Being thrust back and striving the more to get out, the afterhatch was forced down upon them.
Over the other hatchway, in the fore part of the vessel, a wooden grating was fastened.

To this, the sole inlet for the air, the suffocating heat of the hold and, perhaps, panic from the strangeness of their situation, made them flock, and thus a great part of the space below was rendered useless.
They crowded to the grating and clinging to it for air, completely barred its entrance.

They strove to force their way through apertures in length fourteen inches and barely six inches in breadth, and in some instances succeeded.

The cries, the heat, I may say without exaggeration, the smoke of their torment which ascended can be compared to nothing earthly.

One of the Spaniards gave warning that the consequences would be 'many deaths;' this prediction was fearfully verified, for the next morning 54 crushed and mangled corpses were brought to the gangway and thrown overboard.