land's" track; the captain and chief mate keeping a good look-out from the fore-yard; the other officers attending to the manoeuvring of the ship, while a person, who had some previous knowledge of the passage, attended to the wheel.
About one, P.M., being in the fair channel, under the influence of a strong breeze, and the tide in our favour, we pursued our serpentine and perilous course with much rapidity; and, guided only by the colour of the water, passed many sand-banks and reefs in safety, until 2.45 P.M., when the ship struck with such force on a small detached coral reef, that the rock penetrated instantly through her bottom! There was no occasion for sounding the well, the encroaching water, in a few minutes up to the lower deck, affording us a melancholy proof of the extensive and irremediable damage that the ship had sustained.
Thus, suddenly and unexpectedly, in broad day-light, after having, by unremitted attention and care, passed the most dangerous parts of this intricate passage, were all our hopes utterly annihilated.
It now only remained for us to consider by what means we might have a chance of saving our lives. After as much deliberation as such disastrous circumstances would admit of, the only mode that appeared to us to hold out any prospect of success, was—to endeavour to reach some European settlement in the boats: the nearest to us, of whose situation we had any certain knowledge, was Melville Island, which, we
