How sorry I am that I have been obliged to return that narrative of Mr. C——­’s without asking permission to copy it, which I did not do because I should not have been able to find the time to do it!  We go away the day after to-morrow.  All the main incidents of the disaster the newspapers have made you familiar with—­the sudden and appalling loss of that fine vessel laden with the very flower of the south.  There seems hardly to be a family in Georgia and South Carolina that had not some of its members on board that ill-fated ship.  You know it was a sort of party of pleasure more than anything else; the usual annual trip to the north for change of air and scene, for the gaieties of Newport and Saratoga, that all the wealthy southern people invariably take every summer.

The weather had been calm and lovely; and dancing, talking, and laughing, as if they were in their own drawing-rooms, they had passed the time away till they all separated for the night.  At the first sound of the exploding boiler, Mr. C——­ jumped up, and in his shirt and trousers ran on deck.  The scene was one of horrible confusion; women screaming, men swearing, the deck strewn with broken fragments of all descriptions, the vessel leaning frightfully to one side, and everybody running hither and thither in the darkness in horror and dismay.  He had left Georgia with Mrs. F——­ and Mrs. N——­, the two children, and one of the female servants of these ladies under his charge.  He went immediately to the door of the ladies’ cabin and called Mrs. F——­; they were all there half-dressed; he bade them dress as quickly as possible and be ready to follow and obey him.  He returned almost instantly, and led them to the side of the vessel, where, into the boats, that had already been lowered, desperate men and women were beginning to swarm, throwing themselves out of the sinking ship.  He bade Mrs. F——­ jump down into one of these boats which was only in the possession of two sailors; she instantly obeyed him, and he threw her little boy to the men after her.  He then ordered Mrs. N——­, with the negro woman, to throw themselves off the vessel into the boat, and, with Mrs. N——­’s baby in his arms, sprang after them.  His foot touched the gunwale of the boat, and he fell into the water; but recovering himself instantly, he clambered into the boat, which he then peremptorily ordered the men to set adrift, in spite of the shrieks, and cries, and commands, and entreaties of the frantic crowds who were endeavouring to get into it.  The men obeyed him, and rowing while he steered, they presently fell astern of the ship, in the midst of the darkness and tumult and terror.  Another boat laden with people was near them.  For some time they saw the heartrending spectacle of the sinking vessel, and the sea strewn with mattresses, seats, planks, &c, to which people were clinging, floating, and shrieking for succour, in the dark water all round them.  But they gradually pulled further and further