Just at this crisis, the water, which rushed with incredible force through all parts of the vessel, brought out floating, and nearly suffocated, another English passenger, who was endeavoring to take a little repose in a small cabin boarded off from the deck: he was a very stout young man, and full of true spirit. Finding that the vessel was not, as I had thought, going immediately down, he joined me in exhorting the captain to his duty: we persuaded him to throw the guns overboard, as well as a number of trunks and packages with which the vessel was much encumbered; and with some little exertion we got the pumps set againg.

Here I will stop, knowing the warm sensibility of my FREDERICK'S mind; and convinced that his sympathetic heart will go hand in hand with his Father's sufferings, I will not overcharge it with grief by an immediate continuation of the business, but defer it to another Let

ter.

LETTER XLV.

THE name of the English passenger, whom I mentioned to you in my last letter as assisting me in getting the Captain and Mariners to do their duty, was Hall. He was a young man of a most amiable disposition, and with it possessed all that manly spirit that gives presence of mind in exigencies of danger. He and I having, with great difficulty, got some hands to stick to the pumps, stood at the wheel, at once to assist the men, and prevent them from quitting it; and, although hopeless, determined that no effort practicable on our parts should be The water, wanting to the preservation of the vessel. however, gained upon the pumps notwithstanding every effort and it evidently appeared that we could not keep

her long above water.

At ten o'clock the wind seemed to increase, and amounted to a downright hurricane: the sky was so entirely obscured with black clouds, and the rain fell sq

thick, that objects were not discernable from the wheel to the ship's head. Soon the pumps were choaked, and could no longer be worked: then dismay seized on allnothing but unutterable despair, silent anguish, and horror, wrought up to frenzy, was to be seen; not a single soul was capable of an effort to be useful-all seemed more desirous to extinguish their calamities by embracing death, than willing, by a painful exertion, to avoid it.

At about eleven o'clock we could plainly distinguish a dreadful roaring noise, resembling that of waves rolling against rocks; but the darkness of the day, and the accon.panying rains, prevented us from seeing any distance; and if they were rocks, we might be actually dashed to pieces on them, before we could perceive them. At twelve o'clock, however, the weather cleared up a little, and both the wind and the sea seemed to have abated: the very expansion of the prospect round the ship was exhilerating; and as the weather grew better, and the sea less furious, the senses of the people returned, and the general stupefaction began to decrease.

The weather continuing to clear up, we in some time discovered breakers and large rocks without side of us; so that it appeared we must have passed quite close to them, and were now fairly hemmed in between them and the land.

In this very critical juncture, the Captain, entirely contrary to my opinion, adopted the dangerous resolution of letting go an anchor, to bring her up with her head to the sea: But, though no seaman, my common sense told me that she could never ride it out, but must directly go down. The event nearly justified my judgment: for she had scarcely been at anchor before an enormous sea rolling over her, overwhelmed and filled her with water, and every one on board concluded that she was certainly sinking--On the instant, a Lascar, with a presence of mind worthy an old English mariner, took an axe, ran forward, and cut the cable.

On finding herself free, the vessel again floated, and made an effort to right herself; but she was almost completely water-logged, and heeled to larboard so much that the gunnel lay under water. We then endeavored to

steer as fast as we could for the land, which we knew could not be at any great distance, though we were unable to discover it through the hazy weather: the foresail was loosened; by great efforts in bailing, she righted a little, her gunnel was got above water, and we scudded as well as we could before the wind, which still blew hard on shore; and at about two o'clock the land appeared at a small distance a-head.

The love of life countervails all other considerations in the mind of man. The uncertainty we were under with regard to the shore before us, which we had reason to believe was part of Hyder Alli's dominions, where we should meet with the most rigorous treatment, if not ultimate death, was forgotten in the joyful hope of saving life; and we scudded towards the shore in all the exulting transports of people just snatched from the jaws of

death.

This gleam of happiness continued not long a tremendous sea rolling after us, broke over our stern, tore every thing before it, stove in the steerage, carried away the rudder, shivered the wheel to pieces, and tore up the very ring-bolts of the deck-conveyed the men who stood at the wheel forward, and swept them overboard. I was standing at the time, near the wheel, and fortunately had hold of the taffarel, which enabled me to resist in part, the weight of the wave. I was, however, swept off my feet, and dashed against the main-mast. The jerk from the taffarel, which I held very tenaciously, seemed as if it would have dislocated my arms: however, it broke the impetus of my motion, and in all probability saved me. from being dashed to pieces against the mast.

I floundered about in the water at the foot of the mast, till at length I got on my feet, and seized a rope, which I held in a state of great embarrassment, dubious what I should do to extricate myself. At this instant I perceived that Mr. Hall had got upon the capstern, and waving his hand to me to follow his example: this I wished to do, though it was an enterprise of some risk and difficulty; for, if I lost the hold I had, a single motion of the vessel, or a full wave, would certainly carry X

me overboard. I made a bold push, however, and fortu nately accomplished it. Having attained this station, I could the better survey the wreck, and saw that the water was nearly breast-high on the quarter-deck, (for the vessel was deep-waisted); and I perceived the unfortunate English Purser standing where the water was most shallow, as if watching with patient expectation its rising, and awaiting death: I called to him to come to us, but he shook his head in despair, and said, in a lamentable tone," It is all over with us! God have mercy upon us then seated himself with seeming composure on a chair which happened to be rolling about in the wreck of the deck, and in a few minutes afterwards was washed into the sea along with it, where he was speedily releas ed from a state ten thousand times worse than death.

During this universal wreck of things, the horror I was in could not prevent me from observing a very curious circumstance, which at any other time would have excited laughter, though now it produced no other emotion than surprise-We happened to be in part laden with mangoes, of which the island of Goa is known to produce the finest in the world; some of them lay in baskets on the poop; a little black boy, in the moment of greatest danger, had got seated by them, devouring them most voraciously, and crying all the time most bitterly at the horrors of his situation!

The vessel now got completely water-logged; and Mr. Hall and I were employed in forming conjectural calculations how many minutes she could keep above water, and consoling one another on the unfortunate circumstances under which we met-lamenting that fate had thus brought us acquainted only to make us witnesses of each other's misery, and then to see one another no more.

As the larboard side of the vessel was gradually going down, the deck, and of course the capstern, became too nearly perpendicular for us to continue on it: we therefore foresaw the necessity of quitting it, and got upon the starboard side, holding fast by the gunnel, and allowing our bodies and legs to yield to the sea as it broke over us. Thus we continued for some time; at length the severity of the labor so entirely exhausted our strength

and spirits, that our best hope seemed to be a speedy conclusion to our painful death; and we began to have serious intentions of letting go our hold, and yielding ourselves up at once to the fury of the waves.

The vessel, which all this time drifted with the sea and wind, gradually approximated the shore, and at length struck the ground, which for an instant revived our almost departed hopes; but we soon found that it did not in the smallest degree better our situationAgain I began to yield to utter despair-again I thought of letting go my hold, and sinking at once: It is impossible thought I ever to escape-why, then, prolong, for a few minutes, a painful existence that must at last be given up? Yet, yet, the all-subduing love of life suggested, that many things apparently impossible had come to pass; and I said to myself, If life is to be lost, why not lose it in a glorious struggle? Should I survive it by accident, life will be rendered doubly sweet to me, and I still more worthy of it by persevering fortitude.

While I was employed in this train of reflection, I perceived some of the people collecting together, talking, and holding a consultation-It immediately occurred to me, that they were devising some plan for escaping from the wreck, and getting on shore: and, so natural is it for man to cling to his fellow-creature for support in difficult or dangerous exigencies, I proposed to Mr. Hall to join them, and take a share in the execution of the plan-observing to him at the same time, that I was determined at all events to quit the vessel, and trust to the protection and guidance of a superintending Providence for the rest.

LETTER XLVI.

As prodigality of life is, in some cases, the

excess of virtue and courage so there are others in which it is vice, meanness, and cowardice. True cou rage is, according to the circumstances under which it