[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. 

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AUTHOR'S NOTE. 

The older I grow, and I am now in my 94th year, I am the more convincedof the special interposition of Divine Providence in the winterrecorded, in the following Tract. 

The Author

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THE LOSS OF THE KENT EAST INDIAMAN. 

MY DEAR E----, You are aware that the _Kent_, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of1, 350 tons, bound to Bengal and China, left the Downs on the 19th ofFebruary, 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 subduethe force of those deeply painful sensations to which few men can refuseto yield, in the immediate prospect of a long and distant separationfrom the land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With mygallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is remarkablycharacteristic of the professions to which they belonged, hope appearedgreatly to predominate over sadness. Surrounded as they were by everycircumstance that could render their voyage propitious, and in the ampleenjoyment of every necessary that could contribute either to theirhealth or their comfort, their hearts seemed to beat high withcontentment and gratitude towards that country which they zealouslyserved, and whose interests they were cheerfully going forth to defend. 

With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately _Kent_, inbearing down the Channel, speedily passed many a well-known spot on thecoast dear to our remembrance; and on the evening of the 23rd we tookour last view of happy England, and entered the wide Atlantic, withoutthe expectation of again seeing land until we reached the shores ofIndia. 

With slight interruptions of bad weather, we continued to make way untilthe night of Monday, the 28th, when we were suddenly arrested in lat. 47° 30´, long. 10°, by a violent gale from the south-west, whichgradually increased during the whole of the following morning. 

To those who have never "gone down to the sea in ships, and seen thewonders of the Lord in the great deep, " or even to such as have neverbeen exposed in a westerly gale to the tremendous swell in the Bay ofBiscay, I am sensible that the most sober description of the magnificentspectacle of "watery hills in full succession flowing" would appearsufficiently exaggerated. But it is impossible, I think, for theinexperienced mariner, however unreflecting he may try to be, to viewthe effects of the increasing storm, as he feels his solitary vesselreeling to and fro under his feet, without involuntarily raising histhoughts, with a secret confession of helplessness and veneration thathe may never before have experienced, towards that Being whose power, under ordinary circumstances, we may have disregarded, and whoseincessant goodness we are prone to requite with ingratitude. 

The activity of the officers and seamen of the _Kent_ appeared to keepample pace with that of the gale. Our larger sails were speedily takenin or closely reefed; and about ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st ofMarch, after having struck our top-gallant yards, we were lying to, under a triple-reefed maintop-sail only, with the deadlights in, andwith the whole watch of soldiers attached to the life lines, that wererun along the deck for this purpose. 

The rolling of the ship, which was vastly increased by a dead weight ofsome 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 mainchains were thrown by every lurch considerably under water; and the bestcleated articles of furniture in the cabins and the cuddy were dashedabout with so much noise and violence as to excite the liveliestapprehensions 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 withthem, for safety, a light in the patent lantern; and seeing that thelamp burned dimly, the officer took the precaution to hand it up to theorlop deck to be trimmed. Having afterwards discovered one of the spiritcasks to be adrift, he sent the sailors for some billets of wood tosecure it; but the ship in their absence having made a heavy lurch, theofficer unfortunately dropped the light; and letting go his hold of thecask in his eagerness to recover the lantern, it suddenly stove, and thespirits communicating with the lamp, the whole place was instantly in ablaze. 

I know not what steps were then taken. I myself had been engaged duringthe greater part of the morning in double-lashing and otherwise securingthe furniture in my cabin, and in occasionally going to the cuddy, wherethe marine barometers were suspended, to mark their varying indicationsduring the gale, in my journal; and it was on one of those occasions, after having read to Mrs. ----, at her request, the twelfth chapter ofSt. Luke, which so beautifully declares and illustrates the minute andtender providence of God, and so solemnly urges on all the necessity ofcontinual watchfulness and readiness for the "coming of the Son of man, "that I received from Captain Spence, the captain of the day, thealarming information that the ship was on fire in the afterhold. Onhastening to the hatchway, whence smoke was slowly ascending, I foundCaptain Cobb and other officers giving orders, which seemed to bepromptly obeyed by the seamen and troops, who used every exertion bymeans of the pumps, buckets of water, wet sails, hammocks, &c. , toextinguish the flames. 

With a view to excite among the ladies as little alarm as possible, inconveying this intelligence to Colonel Fearon, the commanding officer ofthe troops, I knocked gently at his cabin door, and expressed a wish tospeak with him; but whether my countenance betrayed the state of myfeelings, or the increasing noise and confusion upon deck createdapprehensions amongst them that the storm was assuming a more seriousaspect, I found it difficult to pacify some of the ladies by repeatedassurances that no danger whatever was to be apprehended from the gale. As long as the devouring element appeared to be confined to the spotwhere the fire originated, and which we were assured was surrounded onall sides by the water casks, we ventured to cherish hopes that it mightbe subdued; but no sooner was the light blue vapour that at first arosesucceeded by volumes of thick, dingy smoke--which speedily ascendingthrough all the four hatchways, rolled over every part of the ship--thanall further concealment became impossible, and almost all hope ofpreserving the vessel was abandoned. "The flames have reached the cabletier, " was exclaimed by some individuals, and the strong pitchy smellthat pervaded the deck confirmed the truth of the exclamation. 

In these awful circumstances, Captain Cobb, with an ability and decisionthat seemed to increase with the imminence of the danger, resorted tothe only alternative now left him, of ordering the lower decks to bescuttled, the combings of the hatches to be cut, and the lower ports tobe opened, for the free admission of the waves. 

These instructions were speedily executed by the united efforts of thetroops and seamen; but not before some of the sick soldiers, one woman, and several children, unable to gain the upper deck, had perished. Ondescending to the gun deck with Colonel Fearon, Captain Bray, and one ortwo other officers of the 31st regiment, to assist in opening the ports, I met, staggering towards the hatchway, in an exhausted and nearlysenseless state, one of the mates, who informed us that he had juststumbled over the dead bodies of some individuals who must have diedfrom suffocation, to which it was evident that he himself had almostfallen a victim. So dense and oppressive was the smoke, that it was withthe utmost difficulty we could remain long enough below to fulfilCaptain Cobb's wishes; which were no sooner accomplished, than the searushed in with extraordinary force, carrying away, in its resistlessprogress to the hold, the largest chests, bulk-heads, etc. 

Such a sight, under any other conceivable circumstances, was wellcalculated to have filled us with horror; but in our natural solicitudeto avoid the more immediate peril of explosion, we endeavoured to cheereach other, as we stood up to our knees in water, with the faint hopethat by these violent means we might be speedily restored to safety. Theimmense quantity of water that was thus introduced into the hold hadindeed the effect, for a time, of checking the fury of the flames; butthe danger of sinking having increased as the risk of explosion wasdiminished, the ship became water-logged, and presented otherindications of settling previous to her going down. 

Death in two of its most awful forms now encompassed us, and we seemedleft to choose the terrible alternative. But always preferring the moreremote, though equally certain crisis, we tried to shut the ports again, to close the hatches, and to exclude the external air, in order, ifpossible, to prolong our existence, the near and certain termination ofwhich 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 humanbeings, many of whom, from previous sea-sickness, were forced, on thefirst alarm, to flee from below almost in a state of nakedness, and werenow running about in quest of husbands, children, or parents. While somewere standing in silent resignation, or in stupid insensibility to theirimpending fate, others were yielding themselves up to the most franticdespair. Some on their knees were earnestly imploring, with significantgesticulations and in noisy supplications, the mercy of Him whose arm, they exclaimed, was at length outstretched to smite them; others were tobe seen hastily crossing themselves, and performing the various externalacts required by their peculiar persuasion; while a number of the olderand more stout-hearted soldiers and sailors sullenly took their seatsdirectly over the magazine; hoping, as they stated, that by means of theexplosion which they every instant expected, a speedier terminationmight be put to their sufferings. [1] Several of the soldiers' wives andchildren, who had fled for temporary shelter into the after cabins onthe upper decks, were engaged in prayer and in reading the Scriptureswith the ladies; some of whom were enabled, with wonderfulself-possession, to offer to others those spiritual consolations which afirm and intelligent trust in the Redeemer of the world appeared at thisawful hour to impart to their own breasts. The dignified deportment oftwo young ladies, [2] in particular, formed a specimen of naturalstrength of mind, finely modified by Christian feeling, that failed notto attract the notice and admiration of every one who had an opportunityof witnessing it. On the melancholy announcement being made to them thatall hope must be relinquished, and that death was rapidly and inevitablyapproaching, one of the ladies above referred to, calmly sinking down onher knees, and clasping her hands together, said, "Even so, come, LordJesus, " and immediately proposed to read a portion of the Scriptures tothose around her. Her sister with nearly equal composure andcollectedness of mind selected the forty-sixth and other appropriatePsalms, which were accordingly read, with intervals of prayer, by thoseladies alternately to the assembled females. 

One young gentleman, of whose promising talents and piety I dare not nowmake further mention, having calmly asked me my opinion respecting thestate of the ship, I told him that I thought we should be prepared tosleep that night in eternity; and I shall never forget the peculiarfervour with which he replied, as he pressed my hand in his, "My heartis filled with the peace of God;" adding, "yet, though I know it isfoolish, I dread exceedingly the last struggle. "

Amongst the numerous objects that struck my observation at this period Iwas much affected with the appearance and conduct of some of the dearchildren, who, quite unconscious, in the cuddy cabins, of the perilsthat surrounded them, continued to play as usual with their little toysin bed, or to put the most innocent and unseasonable questions to thosearound them. To some of the older children, who seemed fully alive tothe reality of the danger, I whispered, "Now is the time to put inpractice the instructions you used to receive at the Regimental School, and to think of that Saviour of whom you have heard so much. " Theyreplied, as the tears ran down their cheeks, "Oh, sir, we are trying toremember them, and we are praying to God. "

The passive condition to which we were all reduced by the total failureof our most strenuous exertions, while it was well calculated, andprobably designed, to convince us afterwards that our deliverance waseffected, 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 bythose who were eventually saved as by those who perished. 

It has been observed by the author of the Retrospect, that "in the heatof battle, it is not only possible but easy to forget death, and ceaseto think; but in the cool and protracted hours of a shipwreck, wherethere is often nothing to engage the mind but the recollection of triedand unsuccessful labours, and the sight of unavoidable and increasingharbingers of destruction, it is not easy or possible to forgetourselves or a future state. "

The general applicability of the latter part of this proposition I amdisposed to doubt; for if I were to judge of the feelings of all onboard by those of the number who were heard to express them, I shouldapprehend that a large majority of those men, whose previous attentionhas never been fairly and fully directed to the great subject ofreligion, approach the gates of death, it may be with solemnity, or withterror, but without any definable or tangible conviction of the factthat after death cometh the judgment. 

Several there were who vowed in loud and piteous cries, that if the LordGod would spare their lives, they would thenceforward dedicate all theirpowers to His service; and not a few were heard to exclaim, in thebitterness of remorse, that the judgments of the Most High were justlypoured out upon them for their neglected Sabbaths, and their profligateor profane lives; but the number of those was extremely small whoappeared to dwell either with lively hope or dread on the view of anopening eternity. And as a further evidence of the truth of thisobservation, I may mention that when I afterwards had occasion to mountthe mizen shrouds, I there met with a young man, who had brought me aletter of introduction from our excellent friend, Dr. G--n, to whom Ifelt it my duty, while we were rocking on the mast, quietly to proposethe great question, "What must we do to be saved?" and this younggentleman has since informed Mr. P. That though he was at that momentfully persuaded of the certainty of immediate death, yet the subject ofeternity, in any form, had not once flashed upon his mind previous to myconversation. 

While we thus lay in a state of physical inertion, but with all ourmental faculties in rapid and painful activity--with the waves lashingfuriously against the sides of our devoted ship, as if in anger with thehostile element for not more speedily performing its office ofdestruction, --the binnacle, by one of those many lurches which weredriving everything movable from side to side of the vessel, was suddenlywrenched from its fastenings, and all the apparatus of the compassdashed to pieces upon the deck; on which one of the young mates, emphatically regarding it for a moment, cried out with the emotion sonatural 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 wasseen thoughtfully removing from his writing-case a lock of hair, whichhe composedly deposited in his bosom; and another officer procuringpaper and pens, addressed a short communication to his father, which wasafterwards carefully enclosed in a bottle, in the hope that it mighteventually reach its destination, with the view, as he stated, ofrelieving him from the long years of fruitless anxiety and suspensewhich our melancholy fate would awaken, and of bearing his humbletestimony, at a moment when his sincerity could scarcely be questioned, to the faithfulness of that God in whose mercy he trusted, and whosepeace he largely enjoyed in the tremendous prospect of immediatedissolution. [3] It was at this appalling instant, when "all hope that weshould be saved was then taken away, " and when the letter referred towas 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 ardentwish than the expectation, that some friendly sail might bediscovered on the face of the waters. The sailor, on mounting, threw hiseyes round the horizon for a moment--a moment of unutterablesuspense--and waving his hat exclaimed, "A sail on the lee bow!" Thejoyful announcement was received with deep-felt thanksgivings, and withthree cheers, upon deck. Our flags of distress were instantly hoisted, and our minute guns fired; and we endeavoured to bear down under ourthree top-sails and fore-sail upon the stranger, which afterwards provedto 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, andother 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 ofentering eternity D MacGregor 1st March 1825----Bay of Biscay]

For ten or fifteen minutes we were left in doubt whether the crew of thebrig perceived our signals, or perceiving them, were either disposed orable to lend us any assistance. From the violence of the gale, it seemsthat the report of our guns was not heard; but the ascending volumes ofsmoke from the ship sufficiently announced the dreadful nature of ourdistress; and we had the satisfaction, after a short period of darksuspense, to see the brig hoist British colours, and crowd all sail tohasten to our relief. 

Although it was impossible, and would have been improper, to repress therising hopes that were pretty generally diffused amongst us by theunexpected sight of the _Cambria_, yet I confess, that when I reflectedon the long period our ship had been already burning--on the tremendoussea that was running--on the extreme smallness of the brig, and theimmense number of human beings to be saved, I could only venture to hopethat a few might be spared; but I durst not for a moment contemplate thepossibility of my own preservation. 

[Illustration: SAVED FROM THE WRECK. ]

While Captain Cobb, Colonel Fearon, and Major MacGregor of the 31stregiment, were consulting together, as the brig was approaching us, onthe necessary preparations for getting out the boats, etc. , one of theofficers asked Major MacGregor in what order it was intended theofficers should move off; to which the other replied, "Of course infuneral order;" which injunction was instantly confirmed by ColonelFearon, who said, "Most undoubtedly, the juniors first; but see that anyman is cut down who presumes to enter the boats before the means ofescape are presented to the women and children. "

To prevent the rush to the boats as they were being lowered, which, fromcertain symptoms of impatience manifested both by soldiers and sailors, there was reason to fear, some of the military officers were stationedover them with drawn swords. But from the firm determination which theseexhibited, and the great subordination observed, with few exceptions, bythe troops, this proper precaution was afterwards rendered unnecessary. 

Arrangements having been made by Captain Cobb for placing in the firstboat, previous to letting it down, all the ladies, and as many of thesoldiers' wives as it could safely contain, they hurriedly wrappedthemselves up in whatever articles of clothing could be found; and Ithink about two, or half-past two o'clock, a most mournful processionadvanced from the after cabins to the starboard cuddy port, outside ofwhich the cutter was suspended. Scarcely a word was uttered--not ascream was heard--even the infants ceased to cry, as if conscious of theunspoken and unspeakable anguish that was at that instant rending thehearts of their parting parents; nor was the silence of voices in anyway broken, except in one or two cases, where the ladies plaintivelyentreated permission to be left behind with their husbands. But on beingassured that every moment's delay might occasion the sacrifice of ahuman life, they successively suffered themselves to be torn from thetender embrace, and with that fortitude which never fails tocharacterize and adorn their sex on occasions of overwhelming trial, were placed, without a murmur, in the boat, which was immediatelylowered into a sea so tempestuous as to leave us only to hope againsthope that it should live in it for a single moment. Twice the cry washeard from those on the chains that the boat was swamping. But He whoenabled the apostle Peter to walk on the face of the deep, and wasgraciously attending to the earnest aspirations of those on board, haddecreed its safety. 

Although Captain Cobb had used every precaution to diminish the dangerof the boat's descent, by stationing a man with an axe to cut away thetackle from either extremity, should the slightest difficulty occur inunhooking it; yet the peril attending the whole operation, which canonly be adequately estimated by nautical men, had very nearly provedfatal to its numerous inmates. 

After one or two unsuccessful attempts to place the little frail barkfairly upon the surface of the water, the command was at length given tounhook; the tackle at the stern was, in consequence, immediatelycleared; but the ropes at the bow having got foul, the sailor found itimpossible to obey the order. In vain was the axe applied to theentangled tackle; the moment was inconceivably critical, as the boat, which necessarily followed the motion of the ship, was gradually risingout of the water, and must, in another instant, have been hangingperpendicularly by the bow, and its helpless passengers launched intothe deep, had not a most providential wave suddenly struck and lifted upthe stern, so as to enable the seamen to disengage the tackle. The boatbeing thus dexterously cleared from the ship, was seen after a whilefrom the poop, battling with the billows, --now raised, in its progressto the brig, like a speck on their summit, and then disappearing forseveral 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 firefrom her guns, which, being all shotted, afterwards went off as theflames successively reached them, the men had a considerable way to row;and the success of this first experiment seeming to be the measure ofour future hopes, the movements of this precious boat--incalculablyprecious, without doubt, to the agonized husbands and fathersimmediately connected with it--were watched with intense anxiety by allon board. 

The better to balance the boat in the raging sea through which it had topass, and to enable the seamen to ply their oars, the women and childrenwere stowed promiscuously under the seats, and consequently exposed tothe risk of being drowned by the continual dashing of the spray overtheir heads, which so filled the boat during the passages that beforetheir arrival at the brig the poor females were sitting up to the waistin water, and their children kept with the greatest difficulty above it. 

However, in the course of twenty minutes the little cutter was seenalongside the ark of refuge; and the first human being that happened tobe admitted, out of the vast assemblage that ultimately found shelterthere, was the infant son of Major MacGregor, a child of only a fewweeks old, who was caught from his mother's arms and lifted into thebrig by Mr. Thomson, the fourth mate of the _Kent_, the officer who hadbeen ordered to take charge of the ladies' boat. [6]

But the extreme difficulty and danger presented to the women andchildren in getting into the _Cambria_ seemed scarcely less imminentthan that which they had previously encountered; for to prevent the boatfrom swamping or being stove against the side of the brig, while itspassengers were disembarking, required no ordinary exercise of skilland perseverance on the part of the sailors, and of self-possession andeffort 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 werethen urged to avail themselves of every favourable heave of the sea byspringing towards the many friendly arms that were extended from thevessel to receive them; and, notwithstanding the deplorableconsequence of making a false step under such critical circumstances, not a single accident occurred to any individual belonging to the firstboat. Indeed, the only one whose life appears to have been placed inextreme jeopardy alongside was one of the ladies, who, in attempting tospring 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 holdat the instant of a rope that happened to be hanging over the_Cambria's_ side, to which she clung for some moments, until she wasdragged into the vessel. 

I have reason to know that the feelings of oppressive delight, gratitude, and praise experienced by the married officers and soldierson being assured of the comparative safety of their wives and children, so entirely abstracted their minds from their own situation as to renderthem for a little while totally insensible either to the storm that beatupon them, or to the active and gathering volcano that threatened everyinstant to explode under their feet. 

It being impossible for the boats, after the first trip, to comealongside the _Kent_, a plan was adopted for lowering the women andchildren by ropes from the stern, by tying them two and two together. But from the heaving of the ship, and the extreme difficulty in droppingthem at the instant the boat was underneath, many of the poor creatureswere unavoidably plunged repeatedly under water; and much as humanitymay rejoice that no woman was eventually lost by this process, yet itwas as impossible to prevent, as it was deplorable to witness, the greatsacrifice thus occasioned of the younger children--the same violentmeans which only reduced the parents to a state of exhaustion orinsensibility, having entirely extinguished the vital spark in thefeebler frames of the infants that were fastened to them. 

Amid the conflicting feelings and dispositions manifested by thenumerous actors in this melancholy drama, many affecting proofs wereelicited of parental and filial affection, or of disinterestedfriendship, that seemed to shed a momentary halo around the gloomyscene. 

Two or three soldiers, to relieve their wives of a part of theirfamilies, sprang into the water with their children, and perished intheir endeavours to save them. One young lady, who had resolutelyrefused to quit her father, whose sense of duty kept him at his post, was near falling a sacrifice to her filial devotion, not having beenpicked up by those in the boats until she had sunk five or six times. Aman, who was reduced to the frightful alternative of losing his wife orhis children, hastily decided in favour of his duty to the former. Hiswife was accordingly saved, but his four children, alas! were left toperish. A fine fellow, a soldier, who had neither wife nor child of hisown, but who evinced the greatest solicitude for the safety of those ofothers, insisted on having three children lashed to him, with whom heplunged into the water; not being able to reach the boat, he was againdrawn into the ship with his charge, but not before two of the childrenhad expired. One man fell down the hatchway into the flames, and anotherhad his back so completely broken as to have been observed quite doubledfalling overboard. These spectacles of individual loss and sufferingwere not confined to the entrance upon the perilous voyage between thetwo ships. One man, who fell between the boat and brig, had his headliterally crushed to pieces; and some others were lost in their attemptsto ascend the side of the _Cambria_. 

Seeing that the tardy means employed for the escape of the women andchildren necessarily consumed a great deal of time that might be partlydevoted to the general preservation, orders were given that along withthe females, each of the boats should also admit a certain portion ofthe soldiers, several of whom, in their impatience to take advantage ofthis permission, flung themselves overboard, and sank in theirill-judged and premature efforts for deliverance. 

One poor fellow of this number, a very respectable man, had actuallyreached 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'scase that deserves notice. His wife, to whom he was warmly attached, nothaving been of the allotted number of women to accompany the regimentabroad, resolved in her anxiety to follow her husband, to defeat thisarrangement, 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 shewas discovered, and sent ashore at Deal, she contrived a second time, with true feminine perseverance, to get between decks, where shecontinued to secrete herself until the morning of the fatal disaster. 

While the men were thus bent in various ways on self-preservation, oneof the sailors, who had taken his post with many others over themagazine, awaiting with great patience the dreaded explosion, at lastcried out, as if in ill-humour that his expectation was likely to bedisappointed, "Well, if she won't blow up, I'll see if I can't get awayfrom her;" and jumping up, he made his way to the boats, which hereached in safety. 

I ought to state that three of the six boats we originally possessedwere either completely stove or swamped in the course of the day, one ofthem with men in it, some of whom were seen floating in the water for amoment before they disappeared; and it is suspected that one or two ofthose who went down must have sunk under the weight of their spoils, thesame individuals having been seen eagerly plundering the cuddy cabins. 

As the day was rapidly drawing to a close, and the flames were slowlybut perceptibly extending, Colonel Fearon and Captain Cobb evinced anincreasing anxiety to relieve the remainder of the gallant men undertheir charge. 

To facilitate this object a rope was suspended from the extremity of thespanker-boom, along which the men were recommended to proceed, andthence slide down by the rope into the boats. But as, from the greatswell of the sea, and the constant heaving of the ship, it wasimpossible for the boats to preserve their station for a moment, thosewho adopted this course incurred so great a risk of swinging for sometime in the air, and of being repeatedly plunged under water, or dashedagainst the sides of the boats underneath, that many of the landsmencontinued to throw themselves out of the stern window on the upper deck, preferring what appeared to me the more precarious chance of reachingthe boats by swimming. Rafts made of spars, hencoops, etc. , were alsoordered to be constructed, for the twofold purpose of forming anintermediate communication with the boats--a purpose, by the bye, whichthey very imperfectly answered--and of serving as a last point ofretreat, should the further extension of the flames compel us at once todesert the vessel. Directions were at the same time given that every manshould tie a rope round his waist, by which he might afterwards attachhimself to the rafts, should he be suddenly forced to take to the water. While the people were busily occupied in adopting this recommendation, Iwas surprised, I had almost said amused, by the singular delicacy of oneof the Irish recruits, who, in searching for a rope in one of thecabins, called out to me that he could find none except the cordagebelonging to an officer's cot, and wished to know whether there would beany harm in his appropriating it to his own use. 

The gradual removal of the officers was at the same time commenced, andwas marked by a discipline the most rigid, and an intrepidity the mostexemplary; none appearing to be influenced by a vain and ostentatiousbravery, which, in cases of extreme peril, affords rather a presumptiveproof of secret timidity than of fortitude; nor any betraying an unmanlyor unsoldierlike impatience to quit the ship; but, with the becomingdeportment of men neither paralyzed by, nor profanely insensible to, theaccumulating dangers that encompassed them, they progressively departedin the different boats with their soldiers; those who happened toproceed first leaving behind them an example of coolness that could notbe unprofitable to those who followed. 

But the finest illustration of their conduct was displayed in that oftheir chief, whose ability and presence of mind, under the complicatedresponsibility and anxiety of a commander, husband, and father, wereeminently calculated, throughout this dismal day, to inspire all otherswith composure and fortitude. Never for one moment did Colonel Fearonseem to forget the authority with which his sovereign had invested him, nor did any of his officers--as far as my observation went--cease toremember the relative situations in which they were severally placed. Even in the gloomiest moments of that dark season, when the dissolutionof every earthly distinction seemed near at hand, the decision andconfidence with which orders were issued on the one hand, and thepromptitude and respect with which they were obeyed on the other, offered the best proofs of the stability of the well-connected system ofdiscipline established in the 31st regiment, and the most unquestionableground for the high and flattering commendation which his RoyalHighness, the Commander-in-chief, has been pleased to bestow upon it. 

I should, however, be guilty of injustice and unkindness if I hereomitted to bear my humble testimony to the manly behaviour of the EastIndia Company's cadets, and other private passengers on board, whoemulated the best conduct of the officers of the ship and of the troops, and equally participated with them in all the hardships and exertions ofthe day. 

As an agreeable proof, too, of the subordination and good feeling thatgoverned the poor soldiers in the midst of their sufferings, I ought tostate that towards evening, when the melancholy groups who werepassively seated on the poop, exhausted by previous fatigue, anxiety, and fasting, were beginning to experience the pain of intolerablethirst, 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 topartake of the grateful beverage until they had offered a share of it totheir officers. 

I regret that the circumstances under which I write do not allow mesufficient time for recalling to my recollection all the busy thoughtsthat engaged my own mind on that eventful day, or the variousconjectures which I ventured to form of what was passing in the minds ofothers. 

But one idea was forcibly suggested to me, --that instead of being ableto trace amongst my numerous associates that diversity of fortitudewhich I should have expected would mark their conduct--forming, as itwere, a descending series, from the decided heroism exhibited by some, down to the lowest degree of pusillanimity and frenzy discoverable inothers, --I remarked that the mental condition of my fellow-sufferers wasrather divided by a broad but, as it afterwards appeared, not impassableline; on the one side of which were ranged all whose minds were greatlyelevated by the excitement above their ordinary standard; and on theother was to be seen the incalculably smaller but more conspicuousgroup, whose powers of acting and thinking became absolutely paralyzed, or were driven into delirium, by the unusual character and pressure ofthe danger. 

Nor was it uninteresting to observe the curious interchange, at leastexternally, of strength and weakness that obtained between those twodiscordant parties, during the day. Some whose agitation and timidityhad, in the earlier part of it, rendered them objects of pity orcontempt, afterwards rose, by some great internal effort, into positivedistinction for the opposite qualities; while others, remarkable atfirst for calmness and courage, suddenly giving way, without any freshcause of despair, seemed afterwards to cast their minds as they didtheir bodies, prostrate before the danger. 

It would not, perhaps, be difficult to account for these apparentanomalies; but I shall content myself with simply stating the facts, adding to them one of a similar description that sensibly affected myown mind. 

Some of the soldiers near me having casually remarked that the sun wassetting, I looked round, and never can I forget the intensity with whichI regarded his declining rays. I had previously felt deeply impressedwith the conviction that that night the ocean was to be my bed; and had, I imagined, sufficiently realized to my mind, both the last strugglesand the consequences of death. But as I continued solemnly watching thedeparting beams of the sun, the thought that that was really the verylast I should ever behold, gradually expanded into reflections the mosttremendous in their import. It was not, I am persuaded, either theretrospect 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 themisery or felicity that flows through it--a sort of painless, pleasureless, sleepless eternity. I know not whither the overwhelmingthought would have hurried me, had I not speedily seized, as with thegrasp of death, on some of those sweet promises of the gospel which giveto an immortal existence its only charms; and that naturally enough ledback my thoughts, by means of the brilliant object before me, to thecontemplation 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 lightenit, and the Lamb is the light thereof. "

I have been the more particular in recording my precise feelings at theperiod in question, because they tend to confirm an opinion which I havelong entertained--in common, I believe, with others, --that we veryrarely realize even those objects that seem, in our every-dayspeculations, to be the most interesting to our hearts. We are so muchin the habit of uttering the awful words 'Almighty, ' 'heaven, ' 'hell, ''eternity, ' 'divine justice, ' 'holiness, ' etc. , without attaching tothem, in all their magnitude, the ideas of which such words are thesymbols, that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment thataccompanies a new and alarming discovery if, at any time, the ideasthemselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is, probably, this vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whoseminds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, thatenables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the verybrink of that precipice which divides the world of time from the regionsof eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded, with real tranquillity. How much it is to be lamented that we do notkeep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that ourindifference 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 thecuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; andthe scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy inthe extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had beenthe seat of kindly intercourse and of social gaiety, was now entirelydeserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched inirrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about, like beastsof prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other articlesof furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought andpains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered inconfusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped fromtheir confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig, wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large inundisturbed possession of the Brussels carpet that covered one of thecabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, andrendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, Ireturned to the poop, where I again found, amongst the few officers thatremained, Capt. Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieuts. Ruxton, Booth, and Evans, superintending, with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidlydiminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived to carry themoff. 

The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as thenight advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fedas much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid as by thereal and evident approach of the fatal crisis itself. With a view toensure a greater probability of being discovered by those in the boats, some of the more collected and hardy soldiers (for I think almost allthe sailors had already effected their escape) took the precaution totie towels and such like articles round their heads, previously to theircommitting themselves to the water. 

As the boats were nearly three-quarters of an hour absent between eachtrip--which period was necessarily spent by those in the wreck in astate of fearful inactivity--abundant opportunity was afforded forcollecting the sentiments of many of the unhappy men around me; some ofwhom, after remaining perhaps for a while in silent abstraction, wouldsuddenly burst forth, as if awakened from some terrible dream to a stillmore frightful reality, into a long train of loud and despondinglamentation, that gradually subsided into its former stillness. 

It was during those trying intervals of rest that religious instructionand consolation appeared to be the most required and the mostacceptable. Some there were who endeavoured to dispense it agreeably tothe visible wants and feelings of the earnest hearers. On one of thoseoccasions, especially, the officer to whom I have already alluded wasentreated to pray. His prayer was short, but was frequently broken bythe exclamations of assent to some of its confessions, that were wrungfrom the afflicted hearts of his auditors. 

I know not in what manner, under those circumstances, spiritual hope orcomfort could have been ministered to my afflicted companions by thosewho regard works, either wholly or partly, as the means of propitiatingdivine justice, rather than the evidence and fruits of that faith whichpacifies the conscience and purifies the heart. But in some few cases, at least, where the individuals deplored the want of time for repentanceand good works, I well remember that no arguments tended to soothe theirtroubled minds but those which went directly to assure them of thefreeness and fulness of that grace which is not refused, even in theeleventh hour, to the very chief of sinners. And if any of those to whomI now allude have been spared to read this record of their feelings inthe prospect of death, it will be well for them to keep solemnly in mindthe vows they then took upon them, and to seek to improve that season ofprobation which they so earnestly besought, and which has been somercifully extended to them, --by humbly and incessantly applying foraccessions of that faith which they are sensible removed the terrors oftheir awakened consciences, and can alone enable them henceforward tolive in a sober, righteous, and godly manner, and thereby give the onlyunquestionable proof of their love to God, and their interest in thegreat salvation of His Son Jesus Christ. 

If, on reading this imperfect narrative, [7] any persons beyond theimmediate circle of my companions in misery (for within it I can safelydeclare that there were no indications of ridicule) should affect todespise, as contemptible or unsoldierlike, the humble devotionalexercises to which I have now referred, I should like to assure them, that although they were undoubtedly commenced and prosecuted much morewith an eternal than a temporal object in view, yet they also subservedthe important purpose of restoring order and composure amongst a certainlimited class of soldiers, at moments when mere military appeals hadceased to operate. 

I must state that, in general, it was not those most remarkable fortheir fortitude who evinced either a precipitancy to depart, or a desireto remain very long behind--the older and cooler soldiers appearing topossess too much regard for their officers, as well as for theirindividual credit, to take their hasty departure at a very early periodof the day, and too much wisdom and resolution to hesitate to the verylast. 

But it was not till the close of this mournful tragedy thatbackwardness, rather than impatience, to adopt the perilous and onlymeans of escape that offered, became generally discernible on the partof the unhappy remnant still on board, and that made it not onlyimperative on Captain Cobb to reiterate his threats, as well as hisentreaties, that not an instant should be lost, but seemed to render itexpedient for one of the officers of the troops, who had expressed hisintention of remaining to the last, to limit, in the hearing of thosearound him, the period of his own stay. Seeing, however, between nineand ten o'clock, that some individuals were consuming the preciousmoments by obstinately hesitating to proceed, while others were makingthe inadmissible request to be lowered down as the women had been, learning from the boatmen that the wreck, which was already nine or tenfeet below the ordinary water mark, had sunk two feet lower since theirlast trip; and calculating, besides, that the two boats then under thestern, with that which was in sight on its return from the brig, wouldsuffice for the conveyance of all who seemed in a condition to remove;the three remaining officers of the 31st regiment seriously prepared totake their departure. 

As I cannot perhaps convey to you so correct an idea of the condition ofothers as by describing my own feelings and situation under the samecircumstances, I shall make no apology for detailing the manner of myindividual escape, which will sufficiently mark that of many hundredsthat 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 onordinary occasions about 19 or 20 feet above the water; but in theposition in which we were placed, from the great height of the sea, andthe consequent pitching of the ship, it was frequently lifted to aheight not less than 30 or 40 feet from the surface. 

To reach the rope, therefore, that hung from its extremity was anoperation that seemed to require the aid of as much dexterity of hand assteadiness of head. For it was not only the nervousness of creepingalong the boom itself, or the extreme difficulty of afterwards seizingon and sliding down by the rope that we had to dread, and that hadoccasioned the loss of some valuable lives by deterring men fromadopting this mode of escape; but as the boat, which one moment wasprobably close under the boom, might be carried the next, by the forceof the waves, 15 or 20 yards away from it, the unhappy individual, whosebest calculations were thus defeated, was generally left swinging forsome time in mid-air, if he was not repeatedly plunged several feetunder water, or dashed with dangerous violence against the sides of thereturning boat--or, what not unfrequently happened, was forced to let gohis hold of the rope altogether. As there seemed, however, noalternative, I did not hesitate, notwithstanding my comparativeinexperience and awkwardness in such a situation, to throw my legsacross the perilous spar; and with a heart extremely grateful that suchmeans of deliverance, dangerous as they appeared, were still extended tome; and more grateful still that I had been enabled, in common withothers, to discharge my honest duty to my sovereign and to myfellow-soldiers, I proceeded, --after confidently committing my spirit, the great object of my solicitude, into the keeping of Him who hadformed and redeemed it, --to creep slowly forward, feeling at every stepthe increasing difficulty of my situation. On getting nearly to the endof the boom, the young officer whom I followed and myself were met witha squall of wind and rain so violent as to make us fain to embraceclosely the slippery stick (without attempting for some minutes to makeany progress), and to excite our apprehension that we must relinquishall hope of reaching the rope. But our fears were disappointed; andafter resting for a little while at the boom end, while my companion wasdescending to the boat, which he did not find until he had been plungedonce or twice over head in the water, I prepared to follow; and insteadof lowering myself, as many had imprudently done, at the moment when theboat was inclining towards us--and consequently being unable to descendthe whole distance before it again receded, --I calculated that while theboat was retiring I ought to commence my descent, which would probablybe completed by the time the returning wave brought it underneath; bywhich means I was, I believe, almost the only officer or soldier whoreached the boat without being either severely bruised or immersed inthe water. 

But my good friend Colonel Fearon had not been so fortunate; for afterswinging for some time, and being repeatedly struck against the side ofthe boat, and at one time drawn completely under it, he was at last soutterly exhausted that he must instantly have let go his hold of therope and perished, had not some one in the boat seized him by the hairof the head, and dragged him into it, almost senseless and alarminglybruised. 

Captain Cobb, in his resolution to be the last, if possible, to quit hisship, and in his generous anxiety for the preservation of every lifeentrusted to his charge, refused to seek the boat until he againendeavoured to urge onward the few still around him, who seemed struckdumb and powerless with dismay. [8] But finding all his entreatiesfruitless, and hearing the guns, whose tackle was burst asunder by theadvancing flames, successively exploding in the hold into which they hadfallen, this gallant officer, after having nobly pursued, for thepreservation of others, a course of exertion that has been rarelyequalled either in its duration or difficulty, at last felt it right toprovide for his own safety by laying hold on the topping-lift or ropethat connects the driver boom with the mizen-top, and thereby gettingover the heads of the infatuated men who occupied the boom, unable to goeither backward or forward, and ultimately dropping himself into thewater. 

The means of escape, however, did not cease to be presented to theunfortunate individuals above referred to, long after Captain Cobb tookhis departure; since one of the boats persevered in keeping its stationunder the _Kent's_ stern, not only after all expostulation and entreatywith those on board had foiled, but until the flames, bursting forthfrom the cabin windows, rendered it impossible to remain withoutinflicting the greatest cruelty on the individuals that manned it. Buteven on the return of the boat in question to the _Cambria_, with thesingle soldier who availed himself of it, did Captain Cook, withcharacteristic jealousy, refuse to allow it to come alongside until helearned that it was commanded by the spirited young officer, Mr. Thomson, [9] whose indefatigable exertions during the whole day were tohim a sufficient proof that all had been done that could be done for thedeliverance of those individuals. 

[Illustration: THE MAGAZINE EXPLODED. ]

The same beneficent Providence which had been so wonderfully exerted forthe preservation of hundreds, was pleased, by a still more striking andunquestionable display of power and goodness, to avert the fate of aportion of those few who, we had all too much reason to fear, weredoomed to destruction. It would appear--for the poor men themselves givean extremely confused, though I am persuaded not a wilfully falseaccount of themselves--that shortly after the departure of the last boatthey were driven by the flames to seek shelter on the chains, where theystood until the masts fell overboard, to which they then clung for somehours, in a state of horror that no language can describe; until theywere, most providentially, I may say miraculously, discovered and pickedup by Captain Bibbey, the humane commander of the _Caroline_, a vesselon its passage from Egypt to Liverpool, who happened, to see theexplosion at a great distance, and instantly made all sail in thedirection whence it proceeded. Along with the fourteen men thusmiraculously preserved were three others, who had expired before thearrival of the _Caroline_ to their rescue. [10]

The men on their return to their regiment expressed themselves in termsof the liveliest gratitude for the affectionate attentions they receivedon board the _Caroline_, from Captain Bibbey, who considerately remainedtill daylight close to the wreck, in the hope that some others mightstill be found clinging to it--an act of humanity which, it will appearon the slightest reflection, would have been madness in Captain Cook, inthe peculiar situation of the _Cambria_, to have attempted. 

But when I recollect the lamentable state of exhaustion to which thatportion of the crew were reduced, who unshrinkingly performed to thelast their arduous and perilous duties, --and that out of the three boatsthat remained afloat, one was only prevented from sinking, towards theclose of the night, by having the hole in its bottom repeatedly stuffedwith soldiers' jackets, while the other two were rendered inefficient, the one by having its bow completely stove, and the second by being halffilled with water, and the thwarts so torn as to make it necessary tolash the oars to the boat's ribs, --I must believe that, by those whothus laboured, all was done that humanity could possibly demand, orintrepidity effect, for the preservation of every individual. 

Quitting, for a moment, the subject of the wreck, I would advert to whatwas in the meantime taking place on board the _Cambria_. I cannot, however, pretend to give you any adequate idea of the feelings of hopeor despair that alternately flowed, like a tide, in the breasts of theunhappy females on board the brig, during the many hours of torturingsuspense in which several of them were unavoidably held respecting thefate of their husbands, --feelings which were inconceivably excited, rather than soothed, by the idle and erroneous rumours occasionallyconveyed to them regarding the state of the _Kent_. But still less can Iattempt to portray the alternate pictures of awful joy and of wilddistraction exhibited by the sufferers (for both parties for the momentseemed equally to suffer), as the terrible truth was communicated thatthey 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, whatevermay have been their intensity, were speedily chastened, and theattention of all arrested, by the last tremendous spectacle ofdestruction. 

After the arrival of the last boat the flames, which had spread alongthe upper deck and poop, ascended with the rapidity of lightning to themasts and rigging, forming one general conflagration, that illumined theheavens to an immense distance, and was strongly reflected by severalobjects on board the brig. The flags of distress, hoisted in themorning, were seen for a considerable time waving amid the flames, untilthe masts to which they were suspended successively fell like statelysteeples over the ship's side. At last, about half-past one o'clock inthe morning, the devouring element having communicated to the magazine, the explosion was seen, and the blazing fragments of the oncemagnificent _Kent_ were instantly hurried, like so many rockets, highinto the air;[11] leaving, in the comparative darkness that succeeded, the deathful scene of that disastrous day floating before the mind likesome feverish dream. 

Shortly afterwards, the brig, which had been gradually making sail, wasrunning at the rate of nine or ten miles an hour towards the nearestport. I would here endeavour to render my humble tribute of admirationand gratitude to that gallant and excellent individual, who, under God, was undoubtedly the chief instrument of our deliverance; if I were notsensible that testimony has been already borne to his heroic and humaneefforts, in a manner much more commensurate with, and from quartersreflecting infinitely greater honour upon his merits, than the feebleexpressions of them which I should be able to record. [12] I trust youwill keep in mind that Captain Cook's generous intentions and exertionsmust have proved utterly unavailing for the preservation of so manylives, had they not been most nobly and unremittingly supported by thoseof his mate and crew, as well as of the numerous passengers on board hisbrig. While the former, only eight in number, were usefully andnecessarily employed in working the vessel, the sturdy Cornish minersand Yorkshire smelters, on the approach of the different boats, tooktheir perilous stations on the chains, where they put forth the greatmuscular strength with which Heaven had endowed them, in dexterouslyseizing, at each successive heave of the sea, on some of the exhaustedpeople, and dragging them up on deck. 

Nor did their kind assistance terminate there. They and the gentlemenconnected with them cheerfully opened their ample stores of clothes andprovisions, which they liberally dispensed to the naked and famishedsufferers; they surrendered their beds to the helpless women andchildren, and seemed, in short, during the whole of our passage toEngland, to take no other delight than in ministering to all our wants. 

Although, after the first burst of mutual gratulation, and of becomingacknowledgment of the divine mercy for our unlooked-for deliverance, hadsubsided, none of us felt disposed to much interchange of thought, eachbeing rather inclined to wrap himself up in his own reflections; yet wedid not, during the first night, view with the alarm it warranted, theextreme misery and danger to which we were still exposed, by beingcrowded 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 hundredmiles from any accessible port. Our little cabin, which was onlycalculated, under ordinary circumstances, for the accommodation of eightor ten persons, was now made to contain nearly eighty individuals, manyof whom had no sitting room, and even some of the ladies no room to liedown. Owing to the continued violence of the gale, and to the bulwarkson one side of the brig having been driven in, the sea beat soincessantly over our deck as to render it necessary that the hatchesshould only be lifted up between the returning waves, to preventabsolute suffocation below, where the men were so closely packedtogether that the steam arising from their respiration excited at onetime an apprehension that the vessel was on fire; while the impurity ofthe air they were inhaling became so marked, that the lightsoccasionally carried down amongst them were almost instantlyextinguished. Nor was the condition of the hundreds who covered the deckless wretched than that of their comrades below; since they wereobliged night and day to stand shivering, in their wet and nearly nakedstate, ankle deep in water:[13]--some of the older children and femaleswere thrown into fits, while the infants were piteously crying for thatnourishment which their nursing mothers were no longer able to givethem. [14]

Our only hope amid these great and accumulating miseries was that thesame compassionate Providence which had already so marvellouslyinterposed in our behalf would not permit the favourable wind to abateor change until we reached some friendly port; for we were all convincedthat a delay of a very few days longer at sea must inevitably involve usin famine, pestilence, and a complication of the most dreadful evils. Our hopes were not disappointed. The gale continued with even increasingviolence; and our able captain, crowding all sail, at the risk ofcarrying away his masts, so nobly urged his vessel onward, that in theafternoon of Thursday, the 3rd, the delightful exclamation from aloftwas heard, "Land ahead!" In the evening we descried the Scilly lights;and running rapidly along the Cornish coast, we joyfully cast anchor inFalmouth harbour, at about half-past twelve o'clock at night. 

On reviewing the various proximate causes to which so many human beingsowed their deliverance from a combination of dangers as remarkable fortheir duration as they were appalling in their aspect, it is impossible, I think, not to discover and gratefully acknowledge, in the beneficenceof their arrangement, the overruling providence of that blessed Being, who is sometimes pleased, in His mysterious operations, to produce thesame effect from causes apparently different; and on the other hand, asin our own case, to bring forth results the most opposite, from one andthe same cause. For there is no doubt that the heavy rolling of ourship, occasioned by the violent gale, which was the real origin of allour disasters, contributed also most essentially to our subsequentpreservation; since, had not Captain Cobb been enabled, by thegreatness of the swell, to introduce speedily through the gun ports theimmense quantity of water that inundated the hold, and thereby checkedfor so long a time the fury of the flames, the _Kent_ mustunquestionably have been consumed before many, perhaps before any, ofthose on board could have found shelter in the _Cambria_. [15]

But it is unnecessary to dwell on an insulated fact like this, amidst aconcatenation of circumstances, all leading to the same conclusion, andso closely bound together as to force us to confess, that if a singlelink in the chain had been withdrawn or withheld, we must all mostprobably have perished. 

The _Cambria_, which had been, it seems, unaccountably detained in portnearly a month after the period assigned for her departure, was early onthe morning of the fatal calamity pursuing at a great distance ahead ofus the same course with ourselves; but her bulwarks on the weather sidehaving been suddenly driven in, by a heavy sea breaking over herquarter, Captain Cook, in his anxiety to give ease to his labouringvessel, was induced to go completely out of his course by throwing thebrig on the opposite tack, by which means alone he was brought in sightof us. Not to dwell on the unexpected, but not unimportant facts of theflames having been mercifully prevented, for eleven hours, from eithercommunicating with the magazine forward, or the great spirit room abaft, or even coming into contact with the tiller ropes--any of whichcircumstances would evidently have been fatal, --I would remark that, until the _Cambria_ hove in sight, we had not discovered any vesselwhatever for several days previous; nor did we afterwards see anotheruntil we entered the chops of the Channel. It is to be remembered, too, that had the _Cambria_, with her small crew, been homeward instead ofoutward bound, her scanty remainder of provisions, under suchcircumstances, would hardly have sufficed to form a single meal for ourvast assemblage; or if, instead of having her lower deck completelyclear, she had been carrying out a full cargo, there would not have beentime, under the pressure of the danger and the violence of the gale, tothrow the cargo overboard, and certainly, with it, not sufficient spacein the brig to contain one-half of our number. 

When I reflect, besides, on the disastrous consequences that must havefollowed if, during our passage home, which was performed in a periodmost unusually short, the wind had either veered round a few points, oreven partially subsided--which must have produced a scene of horror onboard more terrible if possible than that from which we had escaped; andabove all, when I recollect the extraordinary fact, and that which seemsto have the most forcibly struck the whole of us, that we had not beenabove an hour in Falmouth harbour, when the wind, which had all alongbeen blowing from the south-west, suddenly chopped round to the oppositequarter of the compass, and continued uninterruptedly for several daysafterwards to blow strongly from the north-east, --one cannot helpconcluding that he who sees nothing of a Divine Providence in ourpreservation must be lamentably and wilfully blind to "the majesty ofthe Lord. "

In the course of the morning we all prepared, with thankful and joyfulhearts, to place our feet on the shores of Old England. 

The ladies, always destined to form our vanguard, were the first todisembark, and were met on the beach by immense crowds of theinhabitants, who appeared to have been attracted thither less by idlecuriosity than from the sincerest desire to alleviate in every possiblemanner 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 oftheir costume, an assemblage at once as melancholy and grotesque as itis possible to conceive. So eager did the people appear to be to pourout upon us the full current of their sympathies, that shoes, hats, andother articles of urgent necessity were presented to several of theofficers and men before they had even quitted the point ofdisembarkation. And in the course of the day, many of the officers andsoldiers, and almost all of the females, were partaking, in the privatehouses of individuals, of the most liberal and needful hospitality. 

But this flow of compassion and kindness did not cease with the impulseof the more immediate occasion that had called it forth. For a meetingof the inhabitants was afterwards held, where subscriptions in clothesand money to a large amount were collected for the relief of thenumerous sufferers. The women and children, whose wants seemed to demandtheir first care, were speedily furnished with comfortable clothing, andthe poor widows and orphans with decent mourning. Depositories ofshirts, shoes, stockings, etc. , were formed for the supply of theofficers and private passengers; and the sick and wounded in thehospital were made the recipients, not only of all those kindlyattentions and medical assistance that could remove or soothe theirtemporal suffering, but were also invited to partake freely of the mostjudicious spiritual consolation and instruction. This march of charitywas conducted by the ladies of Falmouth, who were zealously accompaniedon it by the whole body, in the vicinity, of that peculiar sect ofChristians, who have ever been as remarkable for their unassumingpretensions and consistent conduct, as for unostentatiously standing inthe 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 verybadge of Quakerism will, I trust, henceforward prove a full andsufficient passport to the best feelings of my heart. 

On the first Sunday after our arrival, Colonel Fearon, followed by allhis officers and men, and accompanied by Captain Cobb, and the officersand private passengers of his late ship, hastened to prostratethemselves before the throne of the Heavenly grace, to pour out thepublic expression of their thanksgiving to their almighty Preserver. Thescene was deeply impressive; and it is earnestly to be hoped that many apoor fellow who listened, perhaps for the first time in his life, withunquestionable sincerity and humility to the voice of instruction, willbe found steadily prosecuting, in the strength of God, the goodresolutions that he may on that solemn occasion have formed, until he beable to say, as one of the greatest generals of antiquity did, that "itwas good for him to have been afflicted; for before he was afflicted hewent 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 thesailors of our party were dispersed in various directions; and thetroops, after having incurred to the excellent inhabitants of Falmouth, and the adjacent towns, a debt of gratitude which none of them can everhope to repay, were embarked for Chatham. 

I think you must be already sensible that the circumstances of oursituation on board the _Kent_ did not enable us conscientiously to savea single article, either of public or private property, from the flames;indeed, the only thing I preserved--with the exception of forty or fiftysovereigns, which I hastily tied up in my pocket handkerchief, and putinto my wife's hands, at the moment she was lifted into the boat, as aprovision for herself and her companions against the temporary want towhich they might be exposed on some foreign shore--was the pocketcompass, which you yourself presented to me. [16]

But I would have you to be assured, that the total abandonment ofindividual interests on the part of the officers of the ship, and of the31st regiment, was occasioned by no want of self-possession, nor even, in all cases, of opportunities to attend to them; but to a sinceredesire to avoid even the appearance of selfishness, at moments when thevaluable lives of their sailors and soldiers were at stake. And thisobservation applies with still greater force to the senior officers inboth services, whose cabins being upon the upper deck were accessibleduring the whole day; and where many portable articles of value weredeposited, which could have been very easily carried off, had thoseofficers been disposed to devote to their own concerns even a portion ofthat precious time, and of those active exertions, which theyunremittingly applied to the performance of their professional duty. 

Notwithstanding the unexpected length to which I have already extendedthis narrative, I cannot allow myself to close it without offering to mylate companions on board the _Kent_, into whose hands it may possiblyfall, a few very plain and simple observations, which I think worthy oftheir serious consideration, and the importance of which I desire tohave deeply impressed upon my own mind. None of those soldiers who werein the habit of reading their Bibles can have failed to notice thatfaith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is therein made the great pivoton which the salvation of man hinges; that the whole human race, withoutdistinction of rank, nation, age, or sex, being justly exposed to thewrath of Almighty God, nothing but the precious blood of Christ, whichwas shed on the cross, can possibly atone for their sins; and that faithin this atonement can alone pacify the conscience, and awaken confidencetowards God as a reconciled Father. If, therefore, "he that believeth inChrist shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned, " bethe unequivocal language of Jehovah, either expressly declared orobviously implied in every page of that record which He has vouchsafedto us of His Son; is it not a question of the deepest concernment toevery one professing any regard for divine revelation, whether he reallyunderstands 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 inhim?

From the influence of education or example, the absence of seriousreflection, an attention to the outward ordinances of religion, a regardto many of the proprieties and decencies of life, and a forgetfulnessthat the religion of the Bible is a religion of motives rather than oneof observances, minds easily satisfied on such subjects may persuadethemselves that they are spiritually alive while they are dead--thatthey are amongst the sincere disciples of the blessed Redeemer, andfully interested in His salvation, while they may have neither part norlot in the matter. But if, at the hour of death, when all externalsupport shall slide away, the soul shall be awakened to theconsciousness of its real condition; if it should be made to see, on theone hand, the spirituality and exceeding breadth of the divine law, andbe 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 vaguelytrust, should become obscured by the inflexible justice and spotlessholiness of His character and if the solitary spirit, as it is draggedtowards the mysterious precipice, is made to hear, from a voice which itcan no longer mistake, "Cursed is every one that continueth not in allthings which are written in the book of the law to do them, "--howunspeakably miserable must be the condition of the man who thusdiscovers, for the first time, that the sand which he had all hislifetime been mistaking for the "Rock of Ages" is now giving way underhis 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, norknowledge, " nor repentance. 

But that I may not be misunderstood, or be supposed to favour principlesof barren speculation, more delusive and dangerous to their possessors, and to the best interests of society, than absolute ignorance itself--Iwould remind the gallant men to whom I am now more especially addressingmyself, that that faith which saves the soul not only "worketh"invariably "by love, " and gradually "overcometh the world, " but that "itis the gift of God, " implanted in the heart by His Holy Spirit, even bythat Spirit which is freely given to every one that earnestly asketh. And however unable the simple soldier may be to explain either thenature or the manner of its operation, he must not deceive himself intothe persuasion that he is possessed of this precious grace unless hefeels it bringing forth in his life and conversation the abundant fruitsthat necessarily spring from it, and that cannot indeed be producedwithout it. He will be steady and zealous in the performance of duty, patient under fatigue and privation, sober amid temptation, calm butfirm 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 noman. His piety will be ardent but sober, his prayers will be earnest andfrequent, but rather in secret than before men; he will not becontentious or disputatious, but rather desirous of instructing othersby his example than by his precepts; letting his light so shine beforethem, in the simplicity of his motives, the uprightness of his actions, in his readiness to oblige, and by the whole tenor of his life, thatthey, seeing his good works, may be led, by the divine blessing, toacknowledge the reality and power and beauty of religion, and be inducedin like manner to glorify his heavenly Father. In short, in comparisonwith his thoughtless comrades, he must not only aspire to become abetter man, but, from the constraining motives of the gospel, struggleto be also in every essential respect a better soldier. 

In conclusion, I would observe that if any class of men, more thananother, ought to be struck with awe and gratitude by the goodness andprovidence of God, it is they who go down to the sea in ships, and seeHis wonders in the great deep; or if any ought to familiarize theirminds with death and its solemn consequences, it is surely soldiers, "whose very business it is to die. " May all those then, especially, whothus possessed the privilege, but rarely granted, of being allowed, inthe full vigour of health, and in the absence of all the bustle andexcitement of battle, to contemplate, from the very brink of eternity, the awful realities that reign within it, as many of their departingcomrades were hurried through its dreadful portals, be now led, in therespite which has been given them, to remember that this alone is theaccepted time, and this the day of salvation; for while some may deferthe subject "to a more convenient season, " the message may come forth, at an hour when it is least expected, "This night thy soul shall berequired of thee. " The foregoing narrative may be fitly supplemented bysome 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 passagefrom Alexandria to Liverpool, observed a light on the horizon, and knewit at once to be a ship on fire. There was a heavy sea on, but thecaptain, instantly setting his maintop-gallant-sail, ran down towardsthe spot. About one, the sky becoming brighter, a sudden jet of vividlight shot up; but they were too distant to hear the explosion. Inhalf-an-hour the _Caroline_ could see the wreck of a large vessel lyinghead to the wind. The ribs and frame timbers, marking the outlines ofdouble ports and quarter-galleries, showed that the burning skeleton wasthat of a first-class Indiaman. Every other external feature was gone;she was burnt nearly to the water's edge, but still floated, pitchingmajestically as she rose and fell on the long rolling swell of the bay. The vessel looked like an immense cage of charred basket-work filledwith flame, that here and there blazed brighter at intervals. Above, and far to leeward, there was a vast drifting cloud of curling smokespangled with millions of sparks and burning flakes, and scattered bythe wind over the sky and waves. 

"As the _Caroline_ approached, part of a mast and some spars, rising andfalling, were observed grinding under the weather-quarter of the wreck, having got entangled with the keel or rudder irons, and thus attachingit to the hull of the vessel. The _Caroline_, coming down swift beforethe wind, was in a few minutes brought across the bows of the _Kent_. Atthat 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 offlakes and sparks, and to intercept any boats or rafts. The mate andfour seamen pushed off in the jolly-boat, through a sea covered withfloating spars, chests, and furniture, that threatened to crush oroverwhelm the boat. When within a few yards of the stern, they caughtsight of the first living thing--a wretched man clinging to a sparclose under the ship's counter. Every time the stern-frame rose with theswell he was suspended above the water, and scorched by the long keentongues of pure flame that now came darting through the gun-room ports. Each time this torture came the man shrieked with agony; the next momentthe 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 astheir hands were stretching towards him (latterly the poor wretch hadbeen silent), the rope or spar was snapped by the fire, and he sank forever. 

"The men then, carefully backing, carried off six other of the nearestmen from the mast. The small boat, only eighteen feet long, would nothold more than eleven persons, and indeed, as it was, was nearly swampedby a heavy wave. In half-an-hour the boat bravely returned, and took offsix more. 

"The mate, fearing the vessel was going down, and that the masts wouldbe swallowed in the vortex, redoubled his efforts to get a third time tothe wreck. While struggling with a head sea, and before the boat couldreach the mast, the end came. The fiery mass settled like a red-hotcoal into the waves, and disappeared for ever. The sky grew instantlydark, 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, heresolved to wait quietly till daylight, and ordered his men to shoutrepeatedly to cheer any who might be still floating on stray spars. Fora long time no one answered; at last a feeble cry came, and the_Caroline's_ sailors returned it loudly and gladly. What joy that faintcry must have brought to those friendly ears! With what joy must theboatmen'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 couldbe seen among its cordage and top-work. They seemed dead, but as theboat neared, two of them feebly raised their heads and stretched outtheir arms. When taken into the boat, they were found to be faint andalmost dead from the cold and wet, and the many hours they had beenhalf under water. The other two were stone dead. One had bound himselffirmly to the spar, and lay as if asleep, with his arms around it, andhis head upon it, as if it had been a pillow. The other stood halfupright between the cheeks of the mast, his face fixed in the directionof 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 shortdistance off. The wind beginning to freshen and a gale coming on, it wasall the jolly-boat could do to rejoin the _Caroline_. There could be nodoubt 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_, bythe officers and passengers of the _Kent_, and the Duke of York publiclythanked him for his humane zeal and promptitude. The Secretary of War(Lord Palmerston) authorized a sum of five hundred pounds to be given tothe captain and crew of the _Cambria_, and the agents of the ship werealso paid two hundred and eighty-seven pounds for provisions, twohundred and eighty-seven pounds for passengers' diet, and five hundredpounds for demurrage. The East India Company awarded six hundred poundsto Captain Cook, one hundred pounds to the first mate, fifty pounds tothe second mate, ten pounds each to the nine men of the crew, fifteenpounds each to the twenty-six miners, and one hundred pounds to the tenchief miners for extra stores, to make their voyage out morecomfortable. The Royal Exchange Assurance gave Captain Cook fiftypounds, and his officers and crew fifty pounds. The subscribers toLloyds voted him a present of one hundred pounds; the Royal HumaneSociety awarded him an honorary medallion; and the underwriters atLiverpool were also prominent in their liberality. "

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Captain Cobb, with great forethought, ordered the deck tobe scuttled forward, with a view to draw the fire in that direction, knowing that between it and the magazine were several tiers ofwater-casks; while he hoped that the wet sails, etc. , thrown into theafter-hold, would prevent the fire from communicating with thespirit-room abaft. ]

[Footnote 2: The late Lady MacGregor, and the late Mrs. Pringle, ofYair, Whytbank, Selkirk, N. B. , who are also mentioned in the letter onpage 23. ]

[Footnote 3: This bottle, left in the cabin, was cast into the sea bythe explosion that destroyed the _Kent_. About nineteen monthsafterwards the following notice appeared in a Barbadoes (West Indian)newspaper:--

"A bottle was picked up on Saturday, the 30th September, at Bathsheba (abathing-place on the west of Barbadoes), by a gentleman who was bathingthere, who, on breaking it, found the melancholy account of the fate ofthe ship _Kent_, contained in a folded paper written with pencil, butscarcely legible. " The words of the letter were then given, and afacsimile of it will be found on the next page. The letter itself, takenfrom the bottle thickly encrusted with shells and seaweed, was returnedto the writer when he arrived, shortly after its discovery, atBarbadoes, as Lieut. -Colonel of the 93rd Highlanders, and theinteresting relic is still preserved by his son (at that time called"little Rob Roy"), who is not mentioned in the letter, but was saved asrelated in page 33. ]

[Footnote 4: Two shipwrights, dismissed from their situation becausethey would not work on Sunday, were employed by the father of a friendof the writer. He engaged them to build their first vessel, the_Cambria_, and this was her first voyage, starting from Deptford beforethe _Kent_ sailed from Gravesend. 

Captain Cook many years afterwards commanded in the disastrous "NigerExpedition. " He was a splendid sailor, and a humble Christian, whosedeath-bed, long years after, was attended by the youngest passenger hehad helped to save from the burning _Kent_. ]

[Footnote 5: I was afterwards informed by one of the passengers on boardthe _Cambria_--for from the great height of the Indiaman we had not theopportunity of making a similar observation--that when both vesselshappened to be at the same time in the trough of the sea, the _Kent_ wasentirely concealed by the intervening waves from the deck of the_Cambria_. ]

[Footnote 6: "The _Rob Roy_ Canoe on the Jordan" (Murray) gives someother 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 thepreface to this edition, of which a _facsimile_ is given at thebeginning of the book. ]

[Footnote 8: Some of those men who were necessarily left behind, havingpreviously conducted themselves with great propriety and courage, Ithink it but justice to express my belief that the same difficultieswhich had nearly proved fatal to Captain Cobb's personal escape wereprobably found to be insurmountable by landsmen, whose coolness, unaccompanied with dexterity and experience, might not be available tothem in their awful situation. ]

[Footnote 9: I ought to state that the exertions of Mr. Muir, thirdmate, were also most conspicuous during the whole day. ]

[Footnote 10: See page 83. --One of the men saved after theexplosion (which had burned off both his feet) was met thirty yearsafterwards by the individual who was first saved in the _Cambria_. Thisman 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 secretaryof the "Open-Air Mission" (which provides preachers for streets intowns, and for races and fairs in the country), the "first saved" fromthe wreck and burning then preached the Gospel to the "last saved" fromthe scorched embers, and to a large and motley crowd, all of whom willassuredly meet once more "at that day. "]

[Footnote 11: Besides 500 barrels of gunpowder, there was on boardseveral hundredweight of highly explosive percussion powder. The brigwas about three miles distant when the _Kent_ exploded. ]

[Footnote 12: Captain Cook afterwards rendered distinguished services inthe Niger expedition, and died in London a true Christian sailor, afterseveral visits from one he had helped to save. ]

[Footnote 13: In addition to those who were naked on board the _Kent_ atthe moment the alarm of fire was heard, several individuals afterwardsthrew off their clothes to enable them the more easily to swim to theboats. ]

[Footnote 14: One of the soldiers' wives was delivered of a child aboutan hour or two after her arrival on board the brig. Both survived, andthe child received the appropriate name of "Cambria. "]

[Footnote 15: There were lost in the destruction of the _Kent_, 54soldiers, 1 woman, and 20 children, belonging to the 31st Regiment; 1seaman and 5 boys--total, 81 individuals. ]

[Footnote 16: A little Testament was also saved. Only one officer'ssword was saved, and that belonged to him who afterwards led the 31stregiment in the battles on the Sutlej. ]

[Footnote 17: From _All the Year Round_. ]