The arrival of a party of the Preventive Service that evening, in some
measure proved a check to the plunder of the peasantry; but the guards
themselves were not proof against the prevailing infection, and similar
scenes to that related, prevailed as long as there was any thing left to
drink or pick up; however, a considerable part of the cargo was safely
stowed, though there were few of the rum casks that did not afterwards
turn out impregnated with bilge water.
On a fine grey morning, about a week after these events occurred, I
wandered out towards the shore: there had been rough weather in the
channel, and many wrecks, and the turbulence of the ocean had not yet
subsided. It was about half-flood when I reached the _Bonne Esperance_.
She had disappeared by piece-meal under the repeated assaults of the sea,
but the principal part of the hull was still hanging together. Each wave
as it struck her tattered timbers, seemed to sap away her strength and
threatened to shake her to fragments.
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