teer their services. Seven seamen and three officers, including the captain of marines, had already taken their seats in the boat, when I learnt the circumstance, and instantly filled up the remaining vacant place.

All was now ready for lowering us down into the angry waves, when the commander ordered me out of the boat, and gave my situation to a stronger person. Filled with anger at being singled out, and denied what I considered as my privilege, I quitted that part of the deck, and descended below, without staying to see how the others succeeded. Here I had not indulged my sullen resentment more than five minutes, before I learnt, that the instant the boat was launched into the water, one wave of the breaking surf dashed it against the ship's side and broke all the oars, and a second completely overwhelmed them in the deep to rise no more! This intelligence stopped my murmuring, but it did not extort one sentence of thanksgiving, or lead me to see the hand of God in it! I merely thought, that as things had turned out, I was better where I then found myself!

By four o'clock the boats were enabled to pass and repass; and before dark about two hundred of the crew were taken from the wreck.

It may not be improper to observe, that, as this ship had been but newly commissioned, the officers and men were strangers to each other, and could not, and did not feel

any of that personal respect for, and attachment towards each other which happily sometimes exists in our vessels of war. Hence all this desirable influence was lost to the officers, while much insubordination was ex

hibited by the seamen generally during the whole of this melancholy event, the evils of which were severely felt; particularly when the boats, from time to time, came for more men; numbers rushing into them not only obstructed the commanding lieutenant in executing the regular duty, but even endangered their own lives, and actually prevented many more from getting away in the same time.

Not willing to add to these scenes of confusion and disorder, I kept back until night began to set in, and the weather had much changed for the worse. Two boats were now coming alongside, evidently for the last time. The remaining half of the crew, more than ever anxious to escape the dangers of another night on board the wreck, were hanging over the side, if possible, to gain a place. Few of them, indeed, could be received into two boats, yet every man hoped to be amongst those few. When I saw things in this state, I not only considered it my duty to make the attempt, in common with others, but regretted I had not done it earlier. That God, however, whose blessing I did not implore, was pleased to favour me; for, while numbers failed, I succeeded in leaping from the deck into one of them, and by that means was saved. Having reached the brig and put the men on board, I returned again in the boat to - endeavour to obtain another cargo of passengers; but by the time we came thither, the night and all the harbingers of a storm had overtaken us, and so much increased the anxiety of those on board the wreck to obtain a place in this last boat, that we were afraid to approach near them, feeling certain that we should all be swamped to

gether. Hence we obtained but five individuals, whom with much difficulty, we conveyed on board the brig, where we ourselves also continued for the present.

Those who remained on the wreck passed such a night as none can form any idea of but they who have experienced similar calamities. The sea continued to beat and break over them till nearly day-light; and though they had lashed themselves to the highest and most sheltered parts, yet many were swept away into the sea, and many were drowned in the wreck; including a party who had gained access to a rum puncheon, and who sat and deliberately drank of its contents until they were drowned on the spot. But it pleased the Lord to send a fine morning, and in the course of the succeeding day the survivors were taken from their miserable situation, and conveyed on board our fleet in the Texel. As to the state of my mind while in the Nwas such as I know not how to explain. It was a mixture of something like occasional morality, with much of the reprobate and blasphemous description. Having a little turn for making verses, I might be found one hour writing in a moral strain, and the next giving a loose to all manner of profaneness. The only part of my versified moral productions which I now recollect, is what I called "The Sailor's Prayer." It consisted of a few petitions to the God of the universe, to give me wisdom and courage under all the varieties of naval duty. It ran thus:

May He who rules the boundless whole
Instruct my mind, enlarge my soul,

it

And teach to shape the trackless course,
O'er distant seas, through current's force.
In night's dark gloom, and tempest's howl,
With steady courage arm my soul,
Not deaf to danger, but resigned,
Whate'er his will, in hope to find
A helper in that solemn hour,
When death o'er tars usurps his power.

Should sudden squalls our bark assail
And spring a mast, or split a sail,
May thy kind hand direct me still
To act my part and do thy will!
If launch'd o'erboard in stormy day,
Thy goodness still to me display,
As on the briny wave I float,
To gain some friendly spar or boat.

Should lab'ring pumps employ our care,

Far, far from me, O keep despair!

But should thy wisdom so decree,

That we our bark no more should free,
As down with her I sink below,

A better world my spirit show!

Such were the strains of my rude muse at times when conscience struggled with sensuality. But as I had not the smallest idea of Christianity, all my religious notions amounted to nothing more than pure heathen morality, as distinct from the doctrines of the Gospel as error is from truth. Little did I expect the calamities of a second shipwreck were so near at hand when I wrote the above lines.

Perhaps on examining the latter part of this production the reader will say, the Lord had put a prayer into my heart, and words into my mouth, to be brought forth in the time of approaching trouble. No, my good

ness was like the morning cloud, and all my serious thoughts as the early dew, or the writing on the sea shore. The first wave of temptation swept them all away. I can assure him, although not more than three months could have elapsed between the writing the above prayer and my being actually called to attend the chain-pumps, until they choked and the ship was filled, yet I do not remember that I once thought of it, or offered up a single line of its petitions throughout that sad catastrophe! On the contrary, when day-light appeared, and our real situation was known, I felt a state of mind bordering on despair. The gloomy sky over our heads, the trembling wreck under our feet, and the roar of the tempestuous surf breaking around us, were but faint emblems of the agitation of my soul when I thought on death.

In the heat of battle it is not only possible, but easy to forget death, and cease to shrink; but in the cool and protracted hours of a shipwreck, where there is often nothing to engage the mind but the recollection of tried and unsuccessful labours, and the sight of unavoidable and increasing harbingers of destruction, it is not so easy to forget ourselves or a future state. With all my might I strove to shake off the terrors of a guilty conscience, but could not. In my distress I viewed the Almighty as a dreadful being: and could I have sunk into a state of nothingness, I should have preferred it to living in his presence. I did not love him; I did not think I had any claim or pretensions to his favour; and I could not but wish to escape his wrath.

At length the fear of that God, whom I could neither