"About half-past ten o'clock the watch was called to put the ship about. I went aft to haul in the spanker sheet on the port side. After the main-top-sail was set, they clewed it up again. They went up aloft to furl the sails, and the wind was so strong, that the roving poles were broken. I was nearly pitched off the yard. I came down and said I could not furl the sail; and Mr. Stephens told me to go back again and make it fast to the yard-arm. Shortly after this the port anchor was let go, and after that the starboard anchor was let go. When both the chains parted, we cut away the masts, and she went ashore. Captain Taylor gave me an order to clear away the port life-boat. The mizzen-stay, being cut away, came down by the run, and fell upon the life-boat. When the ship struck upon the rocks I was on the forecastle, and I asked the boatswain's mate what he was going to do; and he said, 'Go you ashore, and I will go too.' I went inside the forecastle, and found a chap with a line, and he said, 'Are you going ashore?' I said 'Yes.' I went on the top-gallant forecastle, and made the rope fast round my waist. Mr. Stephens asked me what I was going to do, and wanted to give me a life-buoy, but I said 'No,' and I lowered myself down by a flying jib-boom. I was washed back three times to the ship, but at last succeeded in getting ashore, where I saw some people, and they said, 'Give us the line,' and they took me away. I wanted to stop to pull the hawser ashore, but they would not let me."

For this brave deed the noble fellow afterwards received, from the National Life-boat Institution, a gold medal, a sum of £5, and a vote of thanks engrossed on vellum.

But neither strength nor courage were of any avail on that fatal morning. Captain Withers was right when he

said, in endeavouring to calm the fears of the ladies, ‘that they were only ten paces from the shore;' but he was wrong when he added that it was a 'sandy beach.' It was a sheer wall of rock which rose against the doomed passengers of the Royal Charter, and hurled them back, in all probability lifeless, into the raging sea. A very small narrow ledge at the base of this wall was the spot on which the few who were saved landed.

The work of destruction was complete and almost instantaneous. It was seven in the morning when she broke up. Those who were not killed by being dashed on the rocks, were carried down and killed in the debris of the wreck, and in the course of a very few minutes, four hundred and fifty-nine persons were numbered with the dead.

The news of the dreadful wreck spread quickly over the land, carrying the bitterest anguish into hundreds of homes; and, for many weeks afterwards, the road to the remote and scarcely known bay of Moelfra was crowded with visitors to the scene of the disaster; some of whom were attracted by idle curiosity, but, alas! many and many a one hurried along that dreary road with bursting heart and choking sobs, to gaze on the faces of the recovered corpses, and claim their dead.

A little church stands on the bleak coast of Anglesea, not much more than a mile from the scene of the wreck. To this the bodies were conveyed as they were washed ashore, and laid side by side, in their wet and torn garments, on the stone floor. It was a ghastly spectacle, the interior of that church. During those terrible weeks, a

silent sermon was preached there such as is seldom addressed to man. In one place lay the body of a stout sea

man, with the countenance flushed, as if still in life, and an expression of pain fixed upon it. Close to it lay the form of a woman, and beside her that of a little child. In another spot lay the remains of a man, so mangled as to be scarcely recognisable; and, not far from him, one whose countenance had been completely torn off. Some were contorted, as if they had died in agony; others lay with a peaceful expression, as if they had fallen asleep. But there they all lay in awful silence-the lady and the servant maid, the little child and the full-grown man, the passenger and the seaman, the muscular and the feeble ;some in the full glare of light that fell upon the pavement of the centre aisle, others in the shadow of the pews, and some in gloomy corners of the church. Yet those who went there to search for relations were, for the most part, but little affected by the fearful sight. Intense anxiety and fear lest they should behold among them the well-remembered faces, absorbed all other emotions. The hurried, nervous glance, the gleam of hope as one after another of these ghastly faces passed under review, and the countenance sought for was not recognised; and the frequent groan of agony, the shriek of despair that resounded within those walls-these things will long dwell in the memory of those who witnessed them, and especially in the memory of that good man, the Rev. Mr. Hughes, the pastor of Llanallgo church, who, with his humane brother, was so kind and tender to the living, and so painstaking and gentle with the dead, at the time of the wreck of the Royal Charter.

CHAPTER XV.

THE GREAT EASTERN.

THE Great Eastern steam ship deserves to be regarded as the eighth wonder of the world, beyond all question. She is, at present, by far the largest vessel in the world, and is the most magnificent creation of naval architecture that was ever launched upon the sea.

Whether this monster ship will fully come up to the expectations of her projectors; whether her vast size will prove an advantage or a disadvantage; or whether her career will show to man that there is a limit to the dimensions of his structures, beyond which it is vain to attempt to pass, remains yet to be seen. Hitherto, the Great Eastern has been attended with-under the circumstances -a fair measure of success. She has crossed the Atlantic and returned to us in safety several times; and she has weathered, both in and out of harbour, some of the severest storms that ever blew.

The substance of the following account of this interesting ship has been gathered principally from the Times, the Illustrated London News, and from a pamphlet sold on board, by permission of the proprietors.

The Great Eastern was intended for the Indian and Australian route by the Cape of Good Hope. The result of large experience in steam navigation has proved that the size of the ship (when steam is used) must be in proportion