difficulty that he was dragged into one of the boats, half drowned.

With the exception of this fortunate chronometer, and the admiral's despatches, which the captain had secured when the ship first struck,1 everything on board was lost.

The pinnace now contained seventy-nine men and one woman, the cutter forty-two, and the gig,2 eighteen, with which cargoes they barely floated.3 Captain Hickey, of course, was the last man who left the wreck; though such had become the respect and affection felt for him by his crew, that those who stood along with him on the last vestige of the ship, evinced great reluctance at leaving their commander even for a moment in such a perilous predicament. So speedy, indeed, was the work of destruction,5 that by the time the captain reached the boat, the wreck had almost entirely "melted into the yest of waves. As she went down, the crew gave three hearty cheers, and then finally abandoned the scattered fragments of what had been their house and home for nearly seven years.

10

The fog still continued as thick as ever; and as the binnacles had both been washed overboard, no compass could be procured. The wind also being still light," there was great difficulty in steering in a straight line. In this dilemmal a resource was hit upon, which, for a time, answered pretty well to guide them. It being known, loosely,12 before leaving the wreck, in what direction the land was situated, the three boats were placed in a row pointing that way. The sternmost boat then quitted

1 avait touché pour la première fois les récifs.

2 the cutter,' le cutter, or, le cotre; the gig,' la guigue.

3 et c'était tout juste ce que pouvaient porter les trois embarcations. 4 débris.

5 Begin, "The work,' &c. 6 tout fut englouti dans le gouffre des vagues.

7 L'équipage cependant salua l'Atalante par trois dernières acclamations, en la voyant dispa

raître.

8 'its' (as above, salua), according to the rule, page 41, note 8.'home,' demeure.-'had been... for;' turn, was since' (see page 38, note 7).

....

Les habitacles avaient été submergés tous les deux, et il n'y avait plus de boussole. 10 faible. 11 embarras (or, alternative), not dilemme, here.

12 Comme on savait d'une manière vague.

her station in the rear, and pulled ahead till she came in a line with the other two boats,1 but took care not to go so far as to be lost in the fog; the boat which was now furthest astern then rowed ahead, as the first had done; and so on, doubling along, one after the other.2 This tardy method of proceeding answered only for a time; for at length they found themselves completely at a loss which way to steer. Precisely at this moment of greatest need, an old quarter-master (Samuel Shanks by name)3 recollected that at the end of his watch-chain there hung a small compass-seal. This precious discovery being announced to the other boats by a joyous shout from the pinnace, and the compass being speedily handed into the gig, to the captain, it was placed on the top of the chronometer, so nobly saved by the clerk. As this instrument worked on jimbles, the little needle remained upon it sufficiently steady for steering the boats within a few points.7 The course now secured insured their hitting the land, from which they had been steering quite wide.8

Before reaching the shore, they fell in with an old fisherman who piloted them to a bight called Portuguese Cove, where they all landed in safety, at the distance of twenty miles from the town of Halifax. The fishermen lighted great fires, to warm their shivering guests, most of whom being very lightly clad, and all, of course, dripping wet," were in a very sorry predicament; many of them, also, were miserably cramped by close packing 10 in the boats. Some of the men, especially of those who entered the boats 11 last, having been obliged to swim for their boussole. - Dictionaries have it gimbals.'

1 L'embarcation en serre-file quitta son poste à l'arrière-garde, et vint se placer en tête.

2 the boat which,' &c.; puis ce fut le tour du nouveau serre-file d'en faire autant, puis le tour du troisième; ainsi de suite, l'un après l'autre.

3 un vieux quartier-maître (or, un vieil officier marinier) nommé S.S4 cachet en compas.

5 ayant été passé rapidement de main en main au capitaine.

6 marchait sur des balanciers de

7

pour gouverner les embarcations dans quelques quarts de vents.

8 en fut assez pour gagner la côte, dont les naufragés ne faisaient que (page 184, note 7) s'éloigner de plus en plus (lit., more and more').

9 trempés d'eau.

10 were miserably ,,'&c. ; étaient cruellement courbaturés, tant

ils avaient été serrés.

11 Turn, 'who had left the ship ;'

lives,1 had thrown off everything but their trousers; so that the only respectably-dressed person 2 out of the whole party was Old Shanks, the owner of the watch and compassseal,-a steady hard-a-weather sailor, who throughout took the whole affair as deliberately as if shipwreck had been an every-day occurrence. He did not even take off his hat, except, indeed, to give his good5 ship a cheer as she went to the bottom.

8

Their subsequent measures were soon decided upon. The captain carried the three boats round to the harbour,6 taking with him the men who had suffered most from fatigue, and those who were worst off for clothes. The officers then set out with the rest, to march across the country to Halifax, in three divisions, keeping together with as much regularity as if they had been proceeding upon some previously-arranged piece of service. Very few of the party could boast of shoes, 10 an inconvenience which was felt more severely than it would otherwise have been, from their having to trudge over a country but partially cleared of wood.11 Notwithstanding all this, there was not a single straggler; and the whole ship's company, officer, man, and boy, 12 assembled in the evening at Halifax, in as exact order as if their ship had met with no accident.

I have been more particular in describing this shipwreck, from its appearing to offer several uncommon and some useful details, well worthy, I think, of the notice of practical men, in every profession.

in this manner, the idea will be more exactly expressed, considering what follows immediately.

de se sauver à la nage. 2 le seul homme proprement vêtu. 3 le vieux; this case is similar to that of page 117, note 13.

4 vieux (p. 27, n. 8) marin endurci aux mauvais temps. 5 cher.

6 partit pour Halifax avec les trois embarcations.

7 les plus mal vêtus.

8 to march across,' &c. ; simply, par la voie de terre.

9 que s'il se fût agi d'une expé dition prévue.

10 Turn, 'The greater (superlative, in French) number of the sailors were in want (manquaient) of shoes.'

11 pays très imparfaitement défriche.

12 officiers, matelots et mousses; notwithstanding these nouns in the plural, put the following verb in the singular (page 41, note 8), as the predominant idea is one of collectiveness, on account of the word 'company' (équipage), expressed just above, and which is, grammatically, the subject of 'assembled.'

It is rather an unusual combination of disasters for a ship to be so totally wrecked, as to be actually obliterated from the face of the waters, in the course of a quarter of an hour, in fine weather, in the day-time, on well-known rocks, and close to a light-house; but without the loss of a single man, or the smallest accident to any person on board.1

In the next place, it is highly important to observe, that the lives of the crew, in all probability, would not, and perhaps could not, have been saved, had the discipline been, in the smallest degree, less exactly maintained. Had any impatience been manifested by the people to rush into the boats, or had the captain not possessed sufficient authority to reduce the numbers which had crowded into the pinnace, when she was still resting on the booms, at least half of the crew must have lost their lives.3

It was chiefly, therefore, if not entirely, to the personal influence which Captain Hickey possessed over the minds of all on board, that their safety was owing. Their habitual confidence in his fortitude, talents, and professional knowledge, had, from long experience, become so great, that every man in the ship, in this extremity of danger, instinctively turned to him for assistance; and seeing him so cheerfully and so completely master of himself, they relinquished to his well-known and often-tried sagacity the formidable task of extricating them from the impending peril. It is at such moments as these, indeed, that the grand distinction between man and man is developed, and the full ascendancy of a powerful and well-regulated mind makes itself felt. The slightest hesitation on the captain's part, the smallest want of decision, or any uncertainty as to what was the very best thing to be done, if betrayed by a word or look of his, would have shot, like an electric spark, through the whole ship's company-a tumultuous rush would have been made to the boats-and two out of the three, if not all, must have been swamped, and every man in them drowned.

1 Turn, for any of those who are on board.'

2

the number of those who.' 3 eût péri.

Captain Hickey and his crew had been serving together in the same ship for many years before, in the course of which period they had acquired so thorough an acquaintance with one another, that this great trial, instead of loosening the discipline, only augmented its compactness,1 and thus enabled the commander to bring all his knowledge, and all the resources of his vigorous understanding, to bear at once, with such admirable effect, upon2 the difficulties by which he was surrounded.

There are some men who actually derive more credit from their deportment under the severest losses, than others can manage to earn by brilliant success; and it may certainly be said that Captain Hickey is one of these; for, although he had the great misfortune to lose his ship, he must ever enjoy the noble satisfaction of knowing, that his skill and firmness, rendered effective by the discipline he had been so many years in perfecting, enabled him to save the lives of more than a hundred persons, who, but for3 him, in all human probability, must have perished with their hapless chief.-(Capt. BASIL HALL, Fragments of Travels and Voyages.)

A HIGHLAND REVENGE.4

MESSENGERS were despatched in great haste, to concentrate the MacGregor's forces,5 with a view to the proposed attack on the Lowlanders; and the dejection and despair, at first visible on each countenance, gave place to the hope of rescuing their leader, and to the thirst of vengeance. It was under the burning influence of the latter passion that the wife of MacGregor commanded that the hostage exchanged for his safety should be brought into

1 ne fit que (page 184, note 7) resserrer les liens de la discipline au lieu de les relâcher.

2 et le commandant, obéi au premier signal, eut toutes ses ressources naturelles à sa disposition pour lutter contre.

3 'but for,' sans.

4 Une vengeance dans les hautes terres (or, les Highlands) de l'Écosse. 5 les forces des Mac-Gregors. 6 Use faire.

7 'the.'