In order to ease the vessel, and if possible to prevent her from parting, they immediately cut away the mizenmast and shortly afterwards the foremast; but they allowed the mainmast to remain, in order to steady the ship, and to prevent her, if possible, from canting to windward, by which they must all have been inevitably drowned.

compass, and continued to blow with increased fury: | round-house; her fore and mizenmasts lay alongside, this kept them clear of the projecting land, and drove supported by small ropes, and the ship had bilged her them beyond it a short distance, when the ship struck. larboard side. After the dawn appeared, their first At first they imagined that she had struck upon a sandy thoughts were naturally directed to the possibility of beach; and as they could plainly discern two large ships saving their lives, and they were unanimously of opinion ashore just abreast of them, they buoyed themselves that their only chance of effecting this, was by means of with the hope that they should be driven on board these the mizenmast. With this view, they immediately got vessels; but in this they were disappointed; they drove the topmast and top-gallantmasts launched out on it, past, beating with violence at every wave, and in a few which reached within a few feet of the rock; but that seconds found the ship bring up on some horrid rocks, part of the precipice which it approached was so perat the foot of a stupendous precipice. Every hope now pendicular, that it afforded but very faint hopes of relief, vanished, and in despair of the slightest chance of relief, unless by the aid of some bushes which grew on the top. they already began to consider themselves as beings of These were soon made trial of by a sailor; but after he another world. The vessel was dashed with extreme had thrown a rope, with a noose on the end of it, and violence against the rocks, and they could distinctly which had caught hold of some of the largest bushes, hear the cracking of her timbers below. they had the mortification to see them brought away in an instant, discovering the roots of the shrubs to be fastened only to a much decayed, weather-beaten rock, incapable of affording them support sufficient to withstand the smallest weight. Another seaman, to whom despair had lent an extraordinary degree of courage, followed the first man out on the mast, with the intention of throwing himself from the end upon the rock, and It was about two o'clock in the morning, when the had proceeded to the extremity of the top-gallantmast, vessel struck, and in half an hour afterwards they found when just as he was on the point of leaping among the that the water was up to her lower deck. Never, per- bushes, the pole of the mast, unable to sustain his weight, haps, was daylight so anxiously longed for, as by the gave way, and he was precipitated into the water. As almost despairing crew of this unfortunate vessel. After the fall was at least forty feet, it was some time before having held on so long by the shrouds, they were forced he made his appearance above the surface of the water, to cling for three hours longer before the dawn appeared; and when he did, every one expected to see him dashed and during this time they were under the continual to pieces among the rocks; but, fortunately, he had dread of the ship's parting and launching them all into carried down with him a piece of the broken mast, to eternity. The vessel lay on her beam ends, with the which some small ropes were attached, and by clinging sea making a complete breach over her; and stiff and fast hold of these, he preserved his head above water, at benumbed as they were, it was with the utmost difficulty the intervals of the waves' receding, until a tackle could they could preserve their hold against the force of the be fixed to hoist him in. This blasted all their hopes of waves, every one of which struck and nearly drowned being saved by means of the mizenmast; and yet some them. The break of day only discovered to them the decisive measure was absolutely necessary-for, as the horrors of their situation; the vessel was lying upon storm continued to rage with unabated violence, they large rocks, at the foot of a craggy, overhanging preci- began still more to dread that the ship would part, as pice, hove as high as the ship's mainmast; and although she had already bilged on the larboard side; and, morethe mizenmast had been cut away, it still hung in a over, the whole crew had been so fatigued by their prediagonal direction, supported by some ropes, and reached vious exertions, and dispirited and benumbed by the within about four fathoms of the rock. The land form-constant exposure to wet and exhaustion, that they were ing a sort of bay around them, also approached a-head; and the extremity of the jib-boom was at no great distance from it. They could plainly discern several ships on shore in various parts of the harbour, and the wind and rain continued to beat on them with unabated violence.

The ship lay a most miserable wreck; one wave had carried away her stern boat, unshipped her rudder, and washed overboard her quarter-boards, binnacle, and

scarcely able to hold out any longer. It was in vain to look around them for assistance; they were not seen from the town, and the ships which were in sight, had it not in their power to render them any aid. Some negroes, indeed, made their appearance on the top of the rock, and were earnestly requested to descend a little way, that they might receive a rope to be thrown from the ship; but whether from fear or sheer stupidity, they could not make out which, these creatures made not the

least motion to approach them, but stood gaping in the | had fallen, and which was still pouring down in torrents, most idiotical manner, sometimes at the ship and some- it had more the appearance of a large lake, through times at themselves, in spite of reiterated entreaties, which it was with the greatest difficulty they could find promises, and threats. Whilst they were meditating on their way; and in those places where roads or furrows their situation in sullen silence, Mr. Doncaster, the chief had been made, they frequently plumped in up to the mate, without communicating his intention to any one, neck, in imminent hazard of being carried down by the went out on the bowsprit, and having reached the end stream. of the jib-boom, threw himself headlong into the water; After wading for about three miles through fields of he had scarcely fallen, when a tremendous wave threw canes, whose tops were barely visible above the water, him upon the rock, and left him dry. There he remained they reached the town of St. John's, where they were so a few minutes, motionless, when a second wave washed hospitably received, that had it not been for the kind him still further up. He then clung to a projection of offices of a mulatto tailor, to whom they sent for clothes, the cliff, by which he effectually preserved his hold; and and who carried them to a house, where they were furafter remaining a few minutes to recover his breath and nished with beds and provisions, they might have died recruit himself, he began to scramble up the rock. The from the want of food and necessaries. In a few hours preservation of Mr. Doncaster was almost miraculous, afterwards, the wind chopped round to the south, from for all the ship's company were unanimous in declaring which quarter it blew with the same violence the whole it to be next to an impossibility; indeed, it appeared to of the 4th and part of the 5th of September. The hur be a singular interposition of Providence in their behalf. ricane lasted eight-and-forty hours, during which time In about half-an-hour, with great difficulty, he reached it made a complete sweep of half the compass, beginning the summit of the cliff, while the crew on board the ship at N. and ending at S. This favourable change saved were most anxiously watching every step that he took, the Cumberland packet from breaking up, and, on the and praying for his safety and success, with the conscious-morning of the 5th, they found her lying upon the rocks, ness that their preservation depended solely thereon. The instant that he reached the summit, he came round to that part which was over against the vessel; and, descending a little way, received a rope which was thrown from the main-top, and fastened the end of it to some trees which grew on the top of the cliff, while those on board secured the other extremity to the head of the mizen-topmast. This being done, a few of the THE De Grave, a fine ship, of the burthen of seven hunmost expert seamen warped themselves up upon it, dred tons, and carrying fifty-two guns, passed through carrying with them the end of another rope, upon which the Downs on February the 19th, 1701. She was com a tackle was bent, and this they fastened also to the manded by Captain William Young, and destined for trees; the other end of the tackle was made fast to the Fort St. George, in the East Indies, where she arrived mizenmast, and the fold of it passed to the crew upon in safety. She sailed from thence to Bengal, where deck. By means of this rope, which they fastened to they had the misfortune to lose the captain and first their waists, and the first rope by which they were sup-mate, in consequence of which the command devolved ported, and warping along it with their hands, in the space of three hours they were all safely hoisted to the top of the cliff, with the exception of a few of the most active seamen, who were left to the last, and were obliged to warp themselves up as the first had done.

nearly dry, with five large holes in her larboard side; and they were thus enabled to save some of their linen that was floating in the hold.

Loss of the De Grave, Captain Young, in 1701.

upon the late captain's son, who was second mate; and Mr. John Benbow, one of the sons of Vice-admiral Benbow, who had gone out as fourth mate, became second mate from Bengal.

They sailed for the Cape of Good Hope, but the ship The whole of the ship's company, consisting of Cap-ran aground in attempting to go out of the river, and tain Lawrence; Mr. Lawrence, the master; Mr. Doncaster, the chief-mate; Mr. Lourie, the surgeon; twentyfour seamen and petty officers, and three passengers; Mr. Verchild, Mr. Wood, and Lieutenant Webber of the artillery, having assembled on the rock, they bade farewell to their miserable vessel, and took their departure towards the town. But their difficulties were not yet at an end; the whole plain was before them, and in consequence of the immense quantity of rain which

she stuck fast; however, the next high tide she floated again, and put to sea with little or no damage, as was then imagined; but very shortly after she was discovered to be so leaky, that they were obliged to keep two chain pumps constantly going. They sailed in this condition for above two months before they reached the island of Mauritius, then inhabited by the Dutch, who received them very kindly, gave them all the assist ance in their power, and permitted them to erect and fit

E

up a tent upon the shore, into which, having unladen | sight into their situation, by assuring them that the king the ship in order to search for the leak, they brought would never permit them to return again to Europe, and the greater part of the cargo; but, after a long scrutiny, that he intended to make them serve him as soldiers or they were unsuccessful in finding the leak. They re-slaves, in the prosecution of his wars with the neighmained about a month at the island of Mauritius, and bouring tribes. This intelligence, it may well be imathen taking on board about fifty Lascars, sailed directly gined, instead of allaying their fears, struck them with for the Cape of Good Hope. There were then about the utmost consternation. one hundred and seventy hands on board, and though the Lascars were not of much service in point of naviEgation, yet they were of great utility in relieving the English seamen from the labour of pumping. The resolution which they had thus rashly taken of putting to sea before the leak had been stopped, or even discovered, proved fatal to them; for, in a few days afterwards, the water gained upon them to such a degree, that, notwith-ships more frequently touched at; and to this project standing the pumps were kept incessantly going day and night, it was with the utmost exertions they kept the vessel above water, though they were still six hundred leagues from their intended port.

In this miserable state of affairs, a consultation was held by Captains Drummond, Stewart, and Young, in conjunction with Mr. Pratt and Mr. Benbow, in which Captain Drummond stated it as his opinion, that the only expedient by which they could recover their liberty, was to seize the black king and march off with him prisoner to some other province of the island, where

they agreed. Mr. Benbow highly approved of the proposition, and assisted with great courage in the execution of it, which was performed with greater ease than they could reasonably have expected; and the king, the queen, and their son, were made prisoners; but at the

the queen was released. It is hardly possible to conceive an enterprise displaying more boldness in the design and greater courage and intrepidity in the execution than this, where fifty or sixty white people, and not above half of them armed, openly and daringly carried off a black prince out of the midst of his capital, and in the sight of some thousands of his subjects, better armed than themselves. They were, however, restrained from firing upon the whites by the threat of Captain Young to kill their king if they attempted it.

The ship's company, upon the belief that common danger put them all on an equality, represented to Cap-instance of Captain Young, from motives of compassion, tain Young the utter impracticability of carrying into execution his design of proceeding to the Cape; and that, under the circumstances, the wisest course would be to make the nearest land, which was that of Madagascar, to the southward of which they had sailed about a hundred leagues. The captain thought proper to comply with this advice, and endeavoured to run the ship on shore; but this was also found to be impracticable: they, therefore, when within a quarter-of-a-mile of the coast, first let go an anchor, then cut down all their masts and rigging, and threw their guns and heavy goods overboard, in the hope of being able to make the ship swim nearer; but this being found to be impossible, and having already lost their long-boat and pinnace, they resolved upon making a raft, which they effected in the course of the night; and, on the following morning, Mr. Pratt, the chief mate, went on shore in a little boat, accompanied by four men, and taking with him a rope, by which they proposed to warp the raft. Before they were able to reach the land, the boat was stove to pieces, but the men escaped and secured the rope, by which they brought the raft on shore with the remainder of the ship's company, except the captain, who remained on board the ship till the last moment, and did not quit her till he found she was going to pieces, when he threw himself into the sea and swam on shore.

Immediately on their landing, the crew were made prisoners by the king of that part of the island, and were carried about fifty miles up into the country, where they found a Captain Stewart and a Captain Drummond, with a few of their ships' crew, in the same situation with themselves, and who soon gave them a better in

Great as had been the ability exercised in carrying the foregoing scheme into effect, they were guilty of great mismanagement afterwards; for, upon a proposal being made by the negroes to ransom their king for six guns, it was agreed to deliver him up, upon a supposition that the blacks would not then follow them any further; and, notwithstanding Mr. Benbow was strongly opposed to this arrangement, and showed them the mischievous consequences which must necessarily ensue from such an injudicious measure, it was carried into effect. The king being given up, the blacks still continued to follow them, though at a greater distance, until at length it was agreed that they should also give up the prince, presuming that this would certainly put an end to the pursuit. They, however, took with them, by way of hostages, three persons, who, as they were informed by the blacks, were three of the principal men in the country. Two of them very soon afterwards made their escape, and the blacks, so far from discontinuing the pursuit, came closer up to them than ever, and even fired on them, which they had not done before.

The weakness of their own conduct, and the wisdom

of Mr. Benbow's advice, were now apparent to all of Their anchoring in this place proved a remarkable disthem; and as it was obvious that, under existing circum-pensation of Providence in behalf of two poor Englishstances, they had no chance left but to fight, they began men, who had been upon the island two years, destitute to arrange their little army in order of battle. Thirty-six of everything, and exposed to the insults and cruelty of armed men were divided into four bodies, which were the barbarous natives. The captain of the Princess had commanded by the three captains and Mr. Benbow; but sent the long-boat on shore for something that was after an engagement, which lasted from noon till about wanted, and lay-to, waiting for her three or four hours. six o'clock in the evening, a treaty was entered into. On the return of the boat, they were greatly surprised The proposition on the part of the negroes was, to have to see on board of her, two men quite naked, of a hagtheir arms given up to them, and promising, on that gard and death-like appearance; one of them appeared condition, to give them their liberty; and this propo- to be about thirty years of age, but the other did not sition, though in itself of such mischievous tendency, seem to be more than twenty. These men, upon being and strongly opposed by the better judgment of Mr. questioned, stated that they had been shipwrecked near Benbow, yet they were mad enough to accept it, at the the island of Mayote, having been carried upon sunken persuasion of Captain Young. rocks by the violence of the current. One of them belonged to an English East-Indiaman, and the other came from Boston, where he had joined some English buccaneers. The loss of these two vessels occurred in consequence of the pilot of each of them having mistaken the island of Mayote for that of Moali. Those of the passengers and crews who escaped were treated by the natives with great humanity, as long as their numbers rendered them formidable; but being soon reduced in numbers, by various disorders, produced, in some, by the insalubrity of the climate, in others by intemperance, and in some, by melancholy and vexation, till there were not more than fifteen or sixteen, the barbarians were no longer intimidated, and soon sought the means of depriving them of all they had with difficulty saved from the wreck, and even of their lives.

When this arrangement came to be put into execution, Captains Drummond and Stewart, with four or five of their men, refused to deliver up their arms, and marched off unperceived in the night, accompanied by Mr. Benbow, and arrived at Port Dauphin in safety. The remainder of the party were cruelly murdered, none of them escaping, with the exception of Robert Drury, a boy of fifteen or sixteen years old, whom they preserved and made a slave. Mr. Benbow, after remaining several years among the negroes, where he lived after their manner and went naked, made his escape on board of a Dutch vessel, the captain of which had been well acquainted with his father, and, for his sake, treated him with great kindness and respect. After a few months he arrived safely in England, and lived many years afterwards.

Shipwreck of two English vessels in the year 1700. FATHER TACHARD, one of the six Jesuit mathematicians who, by the order of the king of France, accompanied the embassy sent to the king of Siam in 1685, returned to India, for the last time, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, accompanied by several Jesuits des tined for the missions of India and China. The Princess, the vessel in which they sailed, left Port Louis on March

7th, 1701.

Of these truly miserable men, seven were French, three Germans, and the remainder English or Dutch. Their numbers daily diminished, and seeing one after the other die of misery, they came to the resolution, at all events, to leave the island where they were, as they had no hope of being visited by a European vessel, the port being inaccessible even to ships of the smallest size. With this view they constructed a boat, out of the remains of the two vessels, of sufficient magnitude to hold them all, as well as the chests of specie which they had preserved. Their preparations being completed, they had intended to embark the following day, when the Their voyage was prosperous till they arrived at the king of the island, suspecting their intention, sent to Comorro Islands, where they were obliged to remain at demand their boat, which, he said, he liked very much, anchor a long time at the island of Johanna, and after- though it was obvious that this was only a pretext for wards tack about for a month in the channel of Mozam-seizing their money. The Europeans immediately as bique. On the 14th of August, they set sail from Johanna with a fair wind, but they had scarcely proceeded seven or eight leagues when it again fell calm: the currents carried them towards the island of Moali, and afterwards to the west coast of Angasi, the most extensive of the Archipelago of the Comorro Islands, where for several hours they lay at anchor.

sembled on the shore, in their little hut; and after a consultation among themselves, they unanimously agreed to return the king of Mayote as civil a denial to his request as possible. They were aware that after this step their destruction would most certainly be attempted, and it was therefore necessary that they should use more vigilance and caution than ever. Upon the barbarians