EXTRAORDINARY SHIPWRECK.

OVER LAND, TO INDIA.

From Campbell's Journey,

“IT

was now," says Mr. Campbell, "the eighteenth day of May, 1782, when we sailed from Goa. The hemisphere had been for some days overcast with clouds: some light showers of rain had fallen; and you may conclude that it did not tend to raise my spirits, or free me from my ominous apprehensions, to hear that those circumstances indicated an approaching gale of wind. I observed, moreover, that the vessel was much too deep in the water, being greatly over-loaded...... that she was in many respects defective, and, as the seamen say, illfound, and in short very unfit to encounter a gale of wind of any violence. I scorned, however, to yield to those united impressions, and determined to proceed.

"On the 19th the sky was obscured by immense fleeces of clouds, surcharged with inflammable matter; and in the evening the rain fell in torrents, the firmament darkened apace, sudden night came on, and the horrors of extreme darkness were rendered still more horrible by the peals of thunder which rent the air, and the frequent flashes of lightning, which served only to shew us the horror of our situation, and leave us in increased darkness: meantime the wind became more violent, blowing on the shore; and a heavy sea, raised by its force, united with it to make our state more formidable.

"By day-light on the morning of the twentieth, the gale had increased to a furious tempest; and the sea, keeping pace with it, ran mountain high; and as it kept invariably to the same point, the Captain and Officers became seriously alarmed, and almost persuaded that the Southwest Monsoon had set in, which, if it were so, would render it absolutely impossible for us to weather the coast. All that day, however, we kept as close as the violence of the weather would allow us to the wind; but the sea canted her head so to leeward, that she made more lee than head-way; and the rigging was so strained with the work, that we had little hope of keeping off the shore, unless the wind changed, of which there was not now the smallest probability. During the night there was no intermission of the snow; many of the sails flew into ribbons; some of the rigging was carried away; and such exertions were made, that, before morning, every stick that could possibly be struck was down ups on the deck.

"About seven o'clock on the morning of the twenty-first, I was alarmed by an unusual noise upon the deck, and, running up, perceived that every remaining sail in the vessel, the foresail alone excepted, was totally carried away. The sight was horrible; and the whole vessel presented a spectacle as dreadful to the feelings as mortifying to human pride. Fear had produced, not only all the helplessness of despondency, but all the mischievous freaks of insanity. In one place stood the Captain, raving, stamping, and tearing his hair in handfuls from his head......here, some of the crew were cast upon their knees, clapping their hands, and praying, with all the extravagance of horror painted in their faces...... there, others were flogging their images with all their might, calling upon them to allay the storm. One of our passengers who was Purser of an English East-Indiaman, had got hold of a case-bottle of rum, and, with an air of distraction and deep despair imprinted in his face, was stalking about in his shirt. I perceived him to be on the point of serving it about, in large tumblers, to the few undismayed people; and well convinced, that, so far from alleviating, it would sharpen the horrors of their mind, I went forward, and with much difficulty prevented him.

"Having accomplished this point, I applied myself to the Captain, and endeavoured to bring him back (if possible) to his recollection, and to a sense of what he owed to his duty as a commander, and to his dignity as a man: I exhorted him to encourage the sailors by his example; and strove to raise his spirits, by saying that the storm did not appear to me by any means so terrible as some I had before experi

enced.

"While I was thus employed, we shipped a sea on the starboard side, which I really thought would have sent us down. The vessel seemed to sink beneath its weight, shivered, and remained motionless......it was a moment of critical suspense: fancy made me think I felt her gradually descending......I gave myself up as gone, and summoned all my fortitude to bear approaching death with becoming manhood.

"Just at this crisis, the water, which rushed with incredible force through all ports of the vessel, brought out floating, and nearly suffocated, another English passenger, who was endeavouring to take a little repose in a small cabin boarded off from the deck: he was a very stout young man, and full of true spirit. Finding that the vessel was not, as I had thought, going immediately down, he joined me in exhorting the Captain to his duty: we persuaded him to throw the guns overboard, as well as a number of trunks and packages with which the vessel was much encumbered; and, with some little exertion, we got the pumps set agoing.

The name of the English passenger was Hall. He was a young man of a most amiable disposition, and with it possessed all that manly spirit that gives presence of mind in exigencies of danger. He and I having, with great difficulty, got some hands to stick to the pumps, stood at the wheel, at once to assist the men, and prevent them from quitting it; and, although hopeless, determined that no effort practicable on our parts should be wanting to the preservation of the vessel. The water, however, gained upon the pumps, notwithstanding every effort; and it evidently appeared that we could not keep her long above

water.

"At ten o'clock the wind seemed to increase, and amounted to a downright hurricane: the sky was so entirely obscured with black clouds, and the rain fell so thick, that objects were not discernible from the wheel to the ship's head. Soon the pumps were choked, and could no longer be worked: then dismay seized on all......nothing but unutterable despair, silent anguish, and horror, wrought up to frenzy, was to be seen; not a single soul was capable of an effort to be useful......all seemed more desirous to extinguish their calamities by embracing death, than willing, by a painful exertion, to avoid it.

"At about eleven o'clock we could plainly distinguish a dreadful roaring noise, resembling that of waves rolling against rocks; but the darkness of the day, and the accompanying rains, prevented us from seeing any distance; and if they were rocks, we might be actually dashed to pieces on them before we could perceive them. At twelve o'clock, however, the weather cleared up a little, and both the wind and the sea seemed to have abated: the very expansion of the prospect round the ship was exhilarating, and as the weather grew better, and the sea less furious, the senses of the people returned, and the general stupefaction began to de

crease.

"The weather continuing to clear up, we in some time discovered breakers and large rocks without side of us; so that it appeared we must have passed quite close to them, and were now fairly hemmed in between them and the land.

"In this very critical juncture, the Captain, entirely contrary to my opinion, adopted the dangerous resolution of letting go an anchor, to bring her up with her head to the sea: But, though no seaman, my common sense told me that she could never ride it out, but must directly go down. The event nearly justified my judgment; for she had scarcely been at anchor before an enormous sea rolling over her, overwhelmed and filled her with water, and every one on board concluded that she was cer tainly sinking......On the instant, a Lascar, with a presence of mind worthy an old English mariner, took an axe, ran forward, and cut the

cable.

"On finding herself free, the vessel again floafed, and made an effort to right herself: but she was almost completely water-logged, and heeled to larboard so much that the gunnel lay under water. We then endeavoured to steer as fast as we could for the land, which we knew could not be at any great distance, though we were unable to discover it through the hazy weather; the fore-sail was loosened; by great efforts in rolling she righted a little, her gunnel was got above water, and we scudded as well as we could before the wind, which still blew hard on shore; and at about two o'clock the land appeared at a small distance ahead.

man.

The love of life countervails all other considerations in the mind of The uncertainty we were under with regard to the shore before us, which we had reason to believe was part of Hyder Ally's dominions, where we should meet with the most rigorous treatment, if not ultimate death, was forgotten in the joyful hope of saving life; and we scudded towards the shore in all the exulting transports of people just snatched from the jaws of death.

This gleam of happiness continued not long: a tremendous sea rolling after us, broke over our stern, tore every thing before it, stove in the steerage, carried away the rudder, shivered the wheel to pieces, and tore

up the very ring-bolts of the deck......conveyed the men who stood at the wheel forward, and swept them overboard. I was standing at the time near the wheel, and fortunately had hold of the taffarel, which enabled me to resist in part the weight of the wave. I was, however, swept off my feet, and dashed against the main-mast. The jerk from the taffarel, which I held very tenaciously, seemed as if it would have dislocated my arms: however, it broke the impetus of my motion, and in all probability saved me from being dashed to pieces against the

mast.

I floundered about in the water at the foot of the mast, till at length I got on my feet, and seized a rope, which I held in a state of great embarrassment, dubious what I should do to extricate myself. At this instant I perceived that Mr. Hall had got upon the capstern, and was waving his hand to me to follow his example: this I wished to do, though it was an enterprize of some risk and difficulty; for, if I lost the hold I had, a single motion of the vessel, or a full wave, would certainly carry me overboard. I made a bold push, however, and fortunately accomplished it. Having attained this station, I could the better survey the wreck, and saw that the water was nearly breast high on the quarter-deck (for the vessel was deep-waisted); and I perceived the unfortunate English Purser standing where the water was most shallow, as if watching with patient expectation its rising, and awaiting death: I called to him to come to us, but he shook his head in despair, and said, in a lamentable tone, "It is all over with us! God have mercy upon us!"......then seated himself with seeming composure on which happened to be rolling about in the wreck of the deck, and in a few minutes afterwards was washed into the sea along with it, where he was speedily released from a state ten thousand times worse than death.

66

a chair

During this universal wreck of things, the horror I was in could not prevent me from observing a very curious circumstance, which at any other time would have excited laughter, though now it produced no other emotion than surprise...... We happened to be in part laden with mangoes, of which the island of Goa is known to produce the finest in the world; some of them lay in baskets on the poop: a little black boy, in the moment of greatest danger, had got scated by them, devouring them voraciously, and crying all the time most bitterly at the horrors of

his situation!

"The vessel now got completely water-logged; and Mr. Hall and I were employed in forming conjectural calculations how many minutes she could keep above water, and consoling one another on the unfortunate circumstances under which we met......lamenting that fate had thus brought us acquainted only to make us witnesses of each other's misery, and then to see one another no more.

"As the larboard side of the vessel was gradually going down, the deck, and of course the capstern, became too nearly perpendicular for us to continue on it: we therefore foresaw the necessity of quitting it, and got upon the starboard side, holding fast by the gunnel, and allowing our bodies and legs to yield to the sea as it broke over us. Thus we continued for some time: at length the severity of the labour so entirely exhausted our strength and spirits, that our best hope seemed to be a speedy conclusion to our painful death; and we began to have serious

intentions of letting go our hold, and yielding ourselves up at once to the fury of the waves.

"The vessel, which all this time drifted with the sea and wind, gradually approximated the shore, and at length struck the ground, which for an instant revived our almost departed hopes; but we soon found that it did not in the smallest degree better our situation....Again I began to yield to utter despair......again I thought of letting go my hold, and sinking at once: It is impossible, thought I, ever to escape... why then prolong, for a few minutes, a painful existence that must at last be given up? Yet, yet, the all-subduing love of life suggested, that many things apparently impossible had come to pass; and I said to myself, if life is to be lost, why not lose it in a glorious struggle? Should I survive it by accident, life will be rendered doubly sweet to me, and I still more worthy of it by persevering fortitude.

"While I was employed in this train of reflection, I perceived some of the people collecting together, talking, and holding a consultation ......It immediately occurred to me, that they were devising some plan for escaping from the wreck, and getting on shore: and, so natural is it for man to cling to his fellow-creature for support in difficult or danger'ous exigencies, I proposed to Mr. Hall to join them, and take a share in the execution of the plan......observing to him at the same time, that I was determined at all events to quit the vessel, and trust to the protection and guidance of a superintending Providence for the rest,

"As prodigality of life is, in some cases, the excess of virtue and courage, so there are others in which it is vice, meanness and cowardice. True courage is, according to the circumstances under which it is to operate, as rigidly tenacious and vigilant of life in one case, as it is indifferent and regardless in another; and I think it is a very strange contradiction in the human heart (although it often happens), that a man who has the most unbounded courage, in seeking death even in the cannon's mouth, shall yet want the necessary resolution to make exertions to save his life in cases of ordinary danger. The unfortunate English Purser could not collect courage sufficient to make an effort to save himself; and yet I think it probable that he would have faced a battery of artillery, or exposed himself to a pistol-shot, if occasion required, as soon as any other man. Thus it appears at first view: but may not this seeming incongruity be explained by saying, that personal courage and fortitude are different qualities of the mind and body, and depend upon the exercise of entirely different functions?

"Be that as it may, I argued with myself, in the height of my calamitous situation, upon the subject of fortitude and dejection, courage and cowardice; and, notwithstanding the serious aspect of affairs, found myself listening to the suggestions of pride: What a paltry thing to yield, while strength is left to struggle! Vanity herself had her hint, and whispered, "Should I escape by an effort of my own, what a glorious theme of exultation!" There were, I confess, transitory images in my mind, which co-operating with the natural attachment to self-preservation, made me persevere, and resolve to do so, while one vestige of hope was left for the mind to dwell on."

Observing, as I told you before, the people consulting together, and resolving to join them, I made an effort to get to the lee shrouds, where they were standing, or rather clinging; but before I could ac