ten o'clock at
night
She was a sloop of about seventy tons . She had evidently been caught totally unprepared by the hurricane , and every soul on board had been hurried into eternity . Finding that there would be no use in waiting longer near the spot , for there was not the slightest probability that anyone was floating on any part of the wreck in the neighbourhood , I again hauled my wind , and stood to the northward . At ten o'clock at night a fresh gale sprang up , which compelled me once more to bring-to under a reefed foresail . I am thus particular in narrating details of events which led to a most disastrous result . Truly we can not tell what a day may bring forth . I had fallen in with no merchantmen , which would have been a most suspicious circumstance , had I not supposed that they might have been lost in the hurricane , or run into port for shelter , otherwise I should have supposed that they had fallen into the power of the cruisers of the enemy .