For the present, we will again adopt the language of Lieutenant Tailour:—­’About noon,’ said he, ’I went aft upon the poop, where many were collected, but the marines were drawn up on duty upon the poop above.  Francis Burke, the purser’s steward, was lying dead on one of the arm chests, said to have been suffocated by the smoke below.  Soon after this, my attention was drawn forward, where a vast body of smoke issued from the hatchway, gallery doors, funnels, and scuttles, which I soon saw were blown off; I rushed forward and got them secured again, and in coming aft found the hatches had all been blown off; the two foremost main-gratings had gone down the hatchway.  The after one I assisted to replace, also the tarpaulin, which was excessively hot, and left the carpenter to get it secured on.  I next thought of the magazine, where I dreaded some accident.  On my way aft, I met some people again bringing Mr. Banks up in their arms.  On reaching the ward-room, I saw through the windows the stern ladders filled with people; I broke a pane of glass, and ordered them on the poop, threatening instant death to any one who dared disobey.  On their beginning to move up, I just took time to summons the men from the magazine, and went up to the poop to see every one was once more under the eye of the marines.  This done, the smoke having in a great measure subsided, the maintop-sail was filled, and top-gallant sails set.’

About two o’clock in the afternoon, when they had been seven hours contending with the fire and smoke, land was discerned through the haze, on the weather-bow, and it was supposed to be above Cape Creux.

Captain Le Gros, fearing the signals might fall into the enemy’s hands, hove them all overboard.  The sight of land gave a turn to the men’s thoughts, and spurred them on to greater exertion.  The fire rapidly increased; but the efforts of the captain and his noble crew increased with the danger.

Again they attempted to clear the magazine; but the smoke again drove the men from below, and rendered them powerless.  Their courage was, indeed, kept up by the sight of land, though still five leagues distant; but there was still much to be done—­many perils yet surrounded them.—­and it was awful to feel that fire and water were contending for the mastery, and that they must be the victims of one of these elements, unless by the mercy of God the progress of the conflagration was stayed, and time allowed them to reach the distant shore.  The fire was increasing fearfully; so much so, that Lieutenant Tailour describes the lower deck ‘burning like the flame in an oven.’  All communication was cut off from the fore-part of the ship.  The flames flew up the fore and main hatchways as high as the lower yards, but still the brave crew remained firm to their duty; and by keeping tarpaulins over the hatchways, and pouring down water, they managed for a time to keep the fire from taking serious hold abaft.