"There were then eight of us left on board,--the eight that you have rescued. We had made preparations for lowering the quarter-boat, and now that the long boat was gone we went at work as fast as we could. Owing to the pumps having been stopped, the ship was settling deeper into the water every minute, and threatening to go out from under us before long. We put some food and water on board, and a few articles of clothing for the women; and then we were lucky enough to get the boat afloat without accident, though she took in several barrels of water before we were able to get clear from the ship. It was understood that we were to stay in our places just as we got into them from the ship. Captain Woods took one of his compasses, and enough of his instruments to work out our position; but the instruments were of very little use to us at the start, as it made no difference to us where our position was when we were hundreds of miles from land in every direction. "Captain Woods is a hard master, and he keeps regular man-of-war discipline on his ship. We have often thought him a very severe man, but his severity came in handy when we were cast away in the boat. "We had four oars, and there was a mast and a place to ship it, but there was no sail; we made a sail out of a piece of canvas and got along very well. Our nearest land was the Bermuda Islands, and so we steered in that direction, after seeing the ship go down, which she did within an hour after we took to the boat. She plunged headforemost, throwing her stern completely into the air; I suppose that's because the heaviest part of her cargo was forward. "The captain served out the provisions and water very sparingly, and we grumbled a little at the way he treated us, but you may be sure we didn't grumble out aloud, or we might have been pitched overboard. It was about two in the afternoon when we saw the ship go down. The captain said it was no use wasting our strength rowing, and so we simply lay there on the water until we could rig the sail I told you about. That sail was useful to us in more ways than one, for every time there came a shower we spread it out and got all the water we could. As it turned out, we had water and provisions enough for our purpose in the way the captain served them out; but I'm afraid we would have run very short if we had been obliged to go to the Bermudas in that open boat.