Chapter 15 - Page 2

sight, and the
"Chancellor" were ascertained to be stranded on some isolated
reef, all we could do would be to get her afloat, and put her
into condition for reaching the nearest coast. Curtis told us
that it was long since he had been able to take any observation
of altitude, but there was no doubt the north-west wind had
driven us far to the south; and he thought, as he was ignorant of
the existence of any reef in this part of the Atlantic, that it
was just possible that we had been driven on to the coast of some
portion of South America.

I reminded him that we were in momentary expectation of an
explosion, and suggested that it would be advisable to abandon
the ship and take refuge on the reef. But he would not hear of
such a proceeding, said that the reef would probably be covered
at high tide, and persisted in the original resolution, that no
decided action could be taken before the daylight appeared.

I immediately reported this decision of the captain to my fellow
passengers. None of them seem to realize the new danger to which
the "Chancellor" may be exposed by being cast upon an unknown
reef, hundreds of miles it may be from land. All are for the
time possessed with one idea, one hope; and that is, that the
fire may now be quenched and the explosion averted.

And certainly their hopes seem in a fair way of being fulfilled.
Already the raging flames that poured forth from the hatches have
given place to dense black smoke, and although occasionally some
fiery streaks dart across the dusky fumes, yet they are instantly
extinguished. The waves are doing what pumps and buckets could
never have effected; by their inundation they are steadily
stifling the fire which was as steadily spreading to the whole
bulk of the 1700 bales of cotton.