At length we pulled away. The silence remained unbroken
for an hour. Finally, I hazarded a remark.
"Did you observe, captain, how suddenly they sank? Was not that an
exceedingly singular thing? I confess that I entertained some
feeble hope of his final deliverance, when I saw him lash himself
to the box, and commit himself to the sea."
"They sank as a matter of course," replied the captain, "and that
like a shot. They will soon rise again, however--BUT NOT TILL THE
SALT MELTS."
"The salt!" I ejaculated.
"Hush!" said the captain, pointing to the wife and sisters of the
deceased. "We must talk of these things at some more appropriate
time."
We suffered much, and made a narrow escape, but fortune befriended
us, as well as our mates in the long-boat. We landed, in fine,
more dead than alive, after four days of intense distress, upon the
beach opposite Roanoke Island. We remained here a week, were not
ill-treated by the wreckers, and at length obtained a passage to
New York.
About a month after the loss of the "Independence," I happened to
meet Captain Hardy in Broadway.
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