midday
The leak had now increased to an alarming extent , so that we found it would be impossible to carry the ship safe into port . We therefore hastily threw our clothes , papers , and eight casks of silver , into the long-boat ; and before we were fifty yards from the ship , we saw her go down . Some of the underwriters in New York , as I have since learnt , had the conscience to contend that we left the ship sooner than was necessary , and have suffered themselves to be sued for the sums they had severally insured . It was a little after midday when we reached the town , which is perched on a high bluff , overlooking the coasts , and contains about a thousand houses , built of bamboo , and covered with palm leaves . Our dress , appearance , language , and the manner of our arrival , excited great surprise among the natives , and the liveliest curiosity ; but with these sentiments some evidently mingled no very friendly feelings . The Burmese were then on the eve of a rupture with the East India Company , a fact which we had not before known ; and mistaking us for English , they supposed , or affected to suppose , that we belonged to a fleet which was about to invade them , and that our ship had been sunk before their eyes , by the tutelar divinity of the country . We were immediately carried before their governor , or chief magistrate , who ordered our baggage to be searched , and finding that it consisted principally of silver , he had no doubt of our hostile intentions .