“1st. The women and children to disembark (of these there were about seventy). 2d. The sick to disembark after the women and children. 3d. The disembarkation of the troops to take place by the companies of the Ninety-first drawing lots; the detachments of the Twenty-seventh Regiment and of the Cape Mounted Riflemen taking the precedence. 4th. The men to fall in on the upper deck, fully armed and accoutred, carrying their knapsacks and great-coats. 5th. Each officer to be allowed to take a carpet-bag or small portmanteau. “The disembarkation of the women and children and of the sick occupied from half-past eight until ten o’clock A.M. The detachments of the Twenty-seventh Regiment and of the Cape Mounted Riflemen followed. That of the Ninety-first was arranged by the wings drawing lots, and then the companies of each wing. “At half-past ten A.M., one of the surf-boats which had been employed up to this time in taking the people off the wreck, was required to assist in saving the lives of those on board the ‘Waterloo’ convict ship, which was in still more imminent peril, about a quarter of a mile from the ‘Abercrombie Robinson.’ “Having now but one boat to disembark four hundred and fifty men, and the wind and sea, which had subsided a little since daylight, beginning again to rise, together with the captain’s apprehension that she might go to pieces before sunset—which (however unfounded, as was afterwards proved,) powerfully influenced Captain Gordon’s arrangements—it became necessary to abandon the men’s knapsacks, as they not only filled a greater space in the surf-boats than could be spared, but took a long time to hand down the ship’s side. The knapsacks had been brought on deck, but were now, for these reasons, sent below again, and stowed away in the women’s standing-berths. “The officers were likewise informed that they would not be allowed to take more than each could carry on his arm. The disembarkation of the six companies went on regularly, but slowly, from eleven A.M. until half-past three P.M.; there being but one boat, which could only hold thirty men at a time. At half-past three P.M., the last boat-load left the ship’s side. It contained those of the ship’s officers and crew who had remained to the last; the sergeant-major of the reserve battalion Ninety-first; one or two non-commissioned officers, who had requested permission to remain; Captain Gordon, Ninety-first Regiment; and Lieutenant Black, R.N., agent of transports. This officer had dined at Government House the night before, but came on board the wreck with one of the first surf-boats that reached it on the following morning. “Nearly seven hundred souls completed their disembarkation after a night of great peril, and through a raging surf, without the occurrence of a single casualty. Among them were many women and children, and several sick men, of whom two were supposed to be dying.