Fourteen passengers, with the captain, remained on board, resolving to trust their fortunes to the jolly-boat at the stern.  We lowered it without difficulty, although it was only by a miracle that we prevented it from swamping as it touched the water.  It contained, when afloat, the captain and his wife, Mr. Wyatt and party, a Mexican officer, wife, four children, and myself, with a negro valet.

We had no room, of course, for any thing except a few positively necessary instruments, some provisions, and the clothes upon our backs.  No one had thought of even attempting to save any thing more.  What must have been the astonishment of all, then, when having proceeded a few fathoms from the ship, Mr. Wyatt stood up in the stern-sheets, and coolly demanded of Captain Hardy that the boat should be put back for the purpose of taking in his oblong box!

“Sit down, Mr. Wyatt,” replied the captain, somewhat sternly, “you will capsize us if you do not sit quite still.  Our gunwhale is almost in the water now.”

“The box!” vociferated Mr. Wyatt, still standing —­ “the box, I say!  Captain Hardy, you cannot, you will not refuse me.  Its weight will be but a trifle —­ it is nothing- mere nothing.  By the mother who bore you —­ for the love of Heaven —­ by your hope of salvation, I implore you to put back for the box!”

The captain, for a moment, seemed touched by the earnest appeal of the artist, but he regained his stern composure, and merely said: 

“Mr. Wyatt, you are mad.  I cannot listen to you.  Sit down, I say, or you will swamp the boat.  Stay —­ hold him —­ seize him! —­ he is about to spring overboard!  There —­ I knew it —­ he is over!”

As the captain said this, Mr. Wyatt, in fact, sprang from the boat, and, as we were yet in the lee of the wreck, succeeded, by almost superhuman exertion, in getting hold of a rope which hung from the fore-chains.  In another moment he was on board, and rushing frantically down into the cabin.

In the meantime, we had been swept astern of the ship, and being quite out of her lee, were at the mercy of the tremendous sea which was still running.  We made a determined effort to put back, but our little boat was like a feather in the breath of the tempest.  We saw at a glance that the doom of the unfortunate artist was sealed.

As our distance from the wreck rapidly increased, the madman (for as such only could we regard him) was seen to emerge from the companion —­ way, up which by dint of strength that appeared gigantic, he dragged, bodily, the oblong box.  While we gazed in the extremity of astonishment, he passed, rapidly, several turns of a three-inch rope, first around the box and then around his body.  In another instant both body and box were in the sea —­ disappearing suddenly, at once and forever.

We lingered awhile sadly upon our oars, with our eyes riveted upon the spot.  At length we pulled away.  The silence remained unbroken for an hour.  Finally, I hazarded a remark.