64 VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. cn,vr. in. ship broke in two at the after hatchway, and by daylight a small part of the forecastle was all that remained visible of the fore part of the ship. The officers and crew and some of the passengers had sought refuge in the rigging. The rest of the passengers, including the women and children, assisted and encouraged by the second and third officers, and one of the seamen, remained in great peril from the floods of water that poured down into their cabins and drove them to the poop. Here they continued in a state of fearful uncertainty until about six o’clock on the following morning, when, as sisted by the two officers and the sailor already mentioned, they passed along by the mast, as by a bridge or pathway from the wreck to the shore. Here they found themselves upon a mass of fragments of rugged volcanic rock, extending from forty to one hundred yards, and terminating in a steep inaccessible precipice of rock two or three hundred feet high. For the first two nights and days all remained in this exposed situation, with only the clothes they happened to have on; but a bale of flannel and woollen shirts being washed on shore, furnished them with a more ample supply of clothing. They also collected amongst the fragments of rock a small quantity of damaged provisions, on which they might have barely subsisted for a few days. For the first two days a biscuit a day was served out to each one, but afterwards their supply was limited to half a biscuit, and, so long as they lasted, a herring a day. On the third day they removed to a spot nearly a mile distant from the place of their wreck, where, an ascent to the summit of the cliff being found, a rude encampment was formed on the heights. A pole was then erected, and a couple of red shirts and some white flannel hoisted as a signal of distress. This, on the fol lowing morning, was seen by an American whaler cruising off the island, but who was unable for some time, on account of the weather, to hold any communication with the shipwrecked