the disagreeable information that the stern of the vessel was on the rocks.  Whether we tad two anchors out or one; whether our cables were hove taut or not; whether we had thirty fathoms out or only fifteen, are points still in dispute; but at any rate we had no steam; so, after we once were on the rock, we had for some time no means of getting off it.  During this period the thumping and grating continued.  It seemed, moreover, once or twice, to be probable that we should run foul of a ship moored near us.  However, after a while, the engines began to work, and then symptoms of a panic manifested themselves.  The passengers came running up to me, saying that the captain was evidently going to sea, that there were merchant captains and others on board who declared that the certain destruction of the ship and all on board would be the consequence, and begging me to interfere to save the lives of all, my own included.  At first I declined to do anything,—­told them that I had no intention of taking the command of the ship, and recommended them in that respect to follow my example.  At last, however, as they became importunate, I sent Crealock[2] to the captain, with my compliments, to ask him whether we were going to sea.  The answer was not encouraging, and went a small way towards raising the spirits of my nervous friends around me.  ‘Going to sea,’ said the captain, ’why, we are going to the bottom.’  The fact is that we were at the time when that reply was given going pretty rapidly to the bottom.  The water was rising fast in the after-part of the ship, and to this providential circumstance I ascribe our safety.  The captain started with the hope that he would be able to pump into his boilers all the water made by the leak.  If he had succeeded, the chances are that by this time the whole concern would have been deposited somewhere in the bed of the ocean.  The leak was, however, too much for him, and he had nothing for it but to run over to the opposite side of the anchorage, where there is a sandy bay, and there to beach his ship.  We performed this operation successfully, though at times it seemed probable that the water would gain upon us so quickly as to stop the working of the engines before we reached our destination.  If this had happened we should have drifted on some of the rocks with which the harbour abounds.  When we had got the stern of the vessel into the sand we discovered that we had not accomplished much, for the said sand being very loose, almost of the character of quicksand, and the sea running high, the stern kept sinking almost as rapidly as when it had nothing but water below it.  The cabins were already full of water, and the object was to land the passengers.  As usual, there was the greatest difficulty in launching any of the ship’s boats, and none of the vessels in the harbour, except one Frenchman (and one English I have since heard, but its boat was swamped, and therefore I did not see it), saw fit to send a boat to our