Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/14

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CHAPTER I.

In which the Author gives an Account of his outward Voyage and Shipwreck.

I sailed from New York on the 6th of September, 1814, in the good ship Columbia, which never returned to any part of the United States, nor, until this publication, was ever heard of in any kingdom of the world. We were bound to China by the way of New South Wales, and as our voyage for nearly three months was prosperous and without unusual accident, I pass it by altogether.—On the 10th of February a storm arose, which soon increasing to a hurricane, accompanied with the most tremendous thunder and lightning, our ship, by the pressure of the one and the stroke of the other, became in a few hours an unmanageable wreck, her rudder being torn away, and her masts levelled with the decks. For nearly a month from that period a journal would be

dismal