The Camden journal. [volume] (Camden, S.C.) 1836-1851, 1840-05-02

| 'llduc every eHeTllOH tldt courage COuiG
prompt or hardihood endure. But SO fear.
ful We're the wind and cold, that the stout
es- man was not able to strike more than
two blows in cutting away the mast with
out being relieved by another. The
wretched people thronged together upon
the quarter deck, which was crowded al
most to sufocation. They were exhaust
ed with toll and suffering, but could obtain
neither provisions nor fresh water. They
all were covered by the deep sea when the
vessel became wreck. But unfor-
tunately the crew got access to ardent
spirits, and many of them drank to intoxi-
cation. Insubordination, mutiny, and
madness ensued. The officers remained
clear minded, but lost all authority over
the crew who raved around them. A
more frightful scene can scarcely be ina
gincd. The dark sky, the raging storm,
the waves breaking Wild over the rocks,
and threateing every moment to swal-
low up the broken vessel, and the half
frozen beings who maintained their icy
hold on life, lost to reason and to duty, or
fighting fercely with each other. Some
lay in disgusting stupidity, others with fiery
faces, blasphemed God. Some in tempo
rary delirium fancied themselves in palaces
surrounded by luxury, and brutally abused
the servants, who they supposed had re
fused to do their biddpgs'---Others there
were, who, amid the beating of that pitt
less tempest, believed themselves in the
home that they never more must see, and
with hollow reproachful voices besought
bread, and wondered why water was with
held from them by the hands that were
most dear. A few whose worst passions
were qulckened by alcohol to fiend like
fury, assaulted or wounded those who
came in their way making shrieks Of de-
fiance, and their curses heard above the
roar of the acknowledgements never
displayed itself in more distressing atti-
tudes. At length death began to do his
work. The miserable creatures fell dead
every hour upon the deck. being frozen
stiff and hard. Each corpse, as it became
breathless, was laid upon the heap ofdead,
that more space might be left for the sur
rivors. Those who drank most freely
were the first to perish. On the third
day of these horrors. the inhabitants of
Plymouth, after making many Intellectual
attempts reached the wreck, not without
danger. What melancholy spectacle. |.
Llfeless bodies stiffened in every form
that suffering could devise. Many lay in
vast pile. Others sat with their hands
reclining on their knees; others grasping
the ice-covered ropes; some in a posture
of defence like the dying gladiator; others
with hands held up to heaven, as if de-
precating their fate. Orders were given
to search earnestly for every mark or sign
of life. One boy was distinguished amid
the mass of the dead, only by the trem-
bling ofone ofhis eyelids. The poor sur
vivors were kindly received into the houses
of the people of Plymouth, & every effort
used for their restoration. The Captain,
and Lieutenant, and few others, who
had abstained from the use of ardent spirits
survived. The remainder were buried,
some in separate graves, and others in
large pit, whose hollow is still to be seen
on the southwest side Of the burial ground
Plymouth. The funeral obsequies were
most solemn.--When the clergyman who
was to perform the last service first en-
tered, and saw more than seventy dead
bodies, some fixing upon him their stoncy
eyes, and others with faces stiffened INTO
the horrible expressions of their last NOR
tai agony, he was so affected as to
faint.
Some were brought on shore alive and
received every attention, but survived only
a short time. Others were restored, after
long sickness, but with their limbs so injur-
cd by the frost, as to become cripples for
life. In village, at some distance from
Plymouth, widowed mother, and her
daughter, were constantly attending a
couch On which lay a sufferer. 1t. was
the boy whose trembling eye-lid attracted
the notice ofpity, as he lay among the
dead.
Mother" he said, in a feeble tone,
God bless you for having taught me to
avoid ardent spirits. 1t was this that sa-
we'd me.-Aftcr those around me grew
intoxicated, had enough to do to protect
myself from them. Some attacked and
dared me to fight. Others pressed the
poisonous draug Int to my lips and babe
~