We now anticipated a catastrophe, and were not disappointed.

First of all there came a smart shock (which we felt as distinctly where we were as if we had been slightly galvanized), but unattended with any visible signs of an explosion.

The savages were evidently startled, and paused for an instant from their labours and yellings.

They were upon the point of recommencing, when suddenly a mass of smoke puffed up from the decks, resembling a black and heavy thundercloud--then, as if from its bowels, arose a tall stream of vivid fire to the height, apparently, of a quarter of a mile--then there came a sudden circular expansion of the flame--then the whole atmosphere was magically crowded, in a single instant, with a wild chaos of wood, and metal, and human limbs-and, lastly, came the concussion in its fullest fury, which hurled us impetuously from our feet, while the hills echoed and re-echoed the tumult, and a dense shower of the minutest fragments of the ruins tumbled headlong in every direction around us.
The havoc among the savages far exceeded our utmost expectation, and they had now, indeed, reaped the full and perfect fruits of their treachery.

Perhaps a thousand perished by the explosion, while at least an equal number were desperately mangled.