,&mdash;I calculated that while the
+boat was retiring I ought to commence my descent, which would probably
+be completed by the time the returning wave brought it underneath; by
+which means I was, I believe, almost the only officer or soldier who
+reached the boat without being either severely bruised or immersed in
+the water.</p>
+
+<p>But my good friend Colonel Fearon had not been so fortunate; for after
+swinging for some time, and being repeatedly struck against the side of
+the boat, and at one time drawn completely under it, he was at last so
+utterly exhausted that he must instantly have let go his hold of the
+rope and perished, had not some one in the boat seized him by the hair
+of the head, and dragged him into it, almost senseless and alarmingly
+bruised.</p>
+
+<p>Captain Cobb, in his resolution to be the last, if possible, to quit his
+ship, and in 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> dismay.<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> 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.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>Kent's</i> stern, not only after all<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> expostulation and entreaty
+with those on board had foiled, but until the flames, bursting forth
+from the cabin windows, rendered it impossible to remain without
+inflicting the greatest cruelty on the individuals that manned it. But
+even on the return of the boat in question to the <i>Cambria</i>, 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,<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> 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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 424px;">
+<img src="images/i060.jpg" width="424" height="650" alt="THE MAGAZINE EXPLODED." title="" />
+<span class="caption">THE MAGAZINE EXPLODED.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>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 those few who, we had all too much reason to fear, were
+doomed to destruction. It would appear&mdash;for the poor men themselves give
+an extremely confused,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> though I am persuaded not a wilfully false
+account of themselves&mdash;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 Captain Bibbey, the humane commander of the <i>Caroline</i>, 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 <i>Caroline</i> to their rescue.<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a> <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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 <i>Caroline</i>, from Captain Bibbey, who considerately remained
+till daylight close to the wreck, in the hope that some others might
+still be found clinging to it&mdash;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 <i>Cambria</i>, to have attempted.</p>
+
+<p>But when I 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,&mdash;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,&mdash;I must believe that, by those who
+thus laboured, all was done that humanity could possibly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> demand, or
+intrepidity effect, for the preservation of every individual.</p>
+
+<p>Quitting, for a moment, the subject of the wreck, I would advert to what
+was in the meantime taking place on board the <i>Cambria</i>. 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,&mdash;feelings which were inconceivably excited,
+rather than soothed, by the idle and erroneous rumours occasionally
+conveyed to them regarding the state of the <i>Kent</i>. 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 were indeed left husbandless and fatherless;
+or as the objects from whom they had feared they were for ever severed,
+suddenly rushed into their arms. But these feelings of delight, whatever
+may have been their intensity, were speedily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> chastened, and the
+attention of all arrested, by the last tremendous spectacle of
+destruction.</p>
+
+<p>After the arrival of the last boat the flames, which had spread along
+the upper deck and poop, ascended with the rapidity of lightning to the
+masts and rigging, forming one general conflagration, that illumined the
+heavens to an immense distance, and was strongly reflected by several
+objects on board the brig. The flags of distress, hoisted in the
+morning, were seen for a considerable time waving amid the flames, until
+the masts to which they were suspended successively fell like stately
+steeples over the ship's side. At last, about half-past one o'clock in
+the morning, the devouring element having communicated to the magazine,
+the explosion was seen, and the blazing fragments of the once
+magnificent <i>Kent</i> were instantly hurried, like so many rockets, high
+into the air;<a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a> leaving, in the comparative darkness that succeeded,
+the deathful scene of that disastrous day floating before the mind like
+some feverish dream.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Shortly afterwards, the brig, which had been gradually making sail, was
+running at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour towards the nearest
+port. I would here endeavour to render my humble tribute of admiration
+and gratitude to that gallant and excellent individual, who, under God,
+was undoubtedly the chief instrument of our deliverance; if I were not
+sensible that testimony has been already borne to his heroic and humane
+efforts, in a manner much more commensurate with, and from quarters
+reflecting infinitely greater honour upon his merits, than the feeble
+expressions of them which I should be able to record.<a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a> I trust you
+will keep in mind that Captain Cook's generous intentions and exertions
+must have proved utterly unavailing for the preservation of so many
+lives, had they not been most nobly and unremittingly supported by those
+of his mate and crew, as well as of the numerous passengers on board his
+brig. While the former, only eight in number, were usefully and
+necessarily employed in working the vessel, the sturdy Cornish miners
+and York<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>shire smelters, on the approach of the different boats, took
+their perilous stations on the chains, where they put forth the great
+muscular strength with which Heaven had endowed them, in dexterously
+seizing, at each successive heave of the sea, on some of the exhausted
+people, and dragging them up on deck.</p>
+
+<p>Nor did their kind assistance terminate there. They and the gentlemen
+connected with them cheerfully opened their ample stores of clothes and
+provisions, which they liberally dispensed to the naked and famished
+sufferers; they surrendered their beds to the helpless women and
+children, and seemed, in short, during the whole of our passage to
+England, to take no other delight than in ministering to all our wants.</p>
+
+<p>Although, after the first burst of mutual gratulation, and of becoming
+acknowledgment of the divine mercy for our unlooked-for deliverance, had
+subsided, none of us felt disposed to much interchange of thought, each
+being rather inclined to wrap himself up in his own reflections; yet we
+did not, during the first night, view with the alarm it warranted, the
+extreme misery and danger<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> to which we were still exposed, by being
+crowded together, in a gale of wind, with upwards of 600 human beings,
+in a small brig of 200 tons, at a distance, too, of several hundred
+miles from any accessible port. Our little cabin, which was only
+calculated, under ordinary circumstances, for the accommodation of eight
+or ten persons, was now made to contain nearly eighty individuals, many
+of whom had no sitting room, and even some of the ladies no room to lie
+down. Owing to the continued violence of the gale, and to the bulwarks
+on one side of the brig having been driven in, the sea beat so
+incessantly over our deck as to render it necessary that the hatches
+should only be lifted up between the returning waves, to prevent
+absolute suffocation below, where the men were so closely packed
+together that the steam arising from their respiration excited at one
+time an apprehension that the vessel was on fire; while the impurity of
+the air they were inhaling became so marked, that the lights
+occasionally carried down amongst them were almost instantly
+extinguished. Nor was the condition of the hundreds who covered the deck
+less wretched than that of their com<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>rades below; since they were
+obliged night and day to stand shivering, in their wet and nearly naked
+state, ankle deep in water:<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>&mdash;some of the older children and females
+were thrown into fits, while the infants were piteously crying for that
+nourishment which their nursing mothers were no longer able to give
+them.<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>Our only hope amid these great and accumulating miseries was that the
+same compassionate Providence which had already so marvellously
+interposed in our behalf would not permit the favourable wind to abate
+or change until we reached some friendly port; for we were all convinced
+that a delay of a very few days longer at sea must inevitably involve us
+in famine, pestilence, and a complication of the most dreadful evils.
+Our hopes were not disappointed. The gale continued with even increasing
+violence; and our able captain, crowding all sail, at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> the risk of
+carrying away his masts, so nobly urged his vessel onward, that in the
+afternoon of Thursday, the 3rd, the delightful exclamation from aloft
+was heard, "Land ahead!" In the evening we descried the Scilly lights;
+and running rapidly along the Cornish coast, we joyfully cast anchor in
+Falmouth harbour, at about half-past twelve o'clock at night.</p>
+
+<p>On reviewing the various proximate causes to which so many human beings
+owed their deliverance from a combination of dangers as remarkable for
+their duration as they were appalling in their aspect, it is impossible,
+I think, not to discover and gratefully acknowledge, in the beneficence
+of their arrangement, the overruling providence of that blessed Being,
+who is sometimes pleased, in His mysterious operations, to produce the
+same effect from causes apparently different; and on the other hand, as
+in our own case, to bring forth results the most opposite, from one and
+the same cause. For there is no doubt that the heavy rolling of our
+ship, occasioned by the violent gale, which was the real origin of all
+our disasters, contributed also most essentially to our subsequent
+preservation; since, had not Captain Cobb been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> enabled, by the
+greatness of the swell, to introduce speedily through the gun ports the
+immense quantity of water that inundated the hold, and thereby checked
+for so long a time the fury of the flames, the <i>Kent</i> must
+unquestionably have been consumed before many, perhaps before any, of
+those on board could have found shelter in the <i>Cambria</i>.<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></p>
+
+<p>But it is unnecessary to dwell on an insulated fact like this, amidst a
+concatenation of circumstances, all leading to the same conclusion, and
+so closely bound together as to force us to confess, that if a single
+link in the chain had been withdrawn or withheld, we must all most
+probably have perished.</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Cambria</i>, which had been, it seems, unaccountably detained in port
+nearly a month after the period assigned for her departure, was early on
+the morning of the fatal calamity pursuing at a great distance ahead of
+us the same course with ourselves; but her bulwarks on the weather side
+having been suddenly driven in, by a heavy sea breaking over her
+quarter, Captain Cook, in his anxiety to give ease to his labouring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+vessel, was induced to go completely out of his course by throwing the
+brig on the opposite tack, by which means alone he was brought in sight
+of us. Not to dwell on the unexpected, but not unimportant facts of the
+flames having been mercifully prevented, for eleven hours, from either
+communicating with the magazine forward, or the great spirit room abaft,
+or even coming into contact with the tiller ropes&mdash;any of which
+circumstances would evidently have been fatal,&mdash;I would remark that,
+until the <i>Cambria</i> hove in sight, we had not discovered any vessel
+whatever for several days previous; nor did we afterwards see another
+until we entered the chops of the Channel. It is to be remembered, too,
+that had the <i>Cambria</i>, with her small crew, been homeward instead of
+outward bound, her scanty remainder of provisions, under such
+circumstances, would hardly have sufficed to form a single meal for our
+vast assemblage; or if, instead of having her lower deck completely
+clear, she had been carrying out a full cargo, there would not have been
+time, under the pressure of the danger and the violence of the gale, to
+throw the cargo overboard, and certainly, with it, not suffi<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>cient space
+in the brig to contain one-half of our number.</p>
+
+<p>When I reflect, besides, on the disastrous consequences that must have
+followed if, during our passage home, which was performed in a period
+most unusually short, the wind had either veered round a few points, or
+even partially subsided&mdash;which must have produced a scene of horror on
+board more terrible if possible than that from which we had escaped; and
+above all, when I recollect the extraordinary fact, and that which seems
+to have the most forcibly struck the whole of us, that we had not been
+above an hour in Falmouth harbour, when the wind, which had all along
+been blowing from the south-west, suddenly chopped round to the opposite
+quarter of the compass, and continued uninterruptedly for several days
+afterwards to blow strongly from the north-east,&mdash;one cannot help
+concluding that he who sees nothing of a Divine Providence in our
+preservation must be lamentably and wilfully blind to "the majesty of
+the Lord."</p>
+
+<p>In the course of the morning we all prepared, with thankful and joyful
+hearts, to place our feet on the shores of Old England.</p>
+
+<p>The ladies, always destined to form our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> vanguard, were the first to
+disembark, and were met on the beach by immense crowds of the
+inhabitants, who appeared to have been attracted thither less by idle
+curiosity than from the sincerest desire to alleviate in every possible
+manner their manifest sufferings.</p>
+
+<p>The sailors and soldiers, cold, wet, and almost naked, quickly followed;
+the whole forming, in their haggard looks and the endless variety of
+their costume, an assemblage at once as melancholy and grotesque as it
+is possible to conceive. So eager did the people appear to be to pour
+out upon us the full current of their sympathies, that shoes, hats, and
+other articles of urgent necessity were presented to several of the
+officers and men before they had even quitted the point of
+disembarkation. And in the course of the day, many of the officers and
+soldiers, and almost all of the females, were partaking, in the private
+houses of individuals, of the most liberal and needful hospitality.</p>
+
+<p>But this flow of compassion and kindness did not cease with the impulse
+of the more immediate occasion that had called it forth. For a meeting
+of the inhabitants was afterwards held, where subscriptions in clothes
+and money to a large amount were collected<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> for the relief of the
+numerous sufferers. The women and children, whose wants seemed to demand
+their first care, were speedily furnished with comfortable clothing, and
+the poor widows and orphans with decent mourning. Depositories of
+shirts, shoes, stockings, etc., were formed for the supply of the
+officers and private passengers; and the sick and wounded in the
+hospital were made the recipients, not only of all those kindly
+attentions and medical assistance that could remove or soothe their
+temporal suffering, but were also invited to partake freely of the most
+judicious spiritual consolation and instruction. This march of charity
+was conducted by the ladies of Falmouth, who were zealously accompanied
+on it by the whole body, in the vicinity, of that peculiar sect of
+Christians, who have ever been as remarkable for their unassuming
+pretensions and consistent conduct, as for unostentatiously standing in
+the front ranks of every good work. And so strong is the reason which I,
+in particular, have to associate in my mind all that is sincere,
+considerate, and charitable with the society of Friends, that the very
+badge of Quakerism will, I trust, henceforward prove a full and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>
+sufficient passport to the best feelings of my heart.</p>
+
+<p>On the first Sunday after our arrival, Colonel Fearon, followed by all
+his officers and men, and accompanied by Captain Cobb, and the officers
+and private passengers of his late ship, hastened to prostrate
+themselves before the throne of the Heavenly grace, to pour out the
+public expression of their thanksgiving to their almighty Preserver. The
+scene was deeply impressive; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many a
+poor fellow who listened, perhaps for the first time in his life, with
+unquestionable sincerity and humility to the voice of instruction, will
+be found steadily prosecuting, in the strength of God, the good
+resolutions that he may on that solemn occasion have formed, until he be
+able to say, as one of the greatest generals of antiquity did, that "it
+was good for him to have been afflicted; for before he was afflicted he
+went astray, but that afterwards he was not ashamed to keep God's word."</p>
+
+<p>In the course of a few days the private passengers and most of the
+sailors of our party were dispersed in various directions; and the
+troops, after having incurred to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> excellent inhabitants of Falmouth,
+and the adjacent towns, a debt of gratitude which none of them can ever
+hope to repay, were embarked for Chatham.</p>
+
+<p>I think you must be already sensible that the circumstances of our
+situation on board the <i>Kent</i> did not enable us conscientiously to save
+a single article, either of public or private property, from the flames;
+indeed, the only thing I preserved&mdash;with the exception of forty or fifty
+sovereigns, which I hastily tied up in my pocket handkerchief, and put
+into my wife's hands, at the moment she was lifted into the boat, as a
+provision for herself and her companions against the temporary want to
+which they might be exposed on some foreign shore&mdash;was the pocket
+compass, which you yourself presented to me.<a name="FNanchor_16_16" id="FNanchor_16_16"></a><a href="#Footnote_16_16" class="fnanchor">[16]</a></p>
+
+<p>But I would have you to be assured, that the total abandonment of
+individual interests on the part of the officers of the ship, and of the
+31st regiment, was occasioned by no want of self-possession, nor even,
+in all cases, of opportunities to attend to them; but to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> sincere
+desire to avoid even the appearance of selfishness, at moments when the
+valuable lives of their sailors and soldiers were at stake. And this
+observation applies with still greater force to the senior officers in
+both services, whose cabins being upon the upper deck were accessible
+during the whole day; and where many portable articles of value were
+deposited, which could have been very easily carried off, had those
+officers been disposed to devote to their own concerns even a portion of
+that precious time, and of those active exertions, which they
+unremittingly applied to the performance of their professional duty.</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding the unexpected length to which I have already extended
+this narrative, I cannot allow myself to close it without offering to my
+late companions on board the <i>Kent</i>, into whose hands it may possibly
+fall, a few very plain and simple observations, which I think worthy of
+their serious consideration, and the importance of which I desire to
+have deeply impressed upon my own mind. None of those soldiers who were
+in the habit of reading their Bibles can have failed to notice that
+faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is therein made the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> great pivot
+on which the salvation of man hinges; that the whole human race, without
+distinction of rank, nation, age, or sex, being justly exposed to the
+wrath of Almighty God, nothing but the precious blood of Christ, which
+was shed on the cross, can possibly atone for their sins; and that faith
+in this atonement can alone pacify the conscience, and awaken confidence
+towards God as a reconciled Father. If, therefore, "he that believeth in
+Christ shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned," be
+the unequivocal language of Jehovah, either expressly declared or
+obviously implied in every page of that record which He has vouchsafed
+to us of His Son; is it not a question of the deepest concernment to
+every one professing any regard for divine revelation, whether he really
+understands and believes that record, and whether he is able to give,
+not only to others, but to himself, a reason of this hope that is in
+him?</p>
+
+<p>From the influence of education or example, the absence of serious
+reflection, an attention to the outward ordinances of religion, a regard
+to many of the proprieties and decencies of life, and a forgetfulness
+that the religion of the Bible is a religion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> of motives rather than one
+of observances, minds easily satisfied on such subjects may persuade
+themselves that they are spiritually alive while they are dead&mdash;that
+they are amongst the sincere disciples of the blessed Redeemer, and
+fully interested in His salvation, while they may have neither part nor
+lot in the matter. But if, at the hour of death, when all external
+support shall slide away, the soul shall be awakened to the
+consciousness of its real condition; if it should be made to see, on the
+one hand, the spirituality and exceeding breadth of the divine law, and
+be quickened, on the other, to a sense of its unnumbered transgressions;
+if the mercy of God out of Christ, in which so many vainly and vaguely
+trust, should become obscured by the inflexible justice and spotless
+holiness of His character and if the solitary spirit, as it is dragged
+towards the mysterious precipice, is made to hear, from a voice which it
+can no longer mistake, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
+things which are written in the book of the law to do them,"&mdash;how
+unspeakably miserable must be the condition of the man who thus
+discovers, for the first time, that the sand which he had all his
+lifetime been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> mistaking for the "Rock of Ages" is now giving way under
+his feet, and that his soul must speedily sink into that state in which,
+"where the tree falleth, there it shall be;" where "he that is unjust,
+let him be unjust still;" and where there is "no work, nor device, nor
+knowledge," nor repentance.</p>
+
+<p>But that I may not be misunderstood, or be supposed to favour principles
+of barren speculation, more delusive and dangerous to their possessors,
+and to the best interests of society, than absolute ignorance itself&mdash;I
+would remind the gallant men to whom I am now more especially addressing
+myself, that that faith which saves the soul not only "worketh"
+invariably "by love," and gradually "overcometh the world," but that "it
+is the gift of God," implanted in the heart by His Holy Spirit, even by
+that Spirit which is freely given to every one that earnestly asketh.
+And however unable the simple soldier may be to explain either the
+nature or the manner of its operation, he must not deceive himself into
+the persuasion that he is possessed of this precious grace unless he
+feels it bringing forth in his life and conversation the abundant fruits
+that necessarily spring from it, and that cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> indeed be produced
+without it. He will be steady and zealous in the performance of duty,
+patient under fatigue and privation, sober amid temptation, calm but
+firm in the hour of danger, and respectfully obedient to his officers;
+he will honour his king, be content with his wages, and do harm to no
+man. His piety will be ardent but sober, his prayers will be earnest and
+frequent, but rather in secret than before men; he will not be
+contentious or disputatious, but rather desirous of instructing others
+by his example than by his precepts; letting his light so shine before
+them, in the simplicity of his motives, the uprightness of his actions,
+in his readiness to oblige, and by the whole tenor of his life, that
+they, seeing his good works, may be led, by the divine blessing, to
+acknowledge the reality and power and beauty of religion, and be induced
+in like manner to glorify his heavenly Father. In short, in comparison
+with his thoughtless comrades, he must not only aspire to become a
+better man, but, from the constraining motives of the gospel, struggle
+to be also in every essential respect a better soldier.</p>
+
+<p>In conclusion, I would observe that if any class of men, more than
+another, ought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> to be struck with awe and gratitude by the goodness and
+providence of God, it is they who go down to the sea in ships, and see
+His wonders in the great deep; or if any ought to familiarize their
+minds with death and its solemn consequences, it is surely soldiers,
+"whose very business it is to die." May all those then, especially, who
+thus possessed the privilege, but rarely granted, of being allowed, in
+the full vigour of health, and in the absence of all the bustle and
+excitement of battle, to contemplate, from the very brink of eternity,
+the awful realities that reign within it, as many of their departing
+comrades were hurried through its dreadful portals, be now led, in the
+respite which has been given them, to remember that this alone is the
+accepted time, and this the day of salvation; for while some may defer
+the subject "to a more convenient season," the message may come forth,
+at an hour when it is least expected, "This night thy soul shall be
+required of thee."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> The foregoing narrative may be fitly supplemented by
+some particulars<a name="FNanchor_17_17" id="FNanchor_17_17"></a><a href="#Footnote_17_17" class="fnanchor">[17]</a> of the events occurring after the departure of the
+<i>Cambria</i> from the scene of the wreck:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"About twelve o'clock the watch of the barque <i>Caroline</i>, on her passage
+from Alexandria to Liverpool, observed a light on the horizon, and knew
+it at once to be a ship on fire. There was a heavy sea on, but the
+captain, instantly setting his maintop-gallant-sail, ran down towards
+the spot. About one, the sky becoming brighter, a sudden jet of vivid
+light shot up; but they were too distant to hear the explosion. In
+half-an-hour the <i>Caroline</i> could see the wreck of a large vessel lying
+head to the wind. The ribs and frame timbers, marking the outlines of
+double ports and quarter-galleries, showed that the burning skeleton was
+that of a first-class Indiaman. Every other external feature was gone;
+she was burnt nearly to the water's edge, but still floated, pitching
+majestically as she rose and fell on the long rolling swell of the bay.
+The vessel looked like an immense cage of charred basket-work filled
+with flame, that here and there blazed brighter at intervals. Above,
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> far to leeward, there was a vast drifting cloud of curling smoke
+spangled with millions of sparks and burning flakes, and scattered by
+the wind over the sky and waves.</p>
+
+<p>"As the <i>Caroline</i> approached, part of a mast and some spars, rising and
+falling, were observed grinding under the weather-quarter of the wreck,
+having got entangled with the keel or rudder irons, and thus attaching
+it to the hull of the vessel. The <i>Caroline</i>, coming down swift before
+the wind, was in a few minutes brought across the bows of the <i>Kent</i>. At
+that moment a shout was heard as if from the very centre of the fire,
+and the same instant several figures were observed clinging to a mast.
+The sea was heavy, and the wreck threatened every moment to disappear.
+The <i>Caroline</i> was hove-to to leeward, in order to avoid the showers of
+flakes and sparks, and to intercept any boats or rafts. The mate and
+four seamen pushed off in the jolly-boat, through a sea covered with
+floating spars, chests, and furniture, that threatened to crush or
+overwhelm the boat. When within a few yards of the stern, they caught
+sight of the first living thing&mdash;a wretched man clinging to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> spar
+close under the ship's counter. Every time the stern-frame rose with the
+swell he was suspended above the water, and scorched by the long keen
+tongues of pure flame that now came darting through the gun-room ports.
+Each time this torture came the man shrieked with agony; the next moment
+the surge came and buried him under the wave, and he was silent. The
+<i>Caroline's</i> men, defying the fire, pulled close to him, but just as
+their hands were stretching towards him (latterly the poor wretch had
+been silent), the rope or spar was snapped by the fire, and he sank for
+ever.</p>
+
+<p>"The men then, carefully backing, carried off six other of the nearest
+men from the mast. The small boat, only eighteen feet long, would not
+hold more than eleven persons, and indeed, as it was, was nearly swamped
+by a heavy wave. In half-an-hour the boat bravely returned, and took off
+six more.</p>
+
+<p>"The mate, fearing the vessel was going down, and that the masts would
+be swallowed in the vortex, redoubled his efforts to get a third time to
+the wreck. While struggling with a head sea, and before the boat could
+reach the mast, the end came. The fiery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> mass settled like a red-hot
+coal into the waves, and disappeared for ever. The sky grew instantly
+dark, a dense shroud of black smoke lingered over the grave of the ship,
+and instead of the crackle of burning timbers and the flutter of flames,
+there spread the ineffable stillness of death.</p>
+
+<p>"As the last gleam flickered out, Mr. Wallen, the mate of the
+<i>Caroline</i>, with great quickness of thought set the spot by a star.
+Then, in spite of the danger in the darkness of floating wreck, he
+resolved to wait quietly till daylight, and ordered his men to shout
+repeatedly to cheer any who might be still floating on stray spars. For
+a long time no one answered; at last a feeble cry came, and the
+<i>Caroline's</i> sailors returned it loudly and gladly. What joy that faint
+cry must have brought to those friendly ears! With what joy must the
+boatmen's shout have been received!</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 650px;">
+<img src="images/i087.jpg" width="650" height="424" alt="WHEN DAY BROKE THE MAST WAS VISIBLE." title="" />
+<span class="caption">WHEN DAY BROKE THE MAST WAS VISIBLE.</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>"When the day broke the mast was visible, and four motionless men could
+be seen among its cordage and top-work. They seemed dead, but as the
+boat neared, two of them feebly raised their heads and stretched out
+their arms. When taken into the boat, they were found to be faint and
+almost dead from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> the cold and wet, and the many hours they had been
+half under water. The other two were stone dead. One had bound himself
+firmly to the spar, and lay as if asleep, with his arms around it, and
+his head upon it, as if it had been a pillow. The other stood half
+upright between the cheeks of the mast, his face fixed in the direction
+of the boat, his arms still extended. They were both left on the spar.
+One of the Indiaman's empty boats was also found drifting a short
+distance off. The wind beginning to freshen and a gale coming on, it was
+all the jolly-boat could do to rejoin the <i>Caroline</i>. There could be no
+doubt that when the <i>Caroline</i> hove-to and luffed under the lee of the
+<i>Kent</i>, it must have passed men drifting to leeward on detached spars.
+They of course all perished in the rising storm.</p>
+
+<p>"A piece of plate was presented to Captain Cook, of the <i>Cambria</i>, by
+the officers and passengers of the <i>Kent</i>, and the Duke of York publicly
+thanked him for his humane zeal and promptitude. The Secretary of War
+(Lord Palmerston) authorized a sum of five hundred pounds to be given to
+the captain and crew of the <i>Cambria</i>, and the agents of the ship were
+also paid two hundred and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> eighty-seven pounds for provisions, two
+hundred and eighty-seven pounds for passengers' diet, and five hundred
+pounds for demurrage. The East India Company awarded six hundred pounds
+to Captain Cook, one hundred pounds to the first mate, fifty pounds to
+the second mate, ten pounds each to the nine men of the crew, fifteen
+pounds each to the twenty-six miners, and one hundred pounds to the ten
+chief miners for extra stores, to make their voyage out more
+comfortable. The Royal Exchange Assurance gave Captain Cook fifty
+pounds, and his officers and crew fifty pounds. The subscribers to
+Lloyds voted him a present of one hundred pounds; the Royal Humane
+Society awarded him an honorary medallion; and the underwriters at
+Liverpool were also prominent in their liberality."</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Captain Cobb, with great forethought, ordered the deck to
+be scuttled forward, with a view to draw the fire in that direction,
+knowing that between it and the magazine were several tiers of
+water-casks; while he hoped that the wet sails, etc., thrown into the
+after-hold, would prevent the fire from communicating with the
+spirit-room abaft.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> The late Lady MacGregor, and the late Mrs. Pringle, of
+Yair, Whytbank, Selkirk, N.B., who are also mentioned in the letter on
+page <a href='#Page_23'><b>23</b></a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> This bottle, left in the cabin, was cast into the sea by
+the explosion that destroyed the <i>Kent</i>. About nineteen months
+afterwards the following notice appeared in a Barbadoes (West Indian)
+newspaper:&mdash;
+</p><p>
+"A bottle was picked up on Saturday, the 30th September, at Bathsheba (a
+bathing-place on the west of Barbadoes), by a gentleman who was bathing
+there, who, on breaking it, found the melancholy account of the fate of
+the ship <i>Kent</i>, contained in a folded paper written with pencil, but
+scarcely legible." The words of the letter were then given, and a
+facsimile of it will be found on the next page. The letter itself, taken
+from the bottle thickly encrusted with shells and seaweed, was returned
+to the writer when he arrived, shortly after its discovery, at
+Barbadoes, as Lieut.-Colonel of the 93rd Highlanders, and the
+interesting relic is still preserved by his son (at that time called
+"little Rob Roy"), who is not mentioned in the letter, but was saved as
+related in page <a href='#Page_33'><b>33</b></a>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> Two shipwrights, dismissed from their situation because
+they would not work on Sunday, were employed by the father of a friend
+of the writer. He engaged them to build their first vessel, the
+<i>Cambria</i>, and this was her first voyage, starting from Deptford before
+the <i>Kent</i> sailed from Gravesend.
+</p><p>
+Captain Cook many years afterwards commanded in the disastrous "Niger
+Expedition." He was a splendid sailor, and a humble Christian, whose
+death-bed, long years after, was attended by the youngest passenger he
+had helped to save from the burning <i>Kent</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> I was afterwards informed by one of the passengers on board
+the <i>Cambria</i>&mdash;for from the great height of the Indiaman we had not the
+opportunity of making a similar observation&mdash;that when both vessels
+happened to be at the same time in the trough of the sea, the <i>Kent</i> was
+entirely concealed by the intervening waves from the deck of the
+<i>Cambria</i>.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> "The <i>Rob Roy</i> Canoe on the Jordan" (Murray) gives some
+other experiences of watery dangers in after life.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> This narrative has been translated into the French,
+Spanish, Swedish, Italian, German, and Russian languages, and the author
+(born March 16, 1787) still enjoys good health (1880) while writing the
+preface to this edition, of which a <i>facsimile</i> is given at the
+beginning of the book.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> 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.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> I ought to state that the exertions of Mr. Muir, third
+mate, were also most conspicuous during the whole day.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> See page <a href='#Page_83'><b>83</b></a>.&mdash;One of the men saved after the
+explosion (which had burned off both his feet) was met thirty years
+afterwards by the individual who was first saved in the <i>Cambria</i>. This
+man was wheeling himself in a go-cart on the race-ground at Lanark,
+dressed in sailor's costume, and selling papers with a picture of the
+<i>Kent</i> upon them and some doggerel verses below. As honorary secretary
+of the "Open-Air Mission" (which provides preachers for streets in
+towns, and for races and fairs in the country), the "first saved" from
+the wreck and burning then preached the Gospel to the "last saved" from
+the scorched embers, and to a large and motley crowd, all of whom will
+assuredly meet once more "at that day."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> Besides 500 barrels of gunpowder, there was on board
+several hundredweight of highly explosive percussion powder. The brig
+was about three miles distant when the <i>Kent</i> exploded.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> Captain Cook afterwards rendered distinguished services in
+the Niger expedition, and died in London a true Christian sailor, after
+several visits from one he had helped to save.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> In addition to those who were naked on board the <i>Kent</i> at
+the moment the alarm of fire was heard, several individuals afterwards
+threw off their clothes to enable them the more easily to swim to the
+boats.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> One of the soldiers' wives was delivered of a child about
+an hour or two after her arrival on board the brig. Both survived, and
+the child received the appropriate name of "Cambria."</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> There were lost in the destruction of the <i>Kent</i>, 54
+soldiers, 1 woman, and 20 children, belonging to the 31st Regiment; 1
+seaman and 5 boys&mdash;total, 81 individuals.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_16_16" id="Footnote_16_16"></a><a href="#FNanchor_16_16"><span class="label">[16]</span></a> A little Testament was also saved. Only one officer's
+sword was saved, and that belonged to him who afterwards led the 31st
+regiment in the battles on the Sutlej.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_17_17" id="Footnote_17_17"></a><a href="#FNanchor_17_17"><span class="label">[17]</span></a> From <i>All the Year Round</i>.</p></div>
+
+</div>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman,
+in the Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the
+Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman, in the Bay of Biscay
+       Narrated in a Letter to a Friend
+
+Author: Duncan McGregor
+
+Release Date: March 3, 2008 [EBook #24745]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOSS OF THE KENT ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: ESCAPING FROM THE BURNING SHIP.]
+
+   THE LOSS
+   OF THE
+   KENT EAST INDIAMAN
+   IN THE BAY OF BISCAY.
+
+   NARRATED IN A LETTER TO A FRIEND
+
+   BY
+
+   GENERAL SIR DUNCAN MACGREGOR, K.C.B.
+
+   _NEW EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS._
+
+   THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY,
+   56, PATERNOSTER ROW; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD;
+   AND 164, PICCADILLY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+AUTHOR'S NOTE.
+
+The older I grow, and I am now in my 94th year, I am the more convinced
+of the special interposition of Divine Providence in the winter
+recorded, in the following Tract.
+
+The Author
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE LOSS OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN.
+
+
+MY DEAR E----,
+
+You are aware that the _Kent_, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of
+1,350 tons, bound to Bengal and China, left the Downs on the 19th of
+February, with 20 officers, 344 soldiers, 43 women, and 66 children,
+belonging to the 31st regiment; with 20 private passengers, and a crew
+(including officers) of 148 men--in all, 641 persons on board.
+
+The bustle attendant on a departure for India is calculated to subdue
+the force of those deeply painful sensations to which few men can refuse
+to yield, in the immediate prospect of a long and distant separation
+from the land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With my
+gallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is remarkably
+characteristic of the professions to which they belonged, hope appeared
+greatly to predominate over sadness. Surrounded as they were by every
+circumstance that could render their voyage propitious, and in the ample
+enjoyment of every necessary that could contribute either to their
+health or their comfort, their hearts seemed to beat high with
+contentment and gratitude towards that country which they zealously
+served, and whose interests they were cheerfully going forth to defend.
+
+With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately _Kent_, in
+bearing down the Channel, speedily passed many a well-known spot on the
+coast dear to our remembrance; and on the evening of the 23rd we took
+our last view of happy England, and entered the wide Atlantic, without
+the expectation of again seeing land until we reached the shores of
+India.
+
+With slight interruptions of bad weather, we continued to make way until
+the night of Monday, the 28th, when we were suddenly arrested in lat.
+47 deg. 30', long. 10 deg., by a violent gale from the south-west, which
+gradually increased during the whole of the following morning.
+
+To those who have never "gone down to the sea in ships, and seen the
+wonders of the Lord in the great deep," or even to such as have never
+been exposed in a westerly gale to the tremendous swell in the Bay of
+Biscay, I am sensible that the most sober description of the magnificent
+spectacle of "watery hills in full succession flowing" would appear
+sufficiently exaggerated. But it is impossible, I think, for the
+inexperienced mariner, however unreflecting he may try to be, to view
+the effects of the increasing storm, as he feels his solitary vessel
+reeling to and fro under his feet, without involuntarily raising his
+thoughts, with a secret confession of helplessness and veneration that
+he may never before have experienced, towards that Being whose power,
+under ordinary circumstances, we may have disregarded, and whose
+incessant goodness we are prone to requite with ingratitude.
+
+The activity of the officers and seamen of the _Kent_ appeared to keep
+ample pace with that of the gale. Our larger sails were speedily taken
+in or closely reefed; and about ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st of
+March, after having struck our top-gallant yards, we were lying to,
+under a triple-reefed maintop-sail only, with the deadlights in, and
+with the whole watch of soldiers attached to the life lines, that were
+run along the deck for this purpose.
+
+The rolling of the ship, which was vastly increased by a dead weight of
+some hundred tons of shots and shell that formed a part of its lading,
+became so great about half-past eleven or twelve o'clock, that our main
+chains were thrown by every lurch considerably under water; and the best
+cleated articles of furniture in the cabins and the cuddy were dashed
+about with so much noise and violence as to excite the liveliest
+apprehensions of individual danger.
+
+It was a little before this period that one of the officers of the ship,
+with the well-meant intention of ascertaining that all was fast below,
+descended with two of the sailors into the hold, where they carried with
+them, for safety, a light in the patent lantern; and seeing that the
+lamp burned dimly, the officer took the precaution to hand it up to the
+orlop deck to be trimmed. Having afterwards discovered one of the spirit
+casks to be adrift, he sent the sailors for some billets of wood to
+secure it; but the ship in their absence having made a heavy lurch, the
+officer unfortunately dropped the light; and letting go his hold of the
+cask in his eagerness to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and the
+spirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was instantly in a
+blaze.
+
+I know not what steps were then taken. I myself had been engaged during
+the greater part of the morning in double-lashing and otherwise securing
+the furniture in my cabin, and in occasionally going to the cuddy, where
+the marine barometers were suspended, to mark their varying indications
+during the gale, in my journal; and it was on one of those occasions,
+after having read to Mrs. ----, at her request, the twelfth chapter of
+St. Luke, which so beautifully declares and illustrates the minute and
+tender providence of God, and so solemnly urges on all the necessity of
+continual watchfulness and readiness for the "coming of the Son of man,"
+that I received from Captain Spence, the captain of the day, the
+alarming information that the ship was on fire in the afterhold. On
+hastening to the hatchway, whence smoke was slowly ascending, I found
+Captain Cobb and other officers giving orders, which seemed to be
+promptly obeyed by the seamen and troops, who used every exertion by
+means of the pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, hammocks, &c., to
+extinguish the flames.
+
+With a view to excite among the ladies as little alarm as possible, in
+conveying this intelligence to Colonel Fearon, the commanding officer of
+the troops, I knocked gently at his cabin door, and expressed a wish to
+speak with him; but whether my countenance betrayed the state of my
+feelings, or the increasing noise and confusion upon deck created
+apprehensions amongst them that the storm was assuming a more serious
+aspect, I found it difficult to pacify some of the ladies by repeated
+assurances that no danger whatever was to be apprehended from the gale.
+As long as the devouring element appeared to be confined to the spot
+where the fire originated, and which we were assured was surrounded on
+all sides by the water casks, we ventured to cherish hopes that it might
+be subdued; but no sooner was the light blue vapour that at first arose
+succeeded by volumes of thick, dingy smoke--which speedily ascending
+through all the four hatchways, rolled over every part of the ship--than
+all further concealment became impossible, and almost all hope of
+preserving the vessel was abandoned. "The flames have reached the cable
+tier," was exclaimed by some individuals, and the strong pitchy smell
+that pervaded the deck confirmed the truth of the exclamation.
+
+In these awful circumstances, Captain Cobb, with an ability and decision
+that seemed to increase with the imminence of the danger, resorted to
+the only alternative now left him, of ordering the lower decks to be
+scuttled, the combings of the hatches to be cut, and the lower ports to
+be opened, for the free admission of the waves.
+
+These instructions were speedily executed by the united efforts of the
+troops and seamen; but not before some of the sick soldiers, one woman,
+and several children, unable to gain the upper deck, had perished. On
+descending to the gun deck with Colonel Fearon, Captain Bray, and one or
+two other officers of the 31st regiment, to assist in opening the ports,
+I met, staggering towards the hatchway, in an exhausted and nearly
+senseless state, one of the mates, who informed us that he had just
+stumbled over the dead bodies of some individuals who must have died
+from suffocation, to which it was evident that he himself had almost
+fallen a victim. So dense and oppressive was the smoke, that it was with
+the utmost difficulty we could remain long enough below to fulfil
+Captain Cobb's wishes; which were no sooner accomplished, than the sea
+rushed in with extraordinary force, carrying away, in its resistless
+progress to the hold, the largest chests, bulk-heads, etc.
+
+Such a sight, under any other conceivable circumstances, was well
+calculated to have filled us with horror; but in our natural solicitude
+to avoid the more immediate peril of explosion, we endeavoured to cheer
+each other, as we stood up to our knees in water, with the faint hope
+that by these violent means we might be speedily restored to safety. The
+immense quantity of water that was thus introduced into the hold had
+indeed the effect, for a time, of checking the fury of the flames; but
+the danger of sinking having increased as the risk of explosion was
+diminished, the ship became water-logged, and presented other
+indications of settling previous to her going down.
+
+Death in two of its most awful forms now encompassed us, and we seemed
+left to choose the terrible alternative. But always preferring the more
+remote, though equally certain crisis, we tried to shut the ports again,
+to close the hatches, and to exclude the external air, in order, if
+possible, to prolong our existence, the near and certain termination of
+which appeared inevitable.
+
+The scene of horror that now presented itself baffles all description;--
+
+   "Then rose from sea to sky the wild farewell;
+   Then shrieked the timid, and stood still the brave."
+
+The upper deck was covered with between six and seven hundred human
+beings, many of whom, from previous sea-sickness, were forced, on the
+first alarm, to flee from below almost in a state of nakedness, and were
+now running about in quest of husbands, children, or parents. While some
+were standing in silent resignation, or in stupid insensibility to their
+impending fate, others were yielding themselves up to the most frantic
+despair. Some on their knees were earnestly imploring, with significant
+gesticulations and in noisy supplications, the mercy of Him whose arm,
+they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite them; others were to
+be seen hastily crossing themselves, and performing the various external
+acts required by their peculiar persuasion; while a number of the older
+and more stout-hearted soldiers and sailors sullenly took their seats
+directly over the magazine; hoping, as they stated, that by means of the
+explosion which they every instant expected, a speedier termination
+might be put to their sufferings.[1] Several of the soldiers' wives and
+children, who had fled for temporary shelter into the after cabins on
+the upper decks, were engaged in prayer and in reading the Scriptures
+with the ladies; some of whom were enabled, with wonderful
+self-possession, to offer to others those spiritual consolations which a
+firm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world appeared at this
+awful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment of
+two young ladies,[2] in particular, formed a specimen of natural
+strength of mind, finely modified by Christian feeling, that failed not
+to attract the notice and admiration of every one who had an opportunity
+of witnessing it. On the melancholy announcement being made to them that
+all hope must be relinquished, and that death was rapidly and inevitably
+approaching, one of the ladies above referred to, calmly sinking down on
+her knees, and clasping her hands together, said, "Even so, come, Lord
+Jesus," and immediately proposed to read a portion of the Scriptures to
+those around her. Her sister with nearly equal composure and
+collectedness of mind selected the forty-sixth and other appropriate
+Psalms, which were accordingly read, with intervals of prayer, by those
+ladies alternately to the assembled females.
+
+One young gentleman, of whose promising talents and piety I dare not now
+make further mention, having calmly asked me my opinion respecting the
+state of the ship, I told him that I thought we should be prepared to
+sleep that night in eternity; and I shall never forget the peculiar
+fervour with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, "My heart
+is filled with the peace of God;" adding, "yet, though I know it is
+foolish, I dread exceedingly the last struggle."
+
+Amongst the numerous objects that struck my observation at this period I
+was much affected with the appearance and conduct of some of the dear
+children, who, quite unconscious, in the cuddy cabins, of the perils
+that surrounded them, continued to play as usual with their little toys
+in bed, or to put the most innocent and unseasonable questions to those
+around them. To some of the older children, who seemed fully alive to
+the reality of the danger, I whispered, "Now is the time to put in
+practice the instructions you used to receive at the Regimental School,
+and to think of that Saviour of whom you have heard so much." They
+replied, as the tears ran down their cheeks, "Oh, sir, we are trying to
+remember them, and we are praying to God."
+
+The passive condition to which we were all reduced by the total failure
+of our most strenuous exertions, while it was well calculated, and
+probably designed, to convince us afterwards that our deliverance was
+effected, not by our own might or power, but by the Spirit of the Lord,
+afforded us ample room at the moment for deep and awful reflection,
+which, it is to be earnestly wished, may have been improved, as well by
+those who were eventually saved as by those who perished.
+
+It has been observed by the author of the Retrospect, that "in the heat
+of battle, it is not only possible but easy to forget death, and cease
+to think; but in the cool and protracted hours of a shipwreck, where
+there is often nothing to engage the mind but the recollection of tried
+and unsuccessful labours, and the sight of unavoidable and increasing
+harbingers of destruction, it is not easy or possible to forget
+ourselves or a future state."
+
+The general applicability of the latter part of this proposition I am
+disposed to doubt; for if I were to judge of the feelings of all on
+board by those of the number who were heard to express them, I should
+apprehend that a large majority of those men, whose previous attention
+has never been fairly and fully directed to the great subject of
+religion, approach the gates of death, it may be with solemnity, or with
+terror, but without any definable or tangible conviction of the fact
+that after death cometh the judgment.
+
+Several there were who vowed in loud and piteous cries, that if the Lord
+God would spare their lives, they would thenceforward dedicate all their
+powers to His service; and not a few were heard to exclaim, in the
+bitterness of remorse, that the judgments of the Most High were justly
+poured out upon them for their neglected Sabbaths, and their profligate
+or profane lives; but the number of those was extremely small who
+appeared to dwell either with lively hope or dread on the view of an
+opening eternity. And as a further evidence of the truth of this
+observation, I may mention that when I afterwards had occasion to mount
+the mizen shrouds, I there met with a young man, who had brought me a
+letter of introduction from our excellent friend, Dr. G--n, to whom I
+felt it my duty, while we were rocking on the mast, quietly to propose
+the great question, "What must we do to be saved?" and this young
+gentleman has since informed Mr. P. that though he was at that moment
+fully persuaded of the certainty of immediate death, yet the subject of
+eternity, in any form, had not once flashed upon his mind previous to my
+conversation.
+
+While we thus lay in a state of physical inertion, but with all our
+mental faculties in rapid and painful activity--with the waves lashing
+furiously against the sides of our devoted ship, as if in anger with the
+hostile element for not more speedily performing its office of
+destruction,--the binnacle, by one of those many lurches which were
+driving everything movable from side to side of the vessel, was suddenly
+wrenched from its fastenings, and all the apparatus of the compass
+dashed to pieces upon the deck; on which one of the young mates,
+emphatically regarding it for a moment, cried out with the emotion so
+natural to a sailor under such circumstances, "What! is the _Kent's_
+compass really gone?" leaving the bystanders to form, from that omen,
+their own conclusions. One promising young officer of the troops was
+seen thoughtfully removing from his writing-case a lock of hair, which
+he composedly deposited in his bosom; and another officer procuring
+paper and pens, addressed a short communication to his father, which was
+afterwards carefully enclosed in a bottle, in the hope that it might
+eventually reach its destination, with the view, as he stated, of
+relieving him from the long years of fruitless anxiety and suspense
+which our melancholy fate would awaken, and of bearing his humble
+testimony, at a moment when his sincerity could scarcely be questioned,
+to the faithfulness of that God in whose mercy he trusted, and whose
+peace he largely enjoyed in the tremendous prospect of immediate
+dissolution.[3] It was at this appalling instant, when "all hope that we
+should be saved was then taken away," and when the letter referred to
+was about being committed to the waves, that it occurred to Mr. Thomson,
+the fourth mate, to send a man to the fore-top, rather with the ardent
+wish than the expectation, that some friendly sail might be
+discovered on the face of the waters. The sailor, on mounting, threw his
+eyes round the horizon for a moment--a moment of unutterable
+suspense--and waving his hat exclaimed, "A sail on the lee bow!" The
+joyful announcement was received with deep-felt thanksgivings, and with
+three cheers, upon deck. Our flags of distress were instantly hoisted,
+and our minute guns fired; and we endeavoured to bear down under our
+three top-sails and fore-sail upon the stranger, which afterwards proved
+to be the _Cambria_,[4] a small brig of 200 tons burden, Captain Cook,
+bound to Vera Cruz, having on board twenty or thirty Cornish miners, and
+other agents of the Anglo-Mexican Company.
+
+[Illustration: The ship the Kent Indiaman is on fire--Elizabeth Joanna &
+myself commit our spirits into the hands of our blessed Redeemer.
+
+His grace enables us to be quite composed in the awful prospect of
+entering eternity D MacGregor 1st March 1825----Bay of Biscay]
+
+For ten or fifteen minutes we were left in doubt whether the crew of the
+brig perceived our signals, or perceiving them, were either disposed or
+able to lend us any assistance. From the violence of the gale, it seems
+that the report of our guns was not heard; but the ascending volumes of
+smoke from the ship sufficiently announced the dreadful nature of our
+distress; and we had the satisfaction, after a short period of dark
+suspense, to see the brig hoist British colours, and crowd all sail to
+hasten to our relief.
+
+Although it was impossible, and would have been improper, to repress the
+rising hopes that were pretty generally diffused amongst us by the
+unexpected sight of the _Cambria_, yet I confess, that when I reflected
+on the long period our ship had been already burning--on the tremendous
+sea that was running--on the extreme smallness of the brig, and the
+immense number of human beings to be saved, I could only venture to hope
+that a few might be spared; but I durst not for a moment contemplate the
+possibility of my own preservation.
+
+[Illustration: SAVED FROM THE WRECK.]
+
+While Captain Cobb, Colonel Fearon, and Major MacGregor of the 31st
+regiment, were consulting together, as the brig was approaching us, on
+the necessary preparations for getting out the boats, etc., one of the
+officers asked Major MacGregor in what order it was intended the
+officers should move off; to which the other replied, "Of course in
+funeral order;" which injunction was instantly confirmed by Colonel
+Fearon, who said, "Most undoubtedly, the juniors first; but see that any
+man is cut down who presumes to enter the boats before the means of
+escape are presented to the women and children."
+
+To prevent the rush to the boats as they were being lowered, which, from
+certain symptoms of impatience manifested both by soldiers and sailors,
+there was reason to fear, some of the military officers were stationed
+over them with drawn swords. But from the firm determination which these
+exhibited, and the great subordination observed, with few exceptions, by
+the troops, this proper precaution was afterwards rendered unnecessary.
+
+Arrangements having been made by Captain Cobb for placing in the first
+boat, previous to letting it down, all the ladies, and as many of the
+soldiers' wives as it could safely contain, they hurriedly wrapped
+themselves up in whatever articles of clothing could be found; and I
+think about two, or half-past two o'clock, a most mournful procession
+advanced from the after cabins to the starboard cuddy port, outside of
+which the cutter was suspended. Scarcely a word was uttered--not a
+scream was heard--even the infants ceased to cry, as if conscious of the
+unspoken and unspeakable anguish that was at that instant rending the
+hearts of their parting parents; nor was the silence of voices in any
+way broken, except in one or two cases, where the ladies plaintively
+entreated permission to be left behind with their husbands. But on being
+assured that every moment's delay might occasion the sacrifice of a
+human life, they successively suffered themselves to be torn from the
+tender embrace, and with that fortitude which never fails to
+characterize and adorn their sex on occasions of overwhelming trial,
+were placed, without a murmur, in the boat, which was immediately
+lowered into a sea so tempestuous as to leave us only to hope against
+hope that it should live in it for a single moment. Twice the cry was
+heard from those on the chains that the boat was swamping. But He who
+enabled the apostle Peter to walk on the face of the deep, and was
+graciously attending to the earnest aspirations of those on board, had
+decreed its safety.
+
+Although Captain Cobb had used every precaution to diminish the danger
+of the boat's descent, by stationing a man with an axe to cut away the
+tackle from either extremity, should the slightest difficulty occur in
+unhooking it; yet the peril attending the whole operation, which can
+only be adequately estimated by nautical men, had very nearly proved
+fatal to its numerous inmates.
+
+After one or two unsuccessful attempts to place the little frail bark
+fairly upon the surface of the water, the command was at length given to
+unhook; the tackle at the stern was, in consequence, immediately
+cleared; but the ropes at the bow having got foul, the sailor found it
+impossible to obey the order. In vain was the axe applied to the
+entangled tackle; the moment was inconceivably critical, as the boat,
+which necessarily followed the motion of the ship, was gradually rising
+out of the water, and must, in another instant, have been hanging
+perpendicularly by the bow, and its helpless passengers launched into
+the deep, had not a most providential wave suddenly struck and lifted up
+the stern, so as to enable the seamen to disengage the tackle. The boat
+being thus dexterously cleared from the ship, was seen after a while
+from the poop, battling with the billows,--now raised, in its progress
+to the brig, like a speck on their summit, and then disappearing for
+several seconds, as if engulfed "in the horrid vale" between them.[5]
+
+The _Cambria_ having prudently lain to at some distance from the _Kent_,
+lest she should be involved in her explosion, or exposed to the fire
+from her guns, which, being all shotted, afterwards went off as the
+flames successively reached them, the men had a considerable way to row;
+and the success of this first experiment seeming to be the measure of
+our future hopes, the movements of this precious boat--incalculably
+precious, without doubt, to the agonized husbands and fathers
+immediately connected with it--were watched with intense anxiety by all
+on board.
+
+The better to balance the boat in the raging sea through which it had to
+pass, and to enable the seamen to ply their oars, the women and children
+were stowed promiscuously under the seats, and consequently exposed to
+the risk of being drowned by the continual dashing of the spray over
+their heads, which so filled the boat during the passages that before
+their arrival at the brig the poor females were sitting up to the waist
+in water, and their children kept with the greatest difficulty above it.
+
+However, in the course of twenty minutes the little cutter was seen
+alongside the ark of refuge; and the first human being that happened to
+be admitted, out of the vast assemblage that ultimately found shelter
+there, was the infant son of Major MacGregor, a child of only a few
+weeks old, who was caught from his mother's arms and lifted into the
+brig by Mr. Thomson, the fourth mate of the _Kent_, the officer who had
+been ordered to take charge of the ladies' boat.[6]
+
+But the extreme difficulty and danger presented to the women and
+children in getting into the _Cambria_ seemed scarcely less imminent
+than that which they had previously encountered; for to prevent the boat
+from swamping or being stove against the side of the brig, while its
+passengers were disembarking, required no ordinary exercise of skill
+and perseverance on the part of the sailors, and of self-possession and
+effort on that of the females themselves. On coming alongside of the
+_Cambria_, Captain Cook very judiciously called first for the children,
+who were successively thrown or handed up from the boat. The women were
+then urged to avail themselves of every favourable heave of the sea by
+springing towards the many friendly arms that were extended from the
+vessel to receive them; and, notwithstanding the deplorable
+consequence of making a false step under such critical circumstances,
+not a single accident occurred to any individual belonging to the first
+boat. Indeed, the only one whose life appears to have been placed in
+extreme jeopardy alongside was one of the ladies, who, in attempting to
+spring from the boat, came short of the hand that was held out to her,
+and would certainly have perished, had she not most happily caught hold
+at the instant of a rope that happened to be hanging over the
+_Cambria's_ side, to which she clung for some moments, until she was
+dragged into the vessel.
+
+I have reason to know that the feelings of oppressive delight,
+gratitude, and praise experienced by the married officers and soldiers
+on being assured of the comparative safety of their wives and children,
+so entirely abstracted their minds from their own situation as to render
+them for a little while totally insensible either to the storm that beat
+upon them, or to the active and gathering volcano that threatened every
+instant to explode under their feet.
+
+It being impossible for the boats, after the first trip, to come
+alongside the _Kent_, a plan was adopted for lowering the women and
+children by ropes from the stern, by tying them two and two together.
+But from the heaving of the ship, and the extreme difficulty in dropping
+them at the instant the boat was underneath, many of the poor creatures
+were unavoidably plunged repeatedly under water; and much as humanity
+may rejoice that no woman was eventually lost by this process, yet it
+was as impossible to prevent, as it was deplorable to witness, the great
+sacrifice thus occasioned of the younger children--the same violent
+means which only reduced the parents to a state of exhaustion or
+insensibility, having entirely extinguished the vital spark in the
+feebler frames of the infants that were fastened to them.
+
+Amid the conflicting feelings and dispositions manifested by the
+numerous actors in this melancholy drama, many affecting proofs were
+elicited of parental and filial affection, or of disinterested
+friendship, that seemed to shed a momentary halo around the gloomy
+scene.
+
+Two or three soldiers, to relieve their wives of a part of their
+families, sprang into the water with their children, and perished in
+their endeavours to save them. One young lady, who had resolutely
+refused to quit her father, whose sense of duty kept him at his post,
+was near falling a sacrifice to her filial devotion, not having been
+picked up by those in the boats until she had sunk five or six times. A
+man, who was reduced to the frightful alternative of losing his wife or
+his children, hastily decided in favour of his duty to the former. His
+wife was accordingly saved, but his four children, alas! were left to
+perish. A fine fellow, a soldier, who had neither wife nor child of his
+own, but who evinced the greatest solicitude for the safety of those of
+others, insisted on having three children lashed to him, with whom he
+plunged into the water; not being able to reach the boat, he was again
+drawn into the ship with his charge, but not before two of the children
+had expired. One man fell down the hatchway into the flames, and another
+had his back so completely broken as to have been observed quite doubled
+falling overboard. These spectacles of individual loss and suffering
+were not confined to the entrance upon the perilous voyage between the
+two ships. One man, who fell between the boat and brig, had his head
+literally crushed to pieces; and some others were lost in their attempts
+to ascend the side of the _Cambria_.
+
+Seeing that the tardy means employed for the escape of the women and
+children necessarily consumed a great deal of time that might be partly
+devoted to the general preservation, orders were given that along with
+the females, each of the boats should also admit a certain portion of
+the soldiers, several of whom, in their impatience to take advantage of
+this permission, flung themselves overboard, and sank in their
+ill-judged and premature efforts for deliverance.
+
+One poor fellow of this number, a very respectable man, had actually
+reached the boat, and was raising his hand to lay hold on the gunwale,
+when the bow of the boat, by a sudden pitch, struck him on the head,
+and he instantly went down. There was a peculiarity attending this man's
+case that deserves notice. His wife, to whom he was warmly attached, not
+having been of the allotted number of women to accompany the regiment
+abroad, resolved in her anxiety to follow her husband, to defeat this
+arrangement, and accordingly repaired with the detachment to Gravesend,
+where she ingeniously managed, by eluding the vigilance of the sentries,
+to get on board, and conceal herself for several days; and although she
+was discovered, and sent ashore at Deal, she contrived a second time,
+with true feminine perseverance, to get between decks, where she
+continued to secrete herself until the morning of the fatal disaster.
+
+While the men were thus bent in various ways on self-preservation, one
+of the sailors, who had taken his post with many others over the
+magazine, awaiting with great patience the dreaded explosion, at last
+cried out, as if in ill-humour that his expectation was likely to be
+disappointed, "Well, if she won't blow up, I'll see if I can't get away
+from her;" and jumping up, he made his way to the boats, which he
+reached in safety.
+
+I ought to state that three of the six boats we originally possessed
+were either completely stove or swamped in the course of the day, one of
+them with men in it, some of whom were seen floating in the water for a
+moment before they disappeared; and it is suspected that one or two of
+those who went down must have sunk under the weight of their spoils, the
+same individuals having been seen eagerly plundering the cuddy cabins.
+
+As the day was rapidly drawing to a close, and the flames were slowly
+but perceptibly extending, Colonel Fearon and Captain Cobb evinced an
+increasing anxiety to relieve the remainder of the gallant men under
+their charge.
+
+To facilitate this object a rope was suspended from the extremity of the
+spanker-boom, along which the men were recommended to proceed, and
+thence slide down by the rope into the boats. But as, from the great
+swell of the sea, and the constant heaving of the ship, it was
+impossible for the boats to preserve their station for a moment, those
+who adopted this course incurred so great a risk of swinging for some
+time in the air, and of being repeatedly plunged under water, or dashed
+against the sides of the boats underneath, that many of the landsmen
+continued to throw themselves out of the stern window on the upper deck,
+preferring what appeared to me the more precarious chance of reaching
+the boats by swimming. Rafts made of spars, hencoops, etc., were also
+ordered to be constructed, for the twofold purpose of forming an
+intermediate communication with the boats--a purpose, by the bye, which
+they very imperfectly answered--and of serving as a last point of
+retreat, should the further extension of the flames compel us at once to
+desert the vessel. Directions were at the same time given that every man
+should tie a rope round his waist, by which he might afterwards attach
+himself to the rafts, should he be suddenly forced to take to the water.
+While the people were busily occupied in adopting this recommendation, I
+was surprised, I had almost said amused, by the singular delicacy of one
+of the Irish recruits, who, in searching for a rope in one of the
+cabins, called out to me that he could find none except the cordage
+belonging to an officer's cot, and wished to know whether there would be
+any harm in his appropriating it to his own use.
+
+The gradual removal of the officers was at the same time commenced, and
+was marked by a discipline the most rigid, and an intrepidity the most
+exemplary; none appearing to be influenced by a vain and ostentatious
+bravery, which, in cases of extreme peril, affords rather a presumptive
+proof of secret timidity than of fortitude; nor any betraying an unmanly
+or unsoldierlike impatience to quit the ship; but, with the becoming
+deportment of men neither paralyzed by, nor profanely insensible to, the
+accumulating dangers that encompassed them, they progressively departed
+in the different boats with their soldiers; those who happened to
+proceed first leaving behind them an example of coolness that could not
+be unprofitable to those who followed.
+
+But the finest illustration of their conduct was displayed in that of
+their chief, whose ability and presence of mind, under the complicated
+responsibility and anxiety of a commander, husband, and father, were
+eminently calculated, throughout this dismal day, to inspire all others
+with composure and fortitude. Never for one moment did Colonel Fearon
+seem to forget the authority with which his sovereign had invested him,
+nor did any of his officers--as far as my observation went--cease to
+remember the relative situations in which they were severally placed.
+Even in the gloomiest moments of that dark season, when the dissolution
+of every earthly distinction seemed near at hand, the decision and
+confidence with which orders were issued on the one hand, and the
+promptitude and respect with which they were obeyed on the other,
+offered the best proofs of the stability of the well-connected system of
+discipline established in the 31st regiment, and the most unquestionable
+ground for the high and flattering commendation which his Royal
+Highness, the Commander-in-chief, has been pleased to bestow upon it.
+
+I should, however, be guilty of injustice and unkindness if I here
+omitted to bear my humble testimony to the manly behaviour of the East
+India Company's cadets, and other private passengers on board, who
+emulated the best conduct of the officers of the ship and of the troops,
+and equally participated with them in all the hardships and exertions of
+the day.
+
+As an agreeable proof, too, of the subordination and good feeling that
+governed the poor soldiers in the midst of their sufferings, I ought to
+state that towards evening, when the melancholy groups who were
+passively seated on the poop, exhausted by previous fatigue, anxiety,
+and fasting, were beginning to experience the pain of intolerable
+thirst, a box of oranges was accidentally discovered by some of the men,
+who, with a degree of mingled consideration, respect, and affection,
+that could hardly have been expected at such a moment, refused to
+partake of the grateful beverage until they had offered a share of it to
+their officers.
+
+I regret that the circumstances under which I write do not allow me
+sufficient time for recalling to my recollection all the busy thoughts
+that engaged my own mind on that eventful day, or the various
+conjectures which I ventured to form of what was passing in the minds of
+others.
+
+But one idea was forcibly suggested to me,--that instead of being able
+to trace amongst my numerous associates that diversity of fortitude
+which I should have expected would mark their conduct--forming, as it
+were, a descending series, from the decided heroism exhibited by some,
+down to the lowest degree of pusillanimity and frenzy discoverable in
+others,--I remarked that the mental condition of my fellow-sufferers was
+rather divided by a broad but, as it afterwards appeared, not impassable
+line; on the one side of which were ranged all whose minds were greatly
+elevated by the excitement above their ordinary standard; and on the
+other was to be seen the incalculably smaller but more conspicuous
+group, whose powers of acting and thinking became absolutely paralyzed,
+or were driven into delirium, by the unusual character and pressure of
+the danger.
+
+Nor was it uninteresting to observe the curious interchange, at least
+externally, of strength and weakness that obtained between those two
+discordant parties, during the day. Some whose agitation and timidity
+had, in the earlier part of it, rendered them objects of pity or
+contempt, afterwards rose, by some great internal effort, into positive
+distinction for the opposite qualities; while others, remarkable at
+first for calmness and courage, suddenly giving way, without any fresh
+cause of despair, seemed afterwards to cast their minds as they did
+their bodies, prostrate before the danger.
+
+It would not, perhaps, be difficult to account for these apparent
+anomalies; but I shall content myself with simply stating the facts,
+adding to them one of a similar description that sensibly affected my
+own mind.
+
+Some of the soldiers near me having casually remarked that the sun was
+setting, I looked round, and never can I forget the intensity with which
+I regarded his declining rays. I had previously felt deeply impressed
+with the conviction that that night the ocean was to be my bed; and had,
+I imagined, sufficiently realized to my mind, both the last struggles
+and the consequences of death. But as I continued solemnly watching the
+departing beams of the sun, the thought that that was really the very
+last I should ever behold, gradually expanded into reflections the most
+tremendous in their import. It was not, I am persuaded, either the
+retrospect of a past life, or the direct fear of death or of judgment,
+that occupied my mind at the period I allude to; but a broad,
+illimitable view of eternity itself, altogether abstracted from the
+misery or felicity that flows through it--a sort of painless,
+pleasureless, sleepless eternity. I know not whither the overwhelming
+thought would have hurried me, had I not speedily seized, as with the
+grasp of death, on some of those sweet promises of the gospel which give
+to an immortal existence its only charms; and that naturally enough led
+back my thoughts, by means of the brilliant object before me, to the
+contemplation of that blessed city, "which hath no need of the sun,
+neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten
+it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."
+
+I have been the more particular in recording my precise feelings at the
+period in question, because they tend to confirm an opinion which I have
+long entertained--in common, I believe, with others,--that we very
+rarely realize even those objects that seem, in our every-day
+speculations, to be the most interesting to our hearts. We are so much
+in the habit of uttering the awful words 'Almighty,' 'heaven,' 'hell,'
+'eternity,' 'divine justice,' 'holiness,' etc., without attaching to
+them, in all their magnitude, the ideas of which such words are the
+symbols, that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment that
+accompanies a new and alarming discovery if, at any time, the ideas
+themselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is,
+probably, this vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whose
+minds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, that
+enables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the very
+brink of that precipice which divides the world of time from the regions
+of eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded,
+with real tranquillity. How much it is to be lamented that we do not
+keep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that our
+indifference or blindness to danger, whether it be temporal or eternal,
+cannot possibly remove or diminish the extent of that danger.
+
+Some time after the shades of night had enveloped us, I descended to the
+cuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; and
+the scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy in
+the extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had been
+the seat of kindly intercourse and of social gaiety, was now entirely
+deserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched in
+irrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about, like beasts
+of prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other articles
+of furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought and
+pains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered in
+confusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped from
+their confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig,
+wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large in
+undisturbed possession of the Brussels carpet that covered one of the
+cabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, and
+rendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, I
+returned to the poop, where I again found, amongst the few officers that
+remained, Capt. Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieuts. Ruxton, Booth, and Evans,
+superintending, with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidly
+diminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived to carry them
+off.
+
+The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as the
+night advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fed
+as much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid as by the
+real and evident approach of the fatal crisis itself. With a view to
+ensure a greater probability of being discovered by those in the boats,
+some of the more collected and hardy soldiers (for I think almost all
+the sailors had already effected their escape) took the precaution to
+tie towels and such like articles round their heads, previously to their
+committing themselves to the water.
+
+As the boats were nearly three-quarters of an hour absent between each
+trip--which period was necessarily spent by those in the wreck in a
+state of fearful inactivity--abundant opportunity was afforded for
+collecting the sentiments of many of the unhappy men around me; some of
+whom, after remaining perhaps for a while in silent abstraction, would
+suddenly burst forth, as if awakened from some terrible dream to a still
+more frightful reality, into a long train of loud and desponding
+lamentation, that gradually subsided into its former stillness.
+
+It was during those trying intervals of rest that religious instruction
+and consolation appeared to be the most required and the most
+acceptable. Some there were who endeavoured to dispense it agreeably to
+the visible wants and feelings of the earnest hearers. On one of those
+occasions, especially, the officer to whom I have already alluded was
+entreated to pray. His prayer was short, but was frequently broken by
+the exclamations of assent to some of its confessions, that were wrung
+from the afflicted hearts of his auditors.
+
+I know not in what manner, under those circumstances, spiritual hope or
+comfort could have been ministered to my afflicted companions by those
+who regard works, either wholly or partly, as the means of propitiating
+divine justice, rather than the evidence and fruits of that faith which
+pacifies the conscience and purifies the heart. But in some few cases,
+at least, where the individuals deplored the want of time for repentance
+and good works, I well remember that no arguments tended to soothe their
+troubled minds but those which went directly to assure them of the
+freeness and fulness of that grace which is not refused, even in the
+eleventh hour, to the very chief of sinners. And if any of those to whom
+I now allude have been spared to read this record of their feelings in
+the prospect of death, it will be well for them to keep solemnly in mind
+the vows they then took upon them, and to seek to improve that season of
+probation which they so earnestly besought, and which has been so
+mercifully extended to them,--by humbly and incessantly applying for
+accessions of that faith which they are sensible removed the terrors of
+their awakened consciences, and can alone enable them henceforward to
+live in a sober, righteous, and godly manner, and thereby give the only
+unquestionable proof of their love to God, and their interest in the
+great salvation of His Son Jesus Christ.
+
+If, on reading this imperfect narrative,[7] any persons beyond the
+immediate circle of my companions in misery (for within it I can safely
+declare that there were no indications of ridicule) should affect to
+despise, as contemptible or unsoldierlike, the humble devotional
+exercises to which I have now referred, I should like to assure them,
+that although they were undoubtedly commenced and prosecuted much more
+with an eternal than a temporal object in view, yet they also subserved
+the important purpose of restoring order and composure amongst a certain
+limited class of soldiers, at moments when mere military appeals had
+ceased to operate.
+
+I must state that, in general, it was not those most remarkable for
+their fortitude who evinced either a precipitancy to depart, or a desire
+to remain very long behind--the older and cooler soldiers appearing to
+possess too much regard for their officers, as well as for their
+individual credit, to take their hasty departure at a very early period
+of the day, and too much wisdom and resolution to hesitate to the very
+last.
+
+But it was not till the close of this mournful tragedy that
+backwardness, rather than impatience, to adopt the perilous and only
+means of escape that offered, became generally discernible on the part
+of the unhappy remnant still on board, and that made it not only
+imperative on Captain Cobb to reiterate his threats, as well as his
+entreaties, that not an instant should be lost, but seemed to render it
+expedient for one of the officers of the troops, who had expressed his
+intention of remaining to the last, to limit, in the hearing of those
+around him, the period of his own stay. Seeing, however, between nine
+and ten o'clock, that some individuals were consuming the precious
+moments by obstinately hesitating to proceed, while others were making
+the inadmissible request to be lowered down as the women had been,
+learning from the boatmen that the wreck, which was already nine or ten
+feet below the ordinary water mark, had sunk two feet lower since their
+last trip; and calculating, besides, that the two boats then under the
+stern, with that which was in sight on its return from the brig, would
+suffice for the conveyance of all who seemed in a condition to remove;
+the three remaining officers of the 31st regiment seriously prepared to
+take their departure.
+
+As I cannot perhaps convey to you so correct an idea of the condition of
+others as by describing my own feelings and situation under the same
+circumstances, I shall make no apology for detailing the manner of my
+individual escape, which will sufficiently mark that of many hundreds
+that preceded it. The spanker-boom of so large a ship as the _Kent_,
+which projects, I should think, 16 or 18 feet over the stern, rests on
+ordinary occasions about 19 or 20 feet above the water; but in the
+position in which we were placed, from the great height of the sea, and
+the consequent pitching of the ship, it was frequently lifted to a
+height not less than 30 or 40 feet from the surface.
+
+To reach the rope, therefore, that hung from its extremity was an
+operation that seemed to require the aid of as much dexterity of hand as
+steadiness of head. For it was not only the nervousness of creeping
+along the boom itself, or the extreme difficulty of afterwards seizing
+on and sliding down by the rope that we had to dread, and that had
+occasioned the loss of some valuable lives by deterring men from
+adopting this mode of escape; but as the boat, which one moment was
+probably close under the boom, might be carried the next, by the force
+of the waves, 15 or 20 yards away from it, the unhappy individual, whose
+best calculations were thus defeated, was generally left swinging for
+some time in mid-air, if he was not repeatedly plunged several feet
+under water, or dashed with dangerous violence against the sides of the
+returning boat--or, what not unfrequently happened, was forced to let go
+his hold of the rope altogether. As there seemed, however, no
+alternative, I did not hesitate, notwithstanding my comparative
+inexperience and awkwardness in such a situation, to throw my legs
+across the perilous spar; and with a heart extremely grateful that such
+means of deliverance, dangerous as they appeared, were still extended to
+me; and more grateful still that I had been enabled, in common with
+others, to discharge my honest duty to my sovereign and to my
+fellow-soldiers, I proceeded,--after confidently committing my spirit,
+the great object of my solicitude, into the keeping of Him who had
+formed and redeemed it,--to creep slowly forward, feeling at every step
+the increasing difficulty of my situation. On getting nearly to the end
+of the boom, the young officer whom I followed and myself were met with
+a squall of wind and rain so violent as to make us fain to embrace
+closely the slippery stick (without attempting for some minutes to make
+any progress), and to excite our apprehension that we must relinquish
+all hope of reaching the rope. But our fears were disappointed; and
+after resting for a little while at the boom end, while my companion was
+descending to the boat, which he did not find until he had been plunged
+once or twice over head in the water, I prepared to follow; and instead
+of lowering myself, as many had imprudently done, at the moment when the
+boat was inclining towards us--and consequently being unable to descend
+the whole distance before it again receded,--I calculated that while the
+boat was retiring I ought to commence my descent, which would probably
+be completed by the time the returning wave brought it underneath; by
+which means I was, I believe, almost the only officer or soldier who
+reached the boat without being either severely bruised or immersed in
+the water.
+
+But my good friend Colonel Fearon had not been so fortunate; for after
+swinging for some time, and being repeatedly struck against the side of
+the boat, and at one time drawn completely under it, he was at last so
+utterly exhausted that he must instantly have let go his hold of the
+rope and perished, had not some one in the boat seized him by the hair
+of the head, and dragged him into it, almost senseless and alarmingly
+bruised.
+
+Captain Cobb, in his resolution to be the last, if possible, to quit his
+ship, and in 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.[8] 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.
+
+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 foiled, but until the flames, bursting forth
+from the cabin windows, rendered it impossible to remain without
+inflicting the greatest cruelty on 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,[9] 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.
+
+[Illustration: THE MAGAZINE EXPLODED.]
+
+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 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 Captain Bibbey, the humane commander 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_ to their rescue.[10]
+
+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 daylight 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.
+
+But when I 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, by those who
+thus laboured, 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 meantime 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 were indeed left husbandless and fatherless;
+or as the objects from whom they had feared they were for ever severed,
+suddenly rushed into their arms. But these feelings of delight, whatever
+may have been their intensity, were speedily chastened, and the
+attention of all arrested, by the last tremendous spectacle of
+destruction.
+
+After the arrival of the last boat the flames, which had spread along
+the upper deck and poop, ascended with the rapidity of lightning to the
+masts and rigging, forming one general conflagration, that illumined the
+heavens to an immense distance, and was strongly reflected by several
+objects on board the brig. The flags of distress, hoisted in the
+morning, were seen for a considerable time waving amid the flames, until
+the masts to which they were suspended successively fell like stately
+steeples over the ship's side. At last, about half-past one o'clock in
+the morning, the devouring element having communicated to the magazine,
+the explosion was seen, and the blazing fragments of the once
+magnificent _Kent_ were instantly hurried, like so many rockets, high
+into the air;[11] leaving, in the comparative darkness that succeeded,
+the deathful scene of that disastrous day floating before the mind like
+some feverish dream.
+
+Shortly afterwards, the brig, which had been gradually making sail, was
+running at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour towards the nearest
+port. I would here endeavour to render my humble tribute of admiration
+and gratitude to that gallant and excellent individual, who, under God,
+was undoubtedly the chief instrument of our deliverance; if I were not
+sensible that testimony has been already borne to his heroic and humane
+efforts, in a manner much more commensurate with, and from quarters
+reflecting infinitely greater honour upon his merits, than the feeble
+expressions of them which I should be able to record.[12] I trust you
+will keep in mind that Captain Cook's generous intentions and exertions
+must have proved utterly unavailing for the preservation of so many
+lives, had they not been most nobly and unremittingly supported by those
+of his mate and crew, as well as of the numerous passengers on board his
+brig. While the former, only eight in number, were usefully and
+necessarily employed in working the vessel, the sturdy Cornish miners
+and Yorkshire smelters, on the approach of the different boats, took
+their perilous stations on the chains, where they put forth the great
+muscular strength with which Heaven had endowed them, in dexterously
+seizing, at each successive heave of the sea, on some of the exhausted
+people, and dragging them up on deck.
+
+Nor did their kind assistance terminate there. They and the gentlemen
+connected with them cheerfully opened their ample stores of clothes and
+provisions, which they liberally dispensed to the naked and famished
+sufferers; they surrendered their beds to the helpless women and
+children, and seemed, in short, during the whole of our passage to
+England, to take no other delight than in ministering to all our wants.
+
+Although, after the first burst of mutual gratulation, and of becoming
+acknowledgment of the divine mercy for our unlooked-for deliverance, had
+subsided, none of us felt disposed to much interchange of thought, each
+being rather inclined to wrap himself up in his own reflections; yet we
+did not, during the first night, view with the alarm it warranted, the
+extreme misery and danger to which we were still exposed, by being
+crowded together, in a gale of wind, with upwards of 600 human beings,
+in a small brig of 200 tons, at a distance, too, of several hundred
+miles from any accessible port. Our little cabin, which was only
+calculated, under ordinary circumstances, for the accommodation of eight
+or ten persons, was now made to contain nearly eighty individuals, many
+of whom had no sitting room, and even some of the ladies no room to lie
+down. Owing to the continued violence of the gale, and to the bulwarks
+on one side of the brig having been driven in, the sea beat so
+incessantly over our deck as to render it necessary that the hatches
+should only be lifted up between the returning waves, to prevent
+absolute suffocation below, where the men were so closely packed
+together that the steam arising from their respiration excited at one
+time an apprehension that the vessel was on fire; while the impurity of
+the air they were inhaling became so marked, that the lights
+occasionally carried down amongst them were almost instantly
+extinguished. Nor was the condition of the hundreds who covered the deck
+less wretched than that of their comrades below; since they were
+obliged night and day to stand shivering, in their wet and nearly naked
+state, ankle deep in water:[13]--some of the older children and females
+were thrown into fits, while the infants were piteously crying for that
+nourishment which their nursing mothers were no longer able to give
+them.[14]
+
+Our only hope amid these great and accumulating miseries was that the
+same compassionate Providence which had already so marvellously
+interposed in our behalf would not permit the favourable wind to abate
+or change until we reached some friendly port; for we were all convinced
+that a delay of a very few days longer at sea must inevitably involve us
+in famine, pestilence, and a complication of the most dreadful evils.
+Our hopes were not disappointed. The gale continued with even increasing
+violence; and our able captain, crowding all sail, at the risk of
+carrying away his masts, so nobly urged his vessel onward, that in the
+afternoon of Thursday, the 3rd, the delightful exclamation from aloft
+was heard, "Land ahead!" In the evening we descried the Scilly lights;
+and running rapidly along the Cornish coast, we joyfully cast anchor in
+Falmouth harbour, at about half-past twelve o'clock at night.
+
+On reviewing the various proximate causes to which so many human beings
+owed their deliverance from a combination of dangers as remarkable for
+their duration as they were appalling in their aspect, it is impossible,
+I think, not to discover and gratefully acknowledge, in the beneficence
+of their arrangement, the overruling providence of that blessed Being,
+who is sometimes pleased, in His mysterious operations, to produce the
+same effect from causes apparently different; and on the other hand, as
+in our own case, to bring forth results the most opposite, from one and
+the same cause. For there is no doubt that the heavy rolling of our
+ship, occasioned by the violent gale, which was the real origin of all
+our disasters, contributed also most essentially to our subsequent
+preservation; since, had not Captain Cobb been enabled, by the
+greatness of the swell, to introduce speedily through the gun ports the
+immense quantity of water that inundated the hold, and thereby checked
+for so long a time the fury of the flames, the _Kent_ must
+unquestionably have been consumed before many, perhaps before any, of
+those on board could have found shelter in the _Cambria_.[15]
+
+But it is unnecessary to dwell on an insulated fact like this, amidst a
+concatenation of circumstances, all leading to the same conclusion, and
+so closely bound together as to force us to confess, that if a single
+link in the chain had been withdrawn or withheld, we must all most
+probably have perished.
+
+The _Cambria_, which had been, it seems, unaccountably detained in port
+nearly a month after the period assigned for her departure, was early on
+the morning of the fatal calamity pursuing at a great distance ahead of
+us the same course with ourselves; but her bulwarks on the weather side
+having been suddenly driven in, by a heavy sea breaking over her
+quarter, Captain Cook, in his anxiety to give ease to his labouring
+vessel, was induced to go completely out of his course by throwing the
+brig on the opposite tack, by which means alone he was brought in sight
+of us. Not to dwell on the unexpected, but not unimportant facts of the
+flames having been mercifully prevented, for eleven hours, from either
+communicating with the magazine forward, or the great spirit room abaft,
+or even coming into contact with the tiller ropes--any of which
+circumstances would evidently have been fatal,--I would remark that,
+until the _Cambria_ hove in sight, we had not discovered any vessel
+whatever for several days previous; nor did we afterwards see another
+until we entered the chops of the Channel. It is to be remembered, too,
+that had the _Cambria_, with her small crew, been homeward instead of
+outward bound, her scanty remainder of provisions, under such
+circumstances, would hardly have sufficed to form a single meal for our
+vast assemblage; or if, instead of having her lower deck completely
+clear, she had been carrying out a full cargo, there would not have been
+time, under the pressure of the danger and the violence of the gale, to
+throw the cargo overboard, and certainly, with it, not sufficient space
+in the brig to contain one-half of our number.
+
+When I reflect, besides, on the disastrous consequences that must have
+followed if, during our passage home, which was performed in a period
+most unusually short, the wind had either veered round a few points, or
+even partially subsided--which must have produced a scene of horror on
+board more terrible if possible than that from which we had escaped; and
+above all, when I recollect the extraordinary fact, and that which seems
+to have the most forcibly struck the whole of us, that we had not been
+above an hour in Falmouth harbour, when the wind, which had all along
+been blowing from the south-west, suddenly chopped round to the opposite
+quarter of the compass, and continued uninterruptedly for several days
+afterwards to blow strongly from the north-east,--one cannot help
+concluding that he who sees nothing of a Divine Providence in our
+preservation must be lamentably and wilfully blind to "the majesty of
+the Lord."
+
+In the course of the morning we all prepared, with thankful and joyful
+hearts, to place our feet on the shores of Old England.
+
+The ladies, always destined to form our vanguard, were the first to
+disembark, and were met on the beach by immense crowds of the
+inhabitants, who appeared to have been attracted thither less by idle
+curiosity than from the sincerest desire to alleviate in every possible
+manner their manifest sufferings.
+
+The sailors and soldiers, cold, wet, and almost naked, quickly followed;
+the whole forming, in their haggard looks and the endless variety of
+their costume, an assemblage at once as melancholy and grotesque as it
+is possible to conceive. So eager did the people appear to be to pour
+out upon us the full current of their sympathies, that shoes, hats, and
+other articles of urgent necessity were presented to several of the
+officers and men before they had even quitted the point of
+disembarkation. And in the course of the day, many of the officers and
+soldiers, and almost all of the females, were partaking, in the private
+houses of individuals, of the most liberal and needful hospitality.
+
+But this flow of compassion and kindness did not cease with the impulse
+of the more immediate occasion that had called it forth. For a meeting
+of the inhabitants was afterwards held, where subscriptions in clothes
+and money to a large amount were collected for the relief of the
+numerous sufferers. The women and children, whose wants seemed to demand
+their first care, were speedily furnished with comfortable clothing, and
+the poor widows and orphans with decent mourning. Depositories of
+shirts, shoes, stockings, etc., were formed for the supply of the
+officers and private passengers; and the sick and wounded in the
+hospital were made the recipients, not only of all those kindly
+attentions and medical assistance that could remove or soothe their
+temporal suffering, but were also invited to partake freely of the most
+judicious spiritual consolation and instruction. This march of charity
+was conducted by the ladies of Falmouth, who were zealously accompanied
+on it by the whole body, in the vicinity, of that peculiar sect of
+Christians, who have ever been as remarkable for their unassuming
+pretensions and consistent conduct, as for unostentatiously standing in
+the front ranks of every good work. And so strong is the reason which I,
+in particular, have to associate in my mind all that is sincere,
+considerate, and charitable with the society of Friends, that the very
+badge of Quakerism will, I trust, henceforward prove a full and
+sufficient passport to the best feelings of my heart.
+
+On the first Sunday after our arrival, Colonel Fearon, followed by all
+his officers and men, and accompanied by Captain Cobb, and the officers
+and private passengers of his late ship, hastened to prostrate
+themselves before the throne of the Heavenly grace, to pour out the
+public expression of their thanksgiving to their almighty Preserver. The
+scene was deeply impressive; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many a
+poor fellow who listened, perhaps for the first time in his life, with
+unquestionable sincerity and humility to the voice of instruction, will
+be found steadily prosecuting, in the strength of God, the good
+resolutions that he may on that solemn occasion have formed, until he be
+able to say, as one of the greatest generals of antiquity did, that "it
+was good for him to have been afflicted; for before he was afflicted he
+went astray, but that afterwards he was not ashamed to keep God's word."
+
+In the course of a few days the private passengers and most of the
+sailors of our party were dispersed in various directions; and the
+troops, after having incurred to the excellent inhabitants of Falmouth,
+and the adjacent towns, a debt of gratitude which none of them can ever
+hope to repay, were embarked for Chatham.
+
+I think you must be already sensible that the circumstances of our
+situation on board the _Kent_ did not enable us conscientiously to save
+a single article, either of public or private property, from the flames;
+indeed, the only thing I preserved--with the exception of forty or fifty
+sovereigns, which I hastily tied up in my pocket handkerchief, and put
+into my wife's hands, at the moment she was lifted into the boat, as a
+provision for herself and her companions against the temporary want to
+which they might be exposed on some foreign shore--was the pocket
+compass, which you yourself presented to me.[16]
+
+But I would have you to be assured, that the total abandonment of
+individual interests on the part of the officers of the ship, and of the
+31st regiment, was occasioned by no want of self-possession, nor even,
+in all cases, of opportunities to attend to them; but to a sincere
+desire to avoid even the appearance of selfishness, at moments when the
+valuable lives of their sailors and soldiers were at stake. And this
+observation applies with still greater force to the senior officers in
+both services, whose cabins being upon the upper deck were accessible
+during the whole day; and where many portable articles of value were
+deposited, which could have been very easily carried off, had those
+officers been disposed to devote to their own concerns even a portion of
+that precious time, and of those active exertions, which they
+unremittingly applied to the performance of their professional duty.
+
+Notwithstanding the unexpected length to which I have already extended
+this narrative, I cannot allow myself to close it without offering to my
+late companions on board the _Kent_, into whose hands it may possibly
+fall, a few very plain and simple observations, which I think worthy of
+their serious consideration, and the importance of which I desire to
+have deeply impressed upon my own mind. None of those soldiers who were
+in the habit of reading their Bibles can have failed to notice that
+faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is therein made the great pivot
+on which the salvation of man hinges; that the whole human race, without
+distinction of rank, nation, age, or sex, being justly exposed to the
+wrath of Almighty God, nothing but the precious blood of Christ, which
+was shed on the cross, can possibly atone for their sins; and that faith
+in this atonement can alone pacify the conscience, and awaken confidence
+towards God as a reconciled Father. If, therefore, "he that believeth in
+Christ shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned," be
+the unequivocal language of Jehovah, either expressly declared or
+obviously implied in every page of that record which He has vouchsafed
+to us of His Son; is it not a question of the deepest concernment to
+every one professing any regard for divine revelation, whether he really
+understands and believes that record, and whether he is able to give,
+not only to others, but to himself, a reason of this hope that is in
+him?
+
+From the influence of education or example, the absence of serious
+reflection, an attention to the outward ordinances of religion, a regard
+to many of the proprieties and decencies of life, and a forgetfulness
+that the religion of the Bible is a religion of motives rather than one
+of observances, minds easily satisfied on such subjects may persuade
+themselves that they are spiritually alive while they are dead--that
+they are amongst the sincere disciples of the blessed Redeemer, and
+fully interested in His salvation, while they may have neither part nor
+lot in the matter. But if, at the hour of death, when all external
+support shall slide away, the soul shall be awakened to the
+consciousness of its real condition; if it should be made to see, on the
+one hand, the spirituality and exceeding breadth of the divine law, and
+be quickened, on the other, to a sense of its unnumbered transgressions;
+if the mercy of God out of Christ, in which so many vainly and vaguely
+trust, should become obscured by the inflexible justice and spotless
+holiness of His character and if the solitary spirit, as it is dragged
+towards the mysterious precipice, is made to hear, from a voice which it
+can no longer mistake, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in all
+things which are written in the book of the law to do them,"--how
+unspeakably miserable must be the condition of the man who thus
+discovers, for the first time, that the sand which he had all his
+lifetime been mistaking for the "Rock of Ages" is now giving way under
+his feet, and that his soul must speedily sink into that state in which,
+"where the tree falleth, there it shall be;" where "he that is unjust,
+let him be unjust still;" and where there is "no work, nor device, nor
+knowledge," nor repentance.
+
+But that I may not be misunderstood, or be supposed to favour principles
+of barren speculation, more delusive and dangerous to their possessors,
+and to the best interests of society, than absolute ignorance itself--I
+would remind the gallant men to whom I am now more especially addressing
+myself, that that faith which saves the soul not only "worketh"
+invariably "by love," and gradually "overcometh the world," but that "it
+is the gift of God," implanted in the heart by His Holy Spirit, even by
+that Spirit which is freely given to every one that earnestly asketh.
+And however unable the simple soldier may be to explain either the
+nature or the manner of its operation, he must not deceive himself into
+the persuasion that he is possessed of this precious grace unless he
+feels it bringing forth in his life and conversation the abundant fruits
+that necessarily spring from it, and that cannot indeed be produced
+without it. He will be steady and zealous in the performance of duty,
+patient under fatigue and privation, sober amid temptation, calm but
+firm in the hour of danger, and respectfully obedient to his officers;
+he will honour his king, be content with his wages, and do harm to no
+man. His piety will be ardent but sober, his prayers will be earnest and
+frequent, but rather in secret than before men; he will not be
+contentious or disputatious, but rather desirous of instructing others
+by his example than by his precepts; letting his light so shine before
+them, in the simplicity of his motives, the uprightness of his actions,
+in his readiness to oblige, and by the whole tenor of his life, that
+they, seeing his good works, may be led, by the divine blessing, to
+acknowledge the reality and power and beauty of religion, and be induced
+in like manner to glorify his heavenly Father. In short, in comparison
+with his thoughtless comrades, he must not only aspire to become a
+better man, but, from the constraining motives of the gospel, struggle
+to be also in every essential respect a better soldier.
+
+In conclusion, I would observe that if any class of men, more than
+another, ought to be struck with awe and gratitude by the goodness and
+providence of God, it is they who go down to the sea in ships, and see
+His wonders in the great deep; or if any ought to familiarize their
+minds with death and its solemn consequences, it is surely soldiers,
+"whose very business it is to die." May all those then, especially, who
+thus possessed the privilege, but rarely granted, of being allowed, in
+the full vigour of health, and in the absence of all the bustle and
+excitement of battle, to contemplate, from the very brink of eternity,
+the awful realities that reign within it, as many of their departing
+comrades were hurried through its dreadful portals, be now led, in the
+respite which has been given them, to remember that this alone is the
+accepted time, and this the day of salvation; for while some may defer
+the subject "to a more convenient season," the message may come forth,
+at an hour when it is least expected, "This night thy soul shall be
+required of thee." The foregoing narrative may be fitly supplemented by
+some particulars[17] of the events occurring after the departure of the
+_Cambria_ from the scene of the wreck:--
+
+"About twelve o'clock the watch of the barque _Caroline_, on her passage
+from Alexandria to Liverpool, observed a light on the horizon, and knew
+it at once to be a ship on fire. There was a heavy sea on, but the
+captain, instantly setting his maintop-gallant-sail, ran down towards
+the spot. About one, the sky becoming brighter, a sudden jet of vivid
+light shot up; but they were too distant to hear the explosion. In
+half-an-hour the _Caroline_ could see the wreck of a large vessel lying
+head to the wind. The ribs and frame timbers, marking the outlines of
+double ports and quarter-galleries, showed that the burning skeleton was
+that of a first-class Indiaman. Every other external feature was gone;
+she was burnt nearly to the water's edge, but still floated, pitching
+majestically as she rose and fell on the long rolling swell of the bay.
+The vessel looked like an immense cage of charred basket-work filled
+with flame, that here and there blazed brighter at intervals. Above,
+and far to leeward, there was a vast drifting cloud of curling smoke
+spangled with millions of sparks and burning flakes, and scattered by
+the wind over the sky and waves.
+
+"As the _Caroline_ approached, part of a mast and some spars, rising and
+falling, were observed grinding under the weather-quarter of the wreck,
+having got entangled with the keel or rudder irons, and thus attaching
+it to the hull of the vessel. The _Caroline_, coming down swift before
+the wind, was in a few minutes brought across the bows of the _Kent_. At
+that moment a shout was heard as if from the very centre of the fire,
+and the same instant several figures were observed clinging to a mast.
+The sea was heavy, and the wreck threatened every moment to disappear.
+The _Caroline_ was hove-to to leeward, in order to avoid the showers of
+flakes and sparks, and to intercept any boats or rafts. The mate and
+four seamen pushed off in the jolly-boat, through a sea covered with
+floating spars, chests, and furniture, that threatened to crush or
+overwhelm the boat. When within a few yards of the stern, they caught
+sight of the first living thing--a wretched man clinging to a spar
+close under the ship's counter. Every time the stern-frame rose with the
+swell he was suspended above the water, and scorched by the long keen
+tongues of pure flame that now came darting through the gun-room ports.
+Each time this torture came the man shrieked with agony; the next moment
+the surge came and buried him under the wave, and he was silent. The
+_Caroline's_ men, defying the fire, pulled close to him, but just as
+their hands were stretching towards him (latterly the poor wretch had
+been silent), the rope or spar was snapped by the fire, and he sank for
+ever.
+
+"The men then, carefully backing, carried off six other of the nearest
+men from the mast. The small boat, only eighteen feet long, would not
+hold more than eleven persons, and indeed, as it was, was nearly swamped
+by a heavy wave. In half-an-hour the boat bravely returned, and took off
+six more.
+
+"The mate, fearing the vessel was going down, and that the masts would
+be swallowed in the vortex, redoubled his efforts to get a third time to
+the wreck. While struggling with a head sea, and before the boat could
+reach the mast, the end came. The fiery mass settled like a red-hot
+coal into the waves, and disappeared for ever. The sky grew instantly
+dark, a dense shroud of black smoke lingered over the grave of the ship,
+and instead of the crackle of burning timbers and the flutter of flames,
+there spread the ineffable stillness of death.
+
+"As the last gleam flickered out, Mr. Wallen, the mate of the
+_Caroline_, with great quickness of thought set the spot by a star.
+Then, in spite of the danger in the darkness of floating wreck, he
+resolved to wait quietly till daylight, and ordered his men to shout
+repeatedly to cheer any who might be still floating on stray spars. For
+a long time no one answered; at last a feeble cry came, and the
+_Caroline's_ sailors returned it loudly and gladly. What joy that faint
+cry must have brought to those friendly ears! With what joy must the
+boatmen's shout have been received!
+
+[Illustration: WHEN DAY BROKE THE MAST WAS VISIBLE.]
+
+"When the day broke the mast was visible, and four motionless men could
+be seen among its cordage and top-work. They seemed dead, but as the
+boat neared, two of them feebly raised their heads and stretched out
+their arms. When taken into the boat, they were found to be faint and
+almost dead from the cold and wet, and the many hours they had been
+half under water. The other two were stone dead. One had bound himself
+firmly to the spar, and lay as if asleep, with his arms around it, and
+his head upon it, as if it had been a pillow. The other stood half
+upright between the cheeks of the mast, his face fixed in the direction
+of the boat, his arms still extended. They were both left on the spar.
+One of the Indiaman's empty boats was also found drifting a short
+distance off. The wind beginning to freshen and a gale coming on, it was
+all the jolly-boat could do to rejoin the _Caroline_. There could be no
+doubt that when the _Caroline_ hove-to and luffed under the lee of the
+_Kent_, it must have passed men drifting to leeward on detached spars.
+They of course all perished in the rising storm.
+
+"A piece of plate was presented to Captain Cook, of the _Cambria_, by
+the officers and passengers of the _Kent_, and the Duke of York publicly
+thanked him for his humane zeal and promptitude. The Secretary of War
+(Lord Palmerston) authorized a sum of five hundred pounds to be given to
+the captain and crew of the _Cambria_, and the agents of the ship were
+also paid two hundred and eighty-seven pounds for provisions, two
+hundred and eighty-seven pounds for passengers' diet, and five hundred
+pounds for demurrage. The East India Company awarded six hundred pounds
+to Captain Cook, one hundred pounds to the first mate, fifty pounds to
+the second mate, ten pounds each to the nine men of the crew, fifteen
+pounds each to the twenty-six miners, and one hundred pounds to the ten
+chief miners for extra stores, to make their voyage out more
+comfortable. The Royal Exchange Assurance gave Captain Cook fifty
+pounds, and his officers and crew fifty pounds. The subscribers to
+Lloyds voted him a present of one hundred pounds; the Royal Humane
+Society awarded him an honorary medallion; and the underwriters at
+Liverpool were also prominent in their liberality."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Captain Cobb, with great forethought, ordered the deck to
+be scuttled forward, with a view to draw the fire in that direction,
+knowing that between it and the magazine were several tiers of
+water-casks; while he hoped that the wet sails, etc., thrown into the
+after-hold, would prevent the fire from communicating with the
+spirit-room abaft.]
+
+[Footnote 2: The late Lady MacGregor, and the late Mrs. Pringle, of
+Yair, Whytbank, Selkirk, N.B., who are also mentioned in the letter on
+page 23.]
+
+[Footnote 3: This bottle, left in the cabin, was cast into the sea by
+the explosion that destroyed the _Kent_. About nineteen months
+afterwards the following notice appeared in a Barbadoes (West Indian)
+newspaper:--
+
+"A bottle was picked up on Saturday, the 30th September, at Bathsheba (a
+bathing-place on the west of Barbadoes), by a gentleman who was bathing
+there, who, on breaking it, found the melancholy account of the fate of
+the ship _Kent_, contained in a folded paper written with pencil, but
+scarcely legible." The words of the letter were then given, and a
+facsimile of it will be found on the next page. The letter itself, taken
+from the bottle thickly encrusted with shells and seaweed, was returned
+to the writer when he arrived, shortly after its discovery, at
+Barbadoes, as Lieut.-Colonel of the 93rd Highlanders, and the
+interesting relic is still preserved by his son (at that time called
+"little Rob Roy"), who is not mentioned in the letter, but was saved as
+related in page 33.]
+
+[Footnote 4: Two shipwrights, dismissed from their situation because
+they would not work on Sunday, were employed by the father of a friend
+of the writer. He engaged them to build their first vessel, the
+_Cambria_, and this was her first voyage, starting from Deptford before
+the _Kent_ sailed from Gravesend.
+
+Captain Cook many years afterwards commanded in the disastrous "Niger
+Expedition." He was a splendid sailor, and a humble Christian, whose
+death-bed, long years after, was attended by the youngest passenger he
+had helped to save from the burning _Kent_.]
+
+[Footnote 5: I was afterwards informed by one of the passengers on board
+the _Cambria_--for from the great height of the Indiaman we had not the
+opportunity of making a similar observation--that when both vessels
+happened to be at the same time in the trough of the sea, the _Kent_ was
+entirely concealed by the intervening waves from the deck of the
+_Cambria_.]
+
+[Footnote 6: "The _Rob Roy_ Canoe on the Jordan" (Murray) gives some
+other experiences of watery dangers in after life.]
+
+[Footnote 7: This narrative has been translated into the French,
+Spanish, Swedish, Italian, German, and Russian languages, and the author
+(born March 16, 1787) still enjoys good health (1880) while writing the
+preface to this edition, of which a _facsimile_ is given at the
+beginning of the book.]
+
+[Footnote 8: 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.]
+
+[Footnote 9: I ought to state that the exertions of Mr. Muir, third
+mate, were also most conspicuous during the whole day.]
+
+[Footnote 10: See page 83.--One of the men saved after the
+explosion (which had burned off both his feet) was met thirty years
+afterwards by the individual who was first saved in the _Cambria_. This
+man was wheeling himself in a go-cart on the race-ground at Lanark,
+dressed in sailor's costume, and selling papers with a picture of the
+_Kent_ upon them and some doggerel verses below. As honorary secretary
+of the "Open-Air Mission" (which provides preachers for streets in
+towns, and for races and fairs in the country), the "first saved" from
+the wreck and burning then preached the Gospel to the "last saved" from
+the scorched embers, and to a large and motley crowd, all of whom will
+assuredly meet once more "at that day."]
+
+[Footnote 11: Besides 500 barrels of gunpowder, there was on board
+several hundredweight of highly explosive percussion powder. The brig
+was about three miles distant when the _Kent_ exploded.]
+
+[Footnote 12: Captain Cook afterwards rendered distinguished services in
+the Niger expedition, and died in London a true Christian sailor, after
+several visits from one he had helped to save.]
+
+[Footnote 13: In addition to those who were naked on board the _Kent_ at
+the moment the alarm of fire was heard, several individuals afterwards
+threw off their clothes to enable them the more easily to swim to the
+boats.]
+
+[Footnote 14: One of the soldiers' wives was delivered of a child about
+an hour or two after her arrival on board the brig. Both survived, and
+the child received the appropriate name of "Cambria."]
+
+[Footnote 15: There were lost in the destruction of the _Kent_, 54
+soldiers, 1 woman, and 20 children, belonging to the 31st Regiment; 1
+seaman and 5 boys--total, 81 individuals.]
+
+[Footnote 16: A little Testament was also saved. Only one officer's
+sword was saved, and that belonged to him who afterwards led the 31st
+regiment in the battles on the Sutlej.]
+
+[Footnote 17: From _All the Year Round_.]
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loss of the Kent, East Indiaman,
+in the Bay of Biscay, by Duncan McGregor
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