towing by the fore-tackle, behind the burning ship;
and as no one cut the tow-rope, the miserable passengers,
who were all huddled together, were one after the other
washed into the sea. The mail-boat, which was also
full of people, having shipped a quantity of water, went
down alongside. When the flames had approached the
after companion, two male passengers came up from the
saloon, all in flames, and running aft, fell on the deck.
A tall lady entreated some one to take care of her child;
but she would not enter either of the boats. Dineford,
the quartermaster, placed one lady passenger in a boat;
but she, being extremely agitated, got out again, and
although Henry Williams and another used some force
and begged her to go in, she persisted in remaining on
board. The stewardess, Mrs. Scott, with her bonnet
and shawl on, and something in her hand, first asked
Steer to put her in the dingy, and then left for a larger
boat. At the time of leaving, some of those who yet
lived were kneeling on the deck praying to God for
mercy; while others, almost in a state of nudity, were
running about screaming with horror. The greatest
part of the survivors escaped in the after-starboard
second life-boat, in which was Mr. Neilson. One of her
occupants (Maylin), in leaving, pressed his foot through
the burning deck and injured it; two others (Williams
and Passmore) had to climb the starboard paddle-box
through the flames and smoke. They succeeded after
three attempts, and then slid down hands and face over
the paddle-box into the boat; several went down by the
tackles. Two of the watch below (Williams and Foster)
had their hair burnt while coming on deck. When the
life-boat left there were sixteen on board; they heard
some one shouting in the water, and threw over a keg
and some oars. They endeavoured to approach, but a
sea carried the boat off. They then took Mr. Vincent,
Mr. Williamson, Mr. Sisley, and two sailors, from the
dingy, and making her fast to the stern, towed after the
burning wreck, thinking to save more lives; but the
dingy having filled, they were obliged to cut her adrift,
and, fearing that they themselves should be swamped,
their boat's head was put to face the sea. Twelve oars
were at work, the wind was increasing, and heavy
squalls coming on. They saw the ship's gig full of
people, shouting as if for assistance, and at the same
time descried a sail standing apparently to the southward.
The vessel appeared to pass between the two
boats, and after this the gig was not seen; whether she
was swamped or was taken up by the stranger is
unknown. The strange vessel came pretty close under the
life-boat's stern, when all shouted together, and thought
they were answered on board: she was a barque, under
close-reefed topsails, foresail, and fore-topmast staysail;
her spanker was hanging in the brails as if she was in
the act of wearing. Soon after her helm was put
up, and she bore right down towards the wreck,
behind which she disappeared. The masts of the
steamer went over before four o'clock in the morning, the
foremast on the port and the mainmast on the starboard
side. One poor fellow appeared at the jib-boom end;
the jib was cut loose, and was blowing away. Her
mizenmast was still standing while she was in flames
from stem to stern. About five o'clock, when the lifeboat
was passing the ship in a leewardly direction, the
gunpowder in her two magazines aft exploded; and in
about twenty minutes, the mizen having gone by the
board, she made a heavy lurch and went down, her
funnels being red hot and still standing.

The lost passengers are Messieurs De Pass and Delgado,
Mr. Fellows, and Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Wiiiton, Jamaica;
Mr. Best and servant, Messieurs Callender and Stirling,
and Mr. Alleyne, Barbadoes; Mr. Johnston, Mr. Burnett,
and Mr. and Mrs. Scotland, Trinidad; Mr. Hick and
Mr. and Mrs. M'Clinnow, Demerara; Mr. Eliot
Warburton (the author of "The Crescent and the Cross");
Mr. Geraud, M. and Madame Lacombe and child;
M. Kersaboe, and Mr. Dellemare, Chagres; Mr. M. Del
Rio, Margaret Fitzgerald, and M. Fevrier, Vera Cruz;
Mr. Joel, Jamaica; Mr. Cuming, St. Thomas; Mr.
Cardennas, Santa Martha; Mr. Anthony, and Mr. Hamilton,
Jamaica; Mr. Ferrear, Grace Hoare, and Mr.
Granier, Vera Cruz; Mr. Crevecowst, St. Thomas;
Mr. Le Fave, Guadaloupe. The superior officers of
the ship who perished are William Symonds, commander;
Henry Roberts, chief officer; Charles H. Treweeke,
second officer; John Lewis, third officer; George D.
Goodridge, fourth officer; James W. Fullerton, surgeon;
M. H. Strutt, purser; Francis Stainforth, midshipman;
William K. Stuart, midshipman; Thomas Walter Shapcott,
purser's assistant. The petty officers are George
Angus, chief engineer; Debray Theophile, French cook;
and three other cooks; and Joseph Kirby, the baker.
The rest of those lost were seamen and firemen. The
crew were picked men, and Captain Symonds was
distinguished for his skill and cool intrepidity. The value
of the Amazon when ready for sea was about £100,000.
The loss of that sum falls entirely upon the insurance-
fund of the company,—a fund exclusively devoted from
annual grants derived from the profits of the Company
towards such casualties. The value of the specie, quick-
silver, cargo, &c., when added to the value of the ship,
will give a total loss of property of little less than
£200,000 sterling. The passengers rescued in the
lifeboat are Mr. Hawes, Vera Cruz; Mr. Neilson of Liverpool,
bound for Demerara; Mr. T. Sisley, bound for
Chagres. The officers of the crew saved are Mr. Vincent,
jun., midshipman; and Mr. James Williamson, the
chief steward. The rest of the people saved are
Mr. Dunsford, quarter-master, and fifteen seamen and
firemen. The persons saved and landed at Brest are
Mrs. Anna Maria Smith, Mrs. Eleanor Roper M'Clennan,
and her infant, Mr. Bernardo Barricorn, Mr.
Frederick Glennie, Mr. John Stryburn, and Mr. William
Evans. Among members of the crew now saved are
Mr. William Stone, engineer; Mr. Jacob Allen (Messrs.
Seaward and Capel's foreman,) George Deal and
Alexander Laing, quartermasters, and Michael Gould, second
steward. The circumstances connected with Mrs.
M'Clennan's escape are most interesting. Upon the
alarm being given she wrapped her infant in a shawl,
and rushed upon deck; she was put into a boat without
any garments but her night clothes. Into this boat
fifteen or twenty persons placed themselves, but being
unable to free the stern tackle, the bow went almost
perpendicularly down; some fell into the sea, others
scrambled up into the ship again. Mrs. M'Clennan was
partly thrown into the sea, but her strong maternal
feelings enabled her to save both herself and the child.
She clung with her arm to one of the seats of the boat
that was fast, and holding the child with the other,
remained in a nearly vertical position for half an hour.
Just when she became aware that she could not hold
on much longer, the two engineers and others—the last
to leave the ship—rushed to the boat, freed it from the
tackle, and jumped into the boat before it could get
away. Mrs. M'Clennan was very much bruised, and in
this trying situation remained seventeen hours, almost
the whole time up to her waist in water, from the sea
breaking over the boat, without food and without clothes.
Even the infant's shawl they were obliged to make a
sail of, in order to keep the boat before the wind.
Seventeen hours after she escaped from her berth, she
was lifted, almost insensible, but still clinging to her
child, on board the vessel that rescued the party.
Among the persons saved in the last boat were the
Rev. Mr. Blood, Mr. Kilkelley, Lieutenant Grylls, R.N.,
and Senor Juan de Cima, passengers; and Mr. William
Angus, the second engineer.

The directors of the Royal Mail Steam-packet
Company commenced at Southampton, on the 8th, an
investigation into the circumstances of the disaster.
Mr. T. Baring, M.P., Chairmain of the Company,
presided; and Captain Corry, of the Royal Navy,
attended from the Admiralty. All the surviving
passengers and crew were examined at great length
on several successive days. By some, the fire was
ascribed to the friction of the "bearings" of the
engines, which were new and did not yet work smoothly:
but this supposition was contradicted by the evidence of
Mr. William Angus, the second engineer. The fire, in
his opinion, originated between the starboard fore
boiler and the bulkhead. Judging from the glare of
the flame when he first saw it, it commenced below,
and caught the store-room as it rose. He could only
conjecture that it must have been caused by spontaneous
combustion. The painters and other mechanics
at work, before starting, might have dropped down