away planks, oars, &c.  About half a minute elapsed between the filling and going down of the barge, during which I had sufficient presence of mind to rip off my three coats, and was loosening my suspenders, when the barge sunk, and I found myself floating in the midst of people, baggage, &c.  Each man caught hold of something; one of the crew caught hold of me, and kept me down under water, but, contrary to my expectation, let me go again.  On rising to the surface, I got hold of a trunk, on which two other men were then holding.  Just at this spot, where the Split-rock rapids terminate, the bank of the river is well inhabited; and we could see women on shore running about much agitated.  A canoe put off, and picked up three of our number, who had gained the bottom of the barge, which had upset and got rid of its cargo; these they landed on an island.  The canoe put off again, and was approaching near to where I was, with two others, holding on by the trunk, when, terrified with the vicinity of the Cascades, to which we were approaching, it put back, notwithstanding my exhortations, in French and English, to induce the two men on board to advance.  The bad hold which one man had of the trunk, to which we were adhering, subjected him to constant immersion; and, in order to escape his seizing hold of me, I let go the trunk, and, in conjunction with another man, got hold of the boom, (which, with the gaff, sails, &c., had been detached from the mast, to make room for the cargo,) and floated off.  I had just time to grasp this boom, when we were hurried into the Cascades; in these I was instantly buried, and nearly suffocated.  On rising to the surface, I found one of my hands still on the boom, and my companion also adhering to the gaff.  Shortly after descending the Cascades, I perceived the barge, bottom upwards, floating near me.  I succeeded in getting to it, and held by a crack in one end of it; the violence of the water, and the falling out of the casks of ashes, had quite wrecked it.  For a long time I contented myself with this hold, not daring to endeavour to get upon the bottom, which I at length effected; and from this, my new situation, I called out to my companion, who still preserved his hold of the gaff.  He shook his head; and, when the waves suffered me to look up again, he was gone.  He made no attempt to come near me, being unable or unwilling to let go his hold, and trust himself to the waves, which were then rolling over his head.

The Cascades are a kind of fall, or rapid descent, in the river, over a rocky channel below:  going down is called, by the French, “Sauter,” to leap or shove the cascades.  For two miles below, the channel continues in uproar, just like a storm at sea; and I was frequently nearly washed off the barge by the waves which rolled over.  I now entertained no hope whatever of escaping; and although I continued to exert myself to hold on, such was the state to which I was reduced by cold, that I wished only for speedy death, and frequently thought