ACCIDENT-SUPERSTITION OF SAILORS.

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The sacrament of the Lord's supper was afterwards administered to our little church, and we can say, of a truth, God was with us.

Aug. 7. A sailor being aloft, eight or nine feet above the leeward shrouds, his foot slipped, and he fell over the rail into the clue, or lower corner of the mainsail, which was stretched a little above the leeward bulwark. The captain, having seen his first slip, ran to help him, and providentially caught the poor fellow, just as he was sliding off from the sail into the water. Had he not been rescued that moment, he must have been drowned, for the ship was going at great speed, and the boats were lashed upon the deck. Happily he received no serious harm. The same man had fallen from the deck into the hold of the vessel, in the London Dock, before she sailed; and then had as narrow an escape from death, though with a severe contusion on the head.

Sailors are proverbially superstitious. This escape of their comrade occasioned much conversation among the crew, and sundry stories were told, which, though awful enough at sea, may appear puerile on land. Two of these (for the sake of exemplifying the only fears that seamen feel, and the groundlessness of them) we shall record. Our chief mate said, that on board of a ship where he had served, the mate on duty ordered some of the youths to reef the main-top-sail. When the first got up, he heard a strange voice saying, "It blows hard." The lad waited for no more; he was down in a trice, and telling his adventure. A second immediately ascended, laughing at the folly of his companion, but returned even more quickly, declaring that he was quite sure that a voice, not of this world, had cried in his ear, "It blows hard." Another went, and another, but each came back with the same tale. At length the mate, having sent up the whole watch, ran up the shrouds himself, and, when he reached the haunted spot, heard the dreadful words distinctly uttered in his ears, "It blows hard."—" Ay, ay, old one; but, blow it ever so hard, we must ease the earings for all that," replied the mate undauntedly; and looking round, he spied a fine parrot perched on one of the clues, the thoughtless author of all the false alarms, which had probably escaped from some other vessel, but had not previously been discovered to have taken refuge on this. Another of our officers mentioned, that, on one of his voy ages, he remembered a boy having been sent up to clear a rope

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SUPERSTITION OF SAILORS.

which had got foul above the mizzen-top. Presently, however, he came back, trembling, and almost tumbling to the bottom, declaring that he had seen "Old Davy," aft the cross-tree; moreover, that the Evil One had a huge head and face, with prick-ears, and eyes as bright as fire. Two or three others were sent up in succession; to all of whom the apparition glared forth, and was identified by each to be "Old Davy, sure enough." The mate, in a rage, at length mounted himself; when resolutely, as in the former case, searching for the bugbear, he soon ascertained the innocent cause of so much terror to be a large horned owl, so lodged as to be out of sight to those who ascended on the other side of the vessel, but which, when any one approached the cross-trees, popped up his portentous visage to see what was coming. The mate brought him down in triumph, and "Old Davy," the owl, became a very peaceable ship-mate among the crew, who were no longer scared by his horns and eyes; for sailors turn their backs on nothing when they know what it is. Had the birds, in these two instances, departed as secretly as they came, of course they would have been deemed supernatural visitants to the respective ships, by all who had heard the one, or seen the other.

CHAPTER II.

Commemoration of the Sailing of the Ship Duff, with the first Missionaries to the South Seas-Mollymauks-Agitated Sea-scene-A Storm -Imminent Peril and great Deliverance-Tropic of Capricorn-The "Prickly Heat"-The Gannet-War-Hawk-Lunar InfluenceDangerous Archipelago-A Whale struck-The Tropic Bird-Planet Venus-Lunar Rainbow-Water-spouts-Sailors' Dreams-A Boobybird taken-Retrospective Reflections-Indications of Land-An unknown Island-Resolution, Doubtful, Tuscan, Birnie, Chain and other Islands-Arrival at Tahiti.

Aug. 10. THIS day, twenty-five years ago, the first Missionaries to the South Sea Islands embarked at Blackwall, with that distinguished servant of God, Captain James Wilson, in the ship Duff. The remembrance of this great event (as it has proved) in the history of those remote re

gions of the globe, which but a few years before were not known to exist, and for centuries upon centuries, it may be presumed, had been inhabited by generations of idolaters— furnished us with much matter for interesting conversation, devout thanksgiving, and fervent prayer, in the course of the day. We were especially led to commemorate, with gratitude and joy, the patient perseverance in well-doing of those good men by whom it pleased God eventually to commence one of the most signal gospel miracles, in the conversion of heathen tribes, recorded in the annals of the church of Christ. Nor did we forget with what zeal, faith, and love, in this sacred cause, the Directors of the London Missionary Society had been enabled, during many fruitless years, to support their patient laborers in that untried field, sowing precious seed, watering it with tears, and waiting the Lord's own appointed weeks of harvest." Those "weeks" are come, and the harvest is great; the reapers, indeed, are comparatively few, but many among the natives are entering upon the work.

Aug. 13. Two sea-fowls, called by the sailors, Mollymauks (a variety of the Diomedea fuliginosa), were taken. This bird is about the bulk of a goose in body, but the expansion of the wings, though these are remarkably arched, reaches seven feet. Their flight is very graceful, and performed with little apparent exertion; though long in the air, they are seldom seen to flap a pinion, whether they rise or descend, go with the wind, or sail against it. The plumage on the back and upper parts is dark blue, and white beneath. When they alight on the water to seize their prey, these large fowls buoy themselves over the surface, with their wings balancing above their bodies, either to preserve their steadiness, or to be ready to take flight. When placed upon deck they are unable to raise themselves from the level; and when upon the sea it is curious to watch them taking advantage of the tops of the waves to mount aloft. When the water is smooth, they seem to run upon it with their feet for a great distance, and then rise very gradually before they can obtain full play for their wings. Having just killed the last of our live-stock, a sheep, we must hereafter be content without fresh meat, with which we have been moderately indulged ever since we left home. Hitherto our health has been unimpaired; truly, goodness and mercy have followed us day by day; may our gratitude

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AGITATED SEA-SCENE.

correspond with our obligations, and God be acknowledged in all our ways!

Aug. 15. Yesterday and to-day have been exceedingly tempestuous; and the spectacle of the sea the most sublime and appalling that we ever beheld. The diversity of forms assumed by the stupendous billows was very striking; they confounded the eye, and made giddy the brain, in attempting to follow their motions and their changes. There they rolled along in a continuous range of vast height, and several miles in length; while here they were followed by huge masses of heaped-up water of lesser extent, with steep and rugged declivities; others again rose like immense cones, or insulated mountains of fearful elevation, while the foam broke over their summits, and poured down their sides, glistening in the sunbeams with dazzling whiteness, a vivid green appearing beneath it, and the colors of both being rendered more brilliantly conspicuous by the black sides of the billows down which these streams of splendor were hurried into the abyss below. The whole horizon presented a tumultuous succession of similar images, perpetually intervolving on every hand. We were preserved, amidst all this uproar and confusion, by Him who holdeth the waters in the hollow of his hand, and there, when the danger was most imminent, we were safe. It is worthy of note, that not at the shore only, but in the midst of the wide ocean, He sets bounds to the sea, saying to it, "Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther :" by the very element that raises the waves they are restrained from increasing in the ratio of the gale, or no vessels could live among them; for when the wind exceeds a certain degree of strength, it actually blows down and keeps under the wild surges, which it had previously swollen to their limited height by a less impulse. The clue of our main-stay-sail broke loose while the storm was thus raging, and flapped with such violence, that no one dared to approach it, for a blow would have been death; such was the force with which it struck, that, getting entangled with one of the largest of our anchors, it immediately heaved the shaft upon the bulwark. The sailors mastered it at length by hauling down the sail itself, and making it fast.

Aug. 16. Last night has been one of horrors and deliverances beyond all that we have yet experienced. We had retired to rest as usual, though few could sleep, on account

IMMINENT PERIL AND GREAT DELIVERANCE.

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of the creaking and rocking of the vessel, the yelling of the winds, and the roaring of the waves. About one o'clock, Mr. Bennet heard a tremendous explosion or crash, as though the ship had been violently disrupted, or all her timbers compressed together by some inconceivable force; a hideous glare of light at the same time bursting through the bull's-eye above, upon the darkness. Instantly afterwards, he heard the captain calling out of the cabin below, with vehemence, the two names of the Deputation : Mr. Bennet! Mr. Tyerman! did you hear?-did you hear that? Oh, pray to God for us! All is over!—all is over! Lord, have mercy upon us!" A second time, before Mr. Bennet could answer, the terrible light flashed like a momentary conflagration of all around, and a louder peal of thunder than before accompanied the blaze, followed by what seemed to be the sea itself rushing in cataracts between decks. This, however, proved to be a storm of hail, the stones of which were as large as pigeons' eggs, and severely smote the faces and hands of those above, who were personally exposed to it. Again the captain cried out, "It is now all over!-pray, pray for us! Lord, have mercy upon us!" Mr. Tyerman and Mr. Jones, who had been asleep, now came running from their berths, inquiring what was the nature of the occurrences, and what injury had been sustained. then a third flash of lightning, and a crack of thunder, one more faint, the other less deafening than before, and with four distinct pulsations between them, gave token that the danger, though still near upon us, might be passing away. The chief mate, whose watch it was upon deck, now informed us that the hurricane began about nine o'clock, but it had not reached its crisis till towards one, when we first distinguished the voice of the thunder from the wailing of the wind, and the booming of the waves; and when that dreadful shock convulsed the vessel, which convinced the captain that it must have been fatally struck, as at the same time he heard the expression aloud, "The pumps are of no use now!" The mate said that this first great flash heated his face, and he felt as if stunned for a moment or two, the sulphurous flame appearing to run down his jacket-sleeve. The second peal was accompanied by a crimson blaze, which was instantaneously followed by the tempest of hail, pouring like shot upon himself and his terrified comrades, who (to use his own expression) crowded about him like a

Just

the