’Tuesday morning presented no better prospect of relief from the jaws of death.  The wind blew stronger, and the sea was much more turbulent.  About noon, our drooping spirits were somewhat revived by seeing Lieutenant Harvey and Mr. Callam hoisting out a boat from one of the merchant ships to come to our assistance.  They attempted several times to launch her through the surf; but she was a very heavy boat, and the sea on the beach acted so powerfully against them, they could not effect their purpose, though they were assisted by nearly one hundred of the merchant sailors and Portuguese peasants.  This day, several men went upon rafts made from pieces of the wreck; but not one reached the shore:  the wind having shifted, and the current setting out, they were all driven to sea, and amongst them our captain and three sailors.  Anxious to save the remainder of the ship’s company, and too sanguine of getting safe on shore, he had ventured upon the spar, saying, as he jumped into the sea, ‘My lads, I’ll save you all.’  In a few seconds, he lost his hold of the spar, which he could not regain:  he drifted to sea, and perished:  and such was also the fate of the three brave volunteers who shared his fortune.

’The loss of our captain, who had hitherto animated the almost lifeless crew, and the failure of Lieutenant Harvey and Mr. Callam, in their noble exertions to launch the boat, extinguished every gleam of hope, and we looked forward to certain death on the ensuing night, not only from cold, hunger, and fatigue, but from the expectation that the remaining part of the wreck might go to pieces at any moment.  Had not the Apollo been a new and well-built ship, that small portion of her could not have resisted the waves, and held so well together, when all the after-part from the chess-tree was gone, the starboard bow under water, and the forecastle deck nearly perpendicular.  The weight of the guns hanging to the larboard bulwark on the inside, and on the outside the bower and spare anchors, which it was not prudent to cut away, as they afforded a resting-place to a considerable number of men, added to the danger.  It had become impossible to remain any longer in the head, or upon the bowsprit, the breakers washing continually over those places, so that one hundred and fifty men were stowed in the fore-channels and cat’s-head, where alone it was possible to live.

’The night drawing on, the wind increasing, with frequent showers of rain, the sea washing over us, and the expectation becoming every instant more certain, that the forecastle would give way and that we must all perish together, afforded a spectacle truly deplorable, and the bare recollection of which makes me shudder.  The piercing cries of the people, this dismal night, as the sea washed over them every two minutes, were pitiful in the extreme.  The water running from the head down over the body kept us continually wet.  On that fearful night every man’s strength was exerted for his own individual safety.  From crowding so close together in so narrow a compass, and having nothing to moisten their mouths, several poor wretches were suffocated, like those in the black hole,—­with this only difference, that we were confined by water instead of strong walls; and the least movement or relaxation of our hold would have plunged us into eternity.