: The Loss of the Australia A narrative of the loss of the brig Australia by fire on her voyage from Leith to Sydney by Yule Adam M Gavin James R Editor - Shipwrecks South Atlantic Ocean; Australia (Brig); Shipwreck survival South Atlantic Ocean; Castaways

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tion, and found the latitude 34 deg. 49 min. south, and calculated our longitude at 11 deg. 40 min. east. A little wine was distributed this day along with the usual allowance of water, which was greedily swallowed. Towards evening another earnest appeal came from the people in the skiff for an additional allowance of water, which I was compelled to refuse. Contrary to my injunctions, they had swallowed their allowance at one draught, and were therefore in agony till the time for next day's supply. I learned, also, that some of them had begun to drink salt water, which I sought in vain to prevent. I told them that if they persisted they would become delirious, which, alas! was soon too painfully realized.

Again evening and morning came, and still as our course lengthened our woes increased. The night and morning were intensely cold, and a hollow sea again had drenched us to the skin. The people seemed to have reached a state of utter exhaustion, not unmingled with the indifference of despair. They appeared to have lost all relish for food, and water was the only cry; several of them had persisted in taking salt water, which it was impossible to prevent, as there were but eight or nine inches of free side from the sea, so that they put out their hand through the night and took it. The consequence was, that two in our boat, and the same number in the skiff, were quite delirious, while several others in both boats gave symptoms of the same distressing state. The ladies throughout behaved with magnanimity, and even the endurance of the children was admirable. The best arrangements were indeed made for them which we could command. We appropriated the stern sheets to the ladies, as the most comfortable; and for their accommodation I had to sit upon the gunwale, while steering the boat. This post was only filled by the mate and myself, as there was no other to whom I could confide it; but he, being very unwell, from having been crushed by the water-cask, the heaviest share of the duty devolved upon me. The skiff was managed by Thomas Souter and George Davidson, whose excellent seamanship was beyond all praise. The people seemed to be so depressed and inclined to sleep, that in the evening I mixed a little rum with their allowance of water, which partially revived them. The night was setting in very gloomily, and as our evening song mingled with the rising tempest, I am sure that our hearts sympathized with its plea. It was Psalm vi.

Lord, in thy wrath rebuke me not; Nor in thy hot rage chasten me, &c.

Let troubles rise, and terrors frown, And days of darkness fall, Through Him all dangers we'll defy, And more than conquer all.

THE FORLORN LANDING.

"They are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then are they glad because they be quiet."

About five o'clock the skiff hailed us, and communicated the melancholy tidings that the lad John Chisholm was dead. This was the first breach made among us, and it fell among our wasting company like a forerunner of our own fate. We were all closely "round the grave's devouring mouth," and now that it had found its first victim, we felt assured that others would follow. George Peat, in our boat, was only in life, and several persons in both boats were visibly sinking fast into the same unconscious state. I felt this visitation bitterly, as I was in full hope of reaching land in a few hours, and was sustained--by the signal mercy hitherto enjoyed--in the pleasing expectation that "God would have given us the lives of all who sailed with us." But "He who doeth according to his will" had deemed it otherwise, and our hearts smote us to think that we had been preserved amid many perils, possibly only to perish on the threshold of deliverance.

Visions of land floated before our aching and anxious gaze throughout that weary night, and often we supposed that we could detect the dim outline of the headlands between the sea and sky. Still we trembled in uncertainty until morning came; but when the sun arose, it looked down upon us from behind the African hills, which stood in distinct outline before us at the distance of twelve miles. Then every heart bounded with hope, and the fading energies of life revived within us. We greeted the glad spectacle with our morning incense, and poured out our thanksgiving to God our Ebenezer. There was a beautiful propriety in the subject of our song, which then rose on the morning air, from the margin of that mighty ocean. It was Psalm xlvi.,

"God is our refuge and our strength, In straits a present aid; Therefore although the earth remove, We will not be afraid.

Scarcely had these sublime words passed our lips, ere we felt the awful importance and value of the holy sentiment. Our eyes could now detect a long line of frowning and iron-bound coast, fringed only with foam, and hoary with tremendous breakers. No friendly opening was visible, along that fearful barrier, and we looked in vain for some quiet creek amid the strife, where ocean might peacefully surrender the helpless charge which longed for escape from its horrors. As if to increase the solemnity of our condition, the wind at this time began to rise, and a heavy ground swell rolled in from the south-west, so that it needed no ordinary faith to prepare with calmness for the approaching crisis. But our only course was to face the danger, and trust to God for deliverance. I sent the small boat ahead, to examine the coast, if possible to find a creek for convenient landing, it being lighter than our boat, and having thafts for easy rowing, which we had not. I then sought to rally the spirits of my crew by a little exertion; getting out the oars, I exhorted them to try the exercise of rowing a little, and took a spell myself. With great difficulty I succeeded in inducing the most of them to make the attempt, and we felt the benefit of the effort, in a freer circulation of our blood, which served to relax our stiffened joints, and relieved us of the cold shivering.

This signal deliverance--alike so gracious and remarkable--revealed in all its course and accomplishment, the direct and immediate agency of God, and could be attributed solely to his marked interposition and care. No human foresight or management could have availed to preserve so helpless a company in such extremities. With boats so frail, and means of sustenance so slender, nothing less than Omnipotent kindness could have sustained us throughout a voyage so disproportionate to all our preparations, and so encompassed with exceeding dangers. If our course, indeed, revealed no miracles, it was at least replete with special mercies; for had we been visited by a few days of head winds, or been overtaken by any of the fearful squalls so common in Cape seas, or even made our landfall on a bold and unbroken coast, not one of us would have survived in such a case to tell the tale of our disasters, and our last struggles would have been hid in the dark and terrible secrets of ocean, which, like the grave, gives no revelations. We had been led to look to God in all our way: even the good order and discipline which had been maintained, we felt we owed to his grace; and while we had used our best endeavours for our preservation, yet without his blessing, we were conscious that every exertion must have been without avail. Therefore, when God had "been better to us than our fears," and "redeemed our lives from destruction," our utmost gratitude was due to him, and we invite men "to see his hand," and "to praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men."

If it had been possible, at that solemn hour, to have forgotten or overlooked the signal kindness of heaven, even the continuous manifestations of Divine goodness to us must have, on the instant, rebuked such base ingratitude. Scarcely had the feet of our forlorn company been permitted to touch the shore, when the storm, which had lulled previously to our landing, burst forth with redoubled fury, and raged without intermission during the whole time that we remained in that place. The sea arose in ungovernable wrath, and as it lashed the shore, lifted our little boats upon its billows to a height of forty or fifty feet upon the beach. The narrow channel through which we had reached the shore in safety instantly became one scene of boiling surge, which would have shattered to pieces the proudest bark, and engulphed every living thing on board of her. Who could fail to discover the striking proof of a special and gracious Providence in this occurrence? If it be said that such sudden storms frequently occur in these latitudes, still the question arises,--why did that storm come at the precise moment when we were immediately out of the reach of its fury? There can be but one answer to this inquiry,--it was the good pleasure of him "who gave to the sea its decree, that it cannot pass, and who compasseth its waters with bounds." Our company stood awe-stricken at the sight. We looked back upon the scene of destruction, from which we had so recently escaped, with mingled feelings of dismay and gratitude. Our deliverance, indeed, was not yet complete. Alas! who could tell whether,--"having escaped the sea,--vengeance might yet suffer us to live?" "The perils of the wilderness" lay before us in all their unknown horrors of toil, and thirst, and frightful famine. Still we had been delivered from "the floods that affrighted us,"--our bosoms swelled with the full sense of our rescue, and while we raised our song of deliverance and poured out our grateful prayers to God, there were many devout hearts in our circle who could appropriate the sentiment of the poet:--

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