The same beneficent Providence which had been so wonderfully exerted for the preservation of hundreds, was pleased, by a still more striking and unquestionable display of power and goodness, to avert the fate of a portion of those few who, we had all too much reason to fear, were doomed to destruction. It would appear--for the poor men themselves give an extremely confused, though I am persuaded not a wilfully false account of themselves--that shortly after the departure of the last boat they were driven by the flames to seek shelter on the chains, where they stood until the masts fell overboard, to which they then clung for some hours, in a state of horror that no language can describe; until they were, most providentially, I may say miraculously, discovered and picked up by Captain Bibbey, the humane commander of the _Caroline_, a vessel on its passage from Egypt to Liverpool, who happened, to see the explosion at a great distance, and instantly made all sail in the direction whence it proceeded. Along with the fourteen men thus miraculously preserved were three others, who had expired before the arrival of the _Caroline_ to their rescue.[10] The men on their return to their regiment expressed themselves in terms of the liveliest gratitude for the affectionate attentions they received on board the _Caroline_, from Captain Bibbey, who considerately remained till daylight close to the wreck, in the hope that some others might still be found clinging to it--an act of humanity which, it will appear on the slightest reflection, would have been madness in Captain Cook, in the peculiar situation of the _Cambria_, to have attempted. But when I recollect the lamentable state of exhaustion to which that portion of the crew were reduced, who unshrinkingly performed to the last their arduous and perilous duties,--and that out of the three boats that remained afloat, one was only prevented from sinking, towards the close of the night, by having the hole in its bottom repeatedly stuffed with soldiers' jackets, while the other two were rendered inefficient, the one by having its bow completely stove, and the second by being half filled with water, and the thwarts so torn as to make it necessary to lash the oars to the boat's ribs,--I must believe that, by those who thus laboured, all was done that humanity could possibly demand, or intrepidity effect, for the preservation of every individual.