well aware of the danger that threatened me. I found every plank of the
main deck washed off and in pieces—the bulwarks stripped and gone fore
and aft, and pipes of wine, tierces, barrels of flour and kegs of butter,
hencoops, crates and spars, added to the general wreck. In jumping from
the rail to gain the lee side, I fell among this ruin, but had hitherto
felt only one or two severe bruises. A tremendous wave now broke over
the quarter, and sweeping every thing before, carried me along with some
large spars forward, when my right leg was struck by one of them, and
jambed in between that and a deck beam, at the joint of the knee, which
was instantly crushed, and held as in a vice, immoveable. My situation
was now for two minutes most critical, and frightfully dismaying—another
sea was roaring towards me. The blow I received had almost severed my
limb, though I felt no pain. The next minute the surrounding timber would
infallibly be washed in a storm around my head and body, and I momently
expected it. By a providential rise of the water, I was enabled to catch
hold of the lee rail, screwed out my leg, dodged under the rail, tumbled
into the sea, and the wave roared harmless over my head! I did this,
not in the hope of reaching the shore, for I thought, indeed, it was
not within many miles; but resolving to hasten my end, and preferring
to die in the open sea, and especially to avoid a death by piecemeal—by
crushing now and then a joint or a limb. I had heard the groans of two
or three others, and among them, the voice of the commander; their
bones, probably, mostly broken, who had escaped being carried off by the
waves, and who were, I presumed, but just alive. These, I believed, were
all that still remained of this ill-fated company. After I had plunged
into the sea, and rose, I held on, for a moment, to the upper timbers,
which were all that was left of the ship, and those loosening, to
recover breath. I soon quitted and began to strip, which was a difficult
operation for a person in my then situation, as my leg hung down, like
a rope, useless in the water, and I had on a thick jacket, two pair of
duck trowsers, and neckerchief, a black Barcelona. While effecting this,
some one, (and the only one I discovered) clinging to the timbers, was
suddenly washed from his hold, and extending his arms, his right hand
came in contact with my neckerchief, which he convulsively grasped,
and we sunk together! Pushed for breath myself, it was no time for
ceremony—the next hold I perhaps could not disengage, and an attempt to
assist him would only ensure certain death to both; I therefore quickly
pulled the end of my neckerchief, the knot being fortunately with a bow,
and he sunk with it in his hand, and the waves closed over him forever.
I presumed he was a passenger, from his white shirt, and from his stout
appearance, the Senior Monasteria or Mr. Tiernay. While under water, I
in a moment stripped, and again rose to the surface, divested of all
covering but my shirt. My leg, I felt, was powerless, and in stripping
off my trowsers, the twisting of it gave a degree of pain, besides which,
I had several scratches and bruises; through these, the chilling coldness
of the water struck to the heart.
When a boy, I was an expert swimmer; and when arrived at manhood, could
jump from the gunwale of a ship, fully clad, strip while doubling the
keel, and come up the other side with my clothes under my arm. No one
that I had met with, possessed the faculty of retaining breath, and
withholding the respiration for so long a period. But in this case,
swimming, even with able and untired limbs, was wholly useless in a sea
so heavy; and efforts to keep my head above water was all I could hope
for. The moon had now gone down, and committing myself to God, I then
pushed off from the wreck, to be thrown by the surge where his providence
should impel. With two arms and a leg, I kept before the wind, and every
sea would wash far over my head; I resolved, therefore, to seize hold of
the first large substance I should encounter, and gain breath, of which
I was very short. I soon fastened upon a bale of goods, but it being wet
and heavy, I relinquished it, as every sea rolled over it, and I quitted
it nearly exhausted. I saw numberless pieces of the wreck, and was in
constant danger of being struck by some, which I repeatedly avoided by
paddling from and diving, which the prodigious seas wholly overwhelmed.
I stood this hard buffeting for about a dozen seas, and nature was fast
retreating from the conflict, being desperately pushed for breath, as
I could draw but little in the short intervals of the waves. I had now
been nearly half an hour in the water, and nearly half the time below it;
I had withstood, beyond my hopes, this war of elements, but my breath
now became harder and quicker—I felt a suffocation and strangling—I
turned and faced the waves in despair—I gasped twice, with a convulsive
leap—another sea swept over me—I saw death inevitable, terrible, and
face to face! I had but time, involuntarily, but audibly, to repeat the
ejaculation, ‘Lord Jesus receive my spirit,’ and sunk in unshaken faith,
that till the last trump should summon all hands, I should rise no more!
My senses with my breath, also forsook me; and for a moment my mind was
filled with the most singular and delightful sensations, apparently in an
enrapturing dream. This, however, was as momentary as it was wonderful.
I cannot imagine by what means, whether from the chill of the water,
the pain of my wounds, or by the violence of a wave that then broke
over me, but I was soon brought to my senses, and rose to the surface
evidently refreshed. Thy hand, O God, was here! On looking around, I
distinctly discovered, as if supernaturally thrown in my way, something
large and light, for it kept constantly above the waves. I exerted my
remaining strength, and reached it; it was a large crate, empty of all
but straw. Into this, I firmly clenched my fingers, and soon recovered
breath, as its buoyancy kept it high above the seas. Five minutes of this
eventful night, I never think of but with sentiments of amazement and
gratitude.—While in the act of sinking, as I supposed, for the last time,
the crowd of recollections, and the rapid succession of thoughts thronged
my brain almost to bursting, I, who two hours before, was in health,
happiness and security, now found myself in the midst of darkness, danger
and death, encompassed with the merciless element, without a gleam of
hope, and momently expecting to enter that unknown world, ‘with all
my imperfections on my head.’ The crate to which I had so fortunately
attached myself, I have reason to believe, was the only thing, by the
assistance of which, I could save my life. Keeping my hold of this, and
constantly turning it round as my weight pulled it over towards me, I
still kept courage, and dropped myself frequently down under water as
far as I could stretch at arm’s length, without quitting my hold, with
the earnest hope of touching the bottom, but without success. I was much
fatigued from exertion and anxiety, and could scarcely continue my hold
upon the crate, for every sea would sweep us at least ten feet before
it, and I began to despair of any land being near, and was fearful that
the ship had been wrecked upon a shoal; still, however, holding on the
crate, as I felt it my only hope, and knew if I lost that I was lost
indeed! Drifting along with hopeless indifference, I was beginning to
droop in despair; and overcome with exertion, I felt a lethargy creeping
over me, and resolved, with a last effort, to arouse my drowsy spirits,
and by violently shaking the crate, shook myself, and looking around, I
was surprised and animated, to find an uncommon lull and subsiding of
the swelling surge—I was once more alive, for I was inside the breakers!
I again quickly dropped myself down, eagerly stretching my limbs to the
utmost length, and with my toe touched the bottom! I felt it was of sand,
and in a few minutes more I got up to about breast high in the water, and
shoving myself forward by leg and arms, soon crawled out of the surf upon
the beach.
Thus, after being more than half an hour in the water, and making my way
for nearly three quarters of a mile, through a raging sea, at midnight,
I was at last thrown upon a desert beach, certain that no one could have
reached a cable’s length from the ship, which in an hour and a half after
she first struck, was scattered in pieces on the strand. Some idea may be
had of the violence of the elements, from the fact that not a single mast
came on shore unbroken, nor a timber as big as the windlass; and out
of twenty three souls, among whom were four stout African slaves, whose
constant habit of swimming renders them almost amphibious, only one body
was thrown on shore that night; the remainder, buried by the first wave,
came not on shore till nine days afterwards.
Amazed and nearly stunned, on reaching the beach, I attempted,
unconsciously, to stand, but my leg refused its office, and I fell
backwards to the ground and was much hurt by the fall, which caused
the blood to ooze from several wounds. Half frantic with pain and the
severe chill of the weather, a groan, as I lay extended on the earth,
for once escaped me. I groaned and wished for death; I could then, I
believe, have met him without fear—not as the king of terrors, but the
messenger of mercy; I considered the fate of my companions happier far
than my own, for their sufferings, though severe, were momentary, while
mine, perhaps, were to be protracted, till struggling nature, slowly
giving way, sunk under misery at its utmost stretch. Torments so acute
I determined not to endure; the dreaded alternative was therefore soon
chosen, and I resolved to put an end to my existence by the first means
chance should throw in my power. I had many reasons to urge me to this
desperate act. The country around me, I believed from experience on the
opposite shore, was barren and desolate, without inhabitants for a great
distance, impenetrable from swamps and shrubbery, with no chance of
being discovered; the cold was to my body deadly and fearful, and not
being able to move without torture, I should not certainly, unsheltered,
survive till the morning. The moon had set long since, and I was now in
almost palpable darkness, and I could have seen no object, though my
eyelids brushed it. Raising myself up at last, I slowly drew myself out
of the surf, by hitching myself backwards. I was seated on the sand,
with my hand groping around me, and felt hoops, or something bulky, and
found, to my surprise, a pipe of wine. I had not left the ship too soon,
for here was the lowest tier of the cargo on shore before me. Impelled by
pain and despair, I was several times on the point of knocking my head
against it and dashing out my brains, but as often hesitated, doubting
only my strength to give one sufficient blow. A sad dilemma—but God was
with me. A second thought most happily struck me; the cask was large,
and sufficient to contain me, if I could possibly stave in the head, and
lying end to the wind, would prove a complete shelter from the dreaded
cold.
Thus it pleased Providence, that the intended instrument of death, should
be the very means of my preservation! Hope once more brightened and gave
me triple vigor. Groping still farther along, I felt, for I truly could
see nothing about me, several sticks of heavy Brazil wood, dunnage to the
pipes, and taking up one, I got round to the upper head, and by repeated
strokes, made a breach and broke, with strength that surprised me, the
middle head stave. The wine burst out, I applied my mouth and drank some
of it, and then continued my strokes with renewed force. A few more blows
stove the head at last entirely in; the wine burst over me, the touch of
which, to my frozen carcase, was electric and most agreeable. I took up
two pieces of the head staves and placed them in the bottom or bilge of
the cask, to make it even and level, and then crawled in. The interior
felt to my body like an oven. I had, during all this time, been at work
partly in the water, at the edge of the surf, which now flowed in upon
me at every wave, and kept me constantly throwing it out with my left
hand, as I lay in the water on my back as the least painful position.
This labor I was obliged to continue the remainder of the night, till
towards morning; when the wind somewhat abated, the tide ebbed, and
the surf retreating, no longer kept me bailing; I was, however, too
exhausted to remove. At day break I looked out of the cask, and beheld
a long sandy beach, covered to a great extent on each side of me with
the fragments of the wreck, but not a vestige of the ship as long as the
pump, or any thing moving, excepting the gulls. In fact, I was assured,
on first reaching the shore, that no mortal alone could make his way
through such seas, in such a night, to the land. My own preservation I
considered as little short of a miracle. A shipwreck so sudden, an escape
so singular, the uproar I had witnessed, and the sight now before me,
my scattered senses could scarce conceive real. For some time I actually
doubted myself awake, for it seemed like a horrible dream. I then again
composed myself in the cask, and owing to pain, the fumes of the wine
and great exertion, I remained, during the whole of this day, nearly
insensible, and in a trance-like stupor. Towards sunset I was fearful
of being carried away by the return of the tide, during the approaching
night, with the pipe in this dangerous situation; I therefore reluctantly
crawled out of the cask, and holding up my useless leg from trailing on
the ground, and hitching myself backward with my right hand, gained at
last the foot of a sand hill further up the beach. I worked myself up on
this as high as my strength would permit, to be free from the reach of
the sea; and as night was now darkening around, I looked anxiously and
in vain, for some kind of hole into which to crawl. Finding no refuge
above ground, I was constrained to seek one below it. With a heavy heart,
I dug a bed in the sand, into which I crept, and with my lacerated leg
undermost, raking the sand over me, laid down, expecting only to rise
‘when the last trump should rouse me with its warning.’ The sand and my
shirt were my only covering; the weather was extremely cold, and during
the night it rained and stormed as hard as ever. The wet sand drifting
around in smothering showers, covered every part of me, filling at every
blast, my hair, eyes, nose and mouth, kept me constantly spitting it out
to prevent suffocation, while the cold often compelled me to sit up and
thrash myself to prevent the chill of death. About midnight, in hopes of
better avoiding the wintry wind, I resolved to shift my position, and try
to get under the lee, or into some hollow on the other side of the hill.
I accordingly crawled some distance, I knew not wither, owing to extreme
darkness, and made another hole; then thrashing my arms for some time,
again ventured to lay down, covering myself, as before, with sand, to
resist the cold. Such was my bed, and such the manner in which I passed
another night, and stood the ‘pelting of the pitiless storm.’
In the morning I looked around and observed I had got over to the other
side of the hillock, in sight of a low, marshy country, intermixed with
low shrubbery, but saw no sign of habitation or cattle. I then took
a survey of myself, and I truly looked like nothing human, or in the
likeness of any thing upon earth or the waters beneath. My wounds were
filled with sand, as were also my eyebrows, hair, beard and whiskers;
my leg swelled to the plumpness of a wool sack, my left wrist out of
joint, and the hand swelled and wholly useless; my feet were swelled and
wrinkled like tripe, from remaining so long in the water, and painful
from several wounds;[1] and a ragged shirt, torn in my struggles,
scantily covered a body discolored and sadly disfigured; I was, indeed, a
figure too shocking even to excite pity, too disabled to excite fear, and
too monstrous for any sensation but astonishment. I descended the slope
of the hill and entered among the bushes that grew around, and slowly
moved along for some time, till I espied at some distance, through the
grass, a low hollow, that I thought might contain water, for my thirst
was intolerable. In half an hour, resting at intervals, I reached it, and
found, to my great joy, that I was not deceived; it was water! clear and
tempting; but the difficulty was to get at it. I at first tried several
different plans to get my mouth to the brook, for my limbs were too lame
and stiff to bend. At last, by laying at length on the grass and rolling
up to it, I succeeded. It was the most delicious draught I ever tasted! I
drank an immoderate quantity, breathed awhile, and drank once more, not
knowing when I should drink again. Looking about me, I saw nothing but
what indicated a barren and inhospitable waste; I was therefore compelled
to wend my way over the sand, and return to my old abode; a tedious and
difficult task, which, however, I surmounted, and reached the beach about
noon. The weather was still inauspicious and cloudy, the gale not much
abated, and the sea continued to roar.
While descending the slope, I had seen among the great mass of articles
on the beach, a large empty wine pipe, which lay but a short distance
below me, with one head stove in by the sea, the other end facing the
wind and water, and the mouth near the hill, which was a snug shelter in
front. This was a fine house for me, and fortunately just what I needed.
I hitched myself towards it, entered it and laid down, being very weak
and fatigued; but I soon found the rough staves too hard for my bare
bones and bruised carcase. I shortly after sallied out in search of a
covering, and in hopes of finding some bed, mattress or blanket among
the wreck, I took a survey on each side, and saw at a distance, on my
right, something that looked like a bed, but on coming up to it, I found
only a sack of cotton wool, wet and heavy, which I could not remove;
I then returned to the cask, having reluctantly left it, as it was my
only hope. I rested awhile, and then took another survey, and soon saw,
at a great distance down the beach, on my left, towards the water, some
rolls of cotton bagging, of which we had a great number on board, and
again started out in pursuit. I was a long time in getting to them, and
then found them so buried in the sand that I was an hour in digging and
clearing it away from around them. It was now, I judged, about four, P.
M. They were two large rolls, like bed ticking, with about twenty yards
of one rolled round the other and sewed. I tore away the stitches with
my teeth and unrolled one from the other, and found the inner one still
wet. I pushed it down and rolled it along before me, hitching myself up
to it, and then pushing it from me again. Thus I got it to the cask and
across its mouth; getting into which, I unrolled eight or ten fathoms,
then laying down in the cask, pushed and spread it as well as I could
underneath me; I then unrolled as much more by the help of my feet, and
covered myself with it, though it was still wet, and covered, as was
every thing else, with sand. I now thought myself very well off, and
my situation very comfortable, compared with that of the last thirty
hours. Darkness soon came on, and during this night extreme and raging
thirst kept me awake, and pain kept me constantly shifting positions.
Such to me appeared the endless duration of the night, that for many
hours before day-break, I firmly believed, and was greatly alarmed by the
apprehension, that light would never again revisit the earth; and that
darkness had regained its primeval empire. I watched away the night in
insufferable thirst, which I thought would drive me to distraction; a
fever was raging within me, and I would have given my all for one poor
draught of water. Daylight, at last, slowly dawned forth, and as my limbs
were too feeble to undertake a journey to the watering place, I resolved
to break in upon the wine, and to search for a pipe that had its bung
inclining downwards, that the wine might flow, if I could hammer it
out. My hunger, too, was loudly craving; on my way to the wine, I found
an orange broken open and filled with sand, which I greedily devoured,
and hitched along; soon after, I fell in with a quantity of kegs of
salmon, and found one with the head out, and partly filled with sand;
nevertheless, I resolved to take it with me, and fill it with wine. I was
in fact surrounded at this place with different parts of the cargo. At
a short distance from me, strewed upon the beach, were nearly 150 pipes
of wine, kegs of butter, barrels of flour, baskets of pork, bales of
goods, &c., different fragments of the wreck without number. In passing
the kegs of butter and baskets of pork, my hunger compelled me to claw
out a handful of each, which my hunger forced down; but the wine which I
afterwards drank, soon threw it out again. Coming to the pipes, I found
one that answered, and procuring a billet of wood, struck out the bung of
one that inclined downward, and applied my mouth to the hole, drinking
a great quantity. I afterwards rinced the keg with the wine, which
contained about a gallon; and nearly filling it with wine, returned with
it slowly to the cask, pushing it before me. The gulls overhead, were
noisy and clamorous, and seemed to anticipate the meal they should make
of me. This keg I at last brought to the cask, to my great satisfaction;
set it outside, crawled in, and began to ruminate upon my condition. I
found it would be impossible, without succor, to move much longer about,
and determined to remain at home during the remainder of the day; and
if sufficient strength remained on the morrow, to rig a kind of signal,
with a pole or spar, as my only chance of relief, with a piece of
cotton bagging, for a flag, that if any vessel appeared near enough,
she might observe it from the river. I at first had serious thoughts of
endeavoring to get off the small boat, which I could discover at a great
distance, bottom up, and to rig a kind of sail, and steer up the river;
but on looking at my limbs, and having but one leg and arm serviceable, I
immediately abandoned the project; I knew too, that my time was short; I
knew that the next day I should be unable to make a farther search than
I had done for provisions, as the method of getting along was slow and
painful; I had frequently to stop and thrash myself, from the cold. Added
to this, nothing was more probable than that the first savage who should
discover me, would instantly despatch me, as an impediment to plunder.
I expected no less, and that my fears were not groundless, the sequel
too mournfully shows; but a certain presentiment of brighter hours,
still upheld my spirits, which were never less depressed than upon this
occasion. I remembered that the Great Director still had not forsaken me,
since ‘God is ever present, ever felt, in the wide waste as in the full
city,’ and I could not doubt that He whose outstretched arm had preserved
me through the conflict of that dreadful night, would not now leave me to
a miserable death. I was now more comfortably situated than at any former
period; I had a covering inside, and a keg of good wine outside. Every
thing considered, I determined to wait with humble hope, the will of
heaven; I was resigned and cheerful, and even sung, and was happy. After
this, by repeated drinking, owing to excessive thirst, I was thrown into
a doze of about half an hour.
It was now three days and nights since I had taken food, and my taper
of life began to glimmer in the socket. How I survived these scenes of
accumulated misery so long, when but barely alive on reaching the shore,
I scarcely can tell; the retrospect even now astonishes me. But frail
mortality could resist no longer; my strength had utterly failed, and at
this period I abandoned all hope of again leaving the pipe.
The day was declining apace, and I expected not to behold another dawn. I
hailed the approaching night as the termination of my toils; considered
the mean covering over me as my shroud, the cask as my coffin, and waited
with fortitude the hour of dissolution. But the next was the hour of
deliverance!
At four o’clock, on this afternoon, (Saturday, the 20th of September,)
as I was stretched out in the cask, indulging in recollections of home,
I was aroused from my reveries by the startling sound of a horse’s
feet. I waited his approach with calmness, being absolutely indifferent
in my choice, to sleep or die;—the sounds grew louder and nearer—in a
few moments a horse with a rider appeared before the cask. I hailed
in Spanish, faintly, “amigo,” (friend,)—he instantly alighted, but
struck with such a ghastly spectacle as I then exhibited, he started
as he stooped down to observe me, and recoiled backwards against his
horse. Recovering soon, however, from his dismay, by seeing my helpless
condition, he re-advanced to learn by what means I had outlived the
general wreck. He was a young man of benevolent features, a Creole, or
half Indian, and dressed partly in the Indian method. I told my tale in a
few words, to which he listened with breathless attention, and concluded
by asking him the distance to a habitation; and if it was possible that
he could furnish means for reaching one the next day, as I had no idea
but that he came from a great distance. ‘In a few hours,’ he replied;
‘before night, I can return with horses and assistance, as my mother’s
rancho, (or hut) is not more than one league distant.’ After a few more
questions, he expressed his surprise at my providential rescue, crossing
himself repeatedly at every ‘hair breadth escape,’ and blessed St.
George, as my special preserver. It was lucky, he said, that I spoke his
language so well; that I was very fortunate in being discovered by him,
whose mother, he said, lived at the nearest habitation, whither I should
be conveyed; assuring me if I had fallen into the hands of the savages,
they would certainly have despatched me, for they were merciless and
ferocious. But first says he, ‘I will bring you something to eat, for you
look half starved;’ so saying, he jumped upon his horse, and was soon
out of sight. His period of absence, seemed to me an age. A prospect of
deliverance, of once more beholding my country, had lighted up a hope
within me, and again I feared he might prove a deceiver.
In about an hour, however, he appeared, and the foam of his good horse
bore witness that he had lost no time. He jumped from his steed, and
threw into my lap, as I sat upright in the cask, a warm sausage, and
some mouldy bread, wrapped up in a napkin. I greedily seized the food,
thinking I could devour it at once; but was surprised to find I could not
swallow a mouthful, my throat being contracted, closed and sore.