and truly the horrors which continually presented themselves, joined
to the oppressive midnight shadow and stillness which hung over the
place of doom, would have damaged the nerve of a football referee.

We reached the basin through a series of open brick-works, used as
timber stores, on its north side. Everything was darkness and
desertion. The moon was rising far beyond the West Port away in our
front, but it was in the last quarter and afforded little light. There
were very few stars visible. The night had turned piercingly cold, but
so great was my mental anxiety and excitement that I seemed unaffected
in body by the severity of the weather. With the lantern we began to
search about for a boat, at first without success. In a square-shaped
inlet or creek a little above the dockyard we presently came upon
another horrifying spectacle. A junk lay stranded in the shallows. It
was literally full of dead bodies, and many lay on the adjacent shore.
The unfortunates had evidently been pursued down to where the junk
lay, and slaughtered before they could get it off. It struck me that
what we were looking for, a boat, might in all probability be found on
board the fatal vessel. It lay heeled over broadside to the beach, and
I waded out to it through the shallow water. I gained the upper deck
with some difficulty and stood amidst the mass of carnage. Rifle-balls
had done the work of death. Many of the bodies were in army uniforms.
I could find only two boats. One, a mere cockle-shell, had been
perforated by bullets and rendered useless. Another lay inboard on the
quarter-deck, but it was so filled and covered with corpses that at
first I did not notice it. It seemed in fair condition, but the task
of ridding it of its horrible freight was so repugnant that I
returned on shore to resume the search for one elsewhere. It was in
vain, however; all we could find in the vicinity was an old sampan,
which besides being very leaky, was more than three men could manage,