"And my hat?"

"If I took any liberty with that, as it has not the exquisite sensibility of its master, I'm sure it will be perfectly satisfied without any apology."

66 Come, Sir, no backing out,-didn't you tar that hat?" taking it off his head, and forcing it crown downwards upon the palm of his hand. "Sir, I am quite ready to answer any question the offended object may deem it fitting to put to me; but I am not bound to answer questions put to me without either right or authority."

"Have you not insulted me?"

"I have never addressed you, nor touched you, nor thought of you, until you challenged this conversation."

"Have you not laughed at me?"

"I am apt to laugh at anything ridiculous."

"What made me ridiculous ?"

"Rum."

"Don't bamboozle me. Old birds don't let young shavers like you clap salt upon their tails.

Who tarred my head and face yesterday, to

make sport for the women ?" Why d'ye ask me ?"

66

"Come, varlet, who tarred my head and face?"

"The hands belonging to that head; they are in rebellion against it, because it was disguised in rum, and would have tarred and feathered it, but there being no feathers they were obliged to be content with the tar."

""Tis a lie," roared the sot; "we'll see who's to be cock of this dunghill."

Uttering this, with his teeth set, he hobbled towards his intended victim, and attempted to hit him in the face. His antagonist, striking his arm aside with some violence, the enfeebled drunkard fell forward, and lay helpless on the deck. He was raised by some of the sailors, and conducted below, muttering curses against his cowardly assailant, as he called the person who had administered this very wholesome but unexpected chastisement. For some days he took his meals alone, adding, however, to his potations, which rendered him so unmanageable that he was obliged to have his arms pinioned, and to be confined to his berth. When he next appeared among us the remembrance of his grievance seemed to have passed away, and he took his rum with his usual hilarity, to his own extreme satisfaction, but to our ineffable disgust.

This little incident, though one which had its frolic fully balanced by its vexations, tended to break the uniformity of our voyage, which had already begun to be sufficiently tedious. The weather was hot, and we were so crowded between decks that at night we endured everything short of absolute suffocation. During the day, notwithstanding that the awning was spread, the heat was almost intolerable. The vessel often steamed like a furnace. The pitch in the seams on her deck melted and stuck to our feet, so that water was obliged to be poured continually over them to keep them from opening. Several of the men fell ill, upon which the Supercargo recommended his panacea, rum, in large doses, but was overruled by the Captain, who found more virtue in small doses of calomel, followed by a draught of salts and senna, which

kept fever out of the ship, and ultimately restored the sick. By extreme regularity and cleanliness we contrived to keep free from any fatal malady until we got into a colder latitude, when those who had been enfeebled by sickness rapidly rallied. Still our position was anything but enviable.

After dinner, when the weather became cooler, we used to get up a dance, and, there being a black fiddler on board who officiated as cook, we managed to pursue this pastime with as much satisfaction as circumstances would permit. The owner of the vessel always shared in it with apparent rapture, making the most fantastic gyrations, and laughing with very comical self-applause at his own imagined success.

The assiduities of the Mate towards the fair widow were not relaxed, and she did not appear to receive them with that coldness which had hitherto been observable. Occasionally she took his arm and walked the deck. A smile was seen sometimes to pass over her generally grave features in the course of their conversation, and it was now deemed a thing certain that the young man's victory was secure. He was, however, still humble and unobtrusive; she, unimpassioned but unforbidding.

A few days after the comedy of the tarred hat the weather became hazy and a storm threatened. This we dreaded exceedingly, as in the present crowded state of the vessel, it would greatly aggravate our peril. She was besides a sluggish sailer and very deep in the water. Our apprehensions were greatly increased as the sky became darker and the wind began to rise. About noon the entire heavens were overcast, and a drizzling rain set in. The shrouds began to rattle under the freshening breeze. The Captain paced to and fro the deck maintaining an ominous silence. We were all soon obliged to go below, the rain continuing without abatement for several hours.

It was thought expedient to batten down the openings, so that the atmosphere between decks soon became painfully oppressive. We were, however, either obliged to endure the inconvenience or expose ourselves to the certainty of a complete drenching, which some among us preferred to the stifling closeness of the cabin. As evening approached, the winds began to utter their menaces with alarming distinctness, whistling ominously through the rigging, while the billows were already erecting their mighty forms above the watery plain, already whitened by the gathering tempest.

So crowded were we between decks, that it was soon found necessary to raise the hatches to prevent the risk of suffocation, though we were all aware that should any heavy seas roll over the ship, our safety would be greatly endangered; still we had no alternative. We had no choice but to take our chance. Remembering our former wretchedness and sufferings when cast upon the inaccessible island, we all looked upon the present scene with appalling apprehensions of disaster. Every countenance bore the expression of painful anxiety, though none expressed their fears; those fears were, nevertheless, not to be mistaken, being visibly shared by each and all. Before midnight, the storm raged with fearful fury. The vessel pitched and rolled as if in actual torture. The billows constantly flung over her their white and sparkling foam, which was borne aloft upon the wings of the tempest and scattered into the darkened air. As our peril increased consternation was depicted on

every countenance. Every heart quailed. The terrors of a former scene recurred to our minds with painful distinctness, and in proportion as our impressions of these were vivid our apprehensions of the immediate future became intense. Every struggle of the ship seemed a throe of her expiring agony, and consequently a warning of our impending destruction. Still the recollections of God's providential sustentation amid scenes of greater peril supported us now. Those among us who felt reliance were comforted. Nevertheless, the idea of never again beholding our native land towards which we were hastening, was one to swamp the heart with a flood of agonising emotions.

Fortunately our sufferings were not of long duration. After midnight the wind abated, the clouds divided into masses, floating rapidly over the orb of a waning but bright moon, and shortly leaving the intense blue above dotted with stars which flung their countless glories upon the still excited but subsiding billows. By sunrise the storm had passed away, the waters were assuaged, and the vessel pursuing her course under easy sail and an auspicious breeze.

Our alarms were now once more dissipated, and severe were the selfreproaches of many at their want of confidence in Him who sustains the poor mariner amid the fierce lashings of the tempest, as securely as the wealthy landsman upon his pillow of down. We had, in truth, been severely tried, but the trial had no doubt purified our hearts; our sufferings, therefore, had been appliances of most transcendent mercy. It had probably made us wiser and better men. It had certainly taught us a lesson never to be forgotten, and one to make us wise, not in our own eyes, but "unto salvation."

Nothing further occurred of any moment during the remainder of our passage, and we were at length safely landed at Liverpool. So bare was our stock of clothing, that we were obliged to obtain a supply from the town before we could go ashore. Fortunately one of our party had friends at Liverpool, and from his recommendation we found no difficulty of obtaining credit for the relief of our immediate wants. For the moment we settled ourselves in a cheap but respectable boarding-house, a subscription being immediately entered into for the poor sailors, who had lost their little all, and had no friends in a position to replace it. A sum was soon raised sufficient to put them in a condition to enter into fresh engagements, which, in a port like that of Liverpool, was soon accomplished. In due time we, who were enabled to do it, paid the Captain of the ship which had taken us from Tristan d'Achuna, liberally, he receiving for the men who had been shipwrecked with us, his stipulated compensation for their passage.

A melancholy event happened to interrupt our joy at being restored to our native shore. One of the sailors who had been most active in resisting the authority of Glass, but who had lattely been converted to a better conviction, fell suddenly ill. Though a young man, not having numbered more than thirty winters, his former habits of intemperance had made fatal ravages on a constitution naturally not robust, and a sudden cold brought on bronchitis in so severe a form, that during a strong fit of coughing he ruptured a vessel on the lungs, and within eight-and-forty hours was a corpse. His late change of behaviour and of feelings had won the regard of his superiors, and his death was such as to show that our regard had not been bestowed unworthily. He left this world

in the full confidence of a better inheritance. It was a sad thing to see this poor fellow die just upon reaching his native land, after having escaped so many hazards. We all attended him to the grave, over which many a tear was shed and many a sigh was heaved.

We were enabled to fulfil our engagements to the Governor of Tristan d'Achuna through the liberality of the merchants of Liverpool and their correspondents, who soon made up the sum, and it was by the first opportunity transmitted to Glass. The Captain of the vessel in which we were wrecked was soon put in command of another, being a man in the confidence of his employers, and fully deserving of it. The Mate determined to relinquish the profession of the sea, and having an uncle in an opulent way of business at Manchester, his immediate wants were supplied without difficulty. Of the widow I shall have a few matters to record which will close this "strange eventful history." She quitted Liverpool for London the day after our arrival, and what there befel her it may not be deemed uninteresting briefly to narrate. The other parties, who were destined for India, soon secured a fresh passage, and within a month after we reached the land of our birth, we were as strangers, separated most probably never to meet again. We had been so long together, and under circumstances of such singular interest to each of us, that our separation was not unmixed with pain. Our adventures had taught us wisdom-that wisdom which is "better than rubies," as it is the realization of a better hope. A volume of experience had been written in the hearts and minds of us all. I had taken a deeper insight into human nature within the brief interval of a few months, than I had previously done during the far longer interval of years. The advantages of that experience have never forsaken me to this hour; I am the wiser, and I trust, the better for it.

I have now only to entreat the reader's patience while I briefly relate a few events rising out of this long, but, I trust, not uninteresting narrative.

DE VARIIS REBUS.

BY A MEDICAL STAFF-OFFICER.

THAT the pages of this Magazine have been devoted to the amelioration and improvement of both branches of the Service must be allowed, and that many of these, if they were not originated, have been greatly promoted, by the discussion it permitted and fostered, cannot be denied. We were lately very much pleased to perceive that the Authorities contemplated to introduce some new regulations, whereby they would secure a much better description of candidates for commissions in the Army. It will consequently be necessary for them to possess ere they can be appointed, some more essential qualifications, mental as well as bodily, than family connections, political interest, or mere wealth. The writer of this, in an article published in our monthly Number for March, 1842, not only advocated the necessity of such a measure, on an officer's first appointment, but also on his obtaining each subsequent step of promo

tion. No measure could tend more to the improvement of the officers of the Line, and to place them on a footing with the officers of what are considered our educated corps, the Royal Engineers and Artillery, than the establishment of such a regulation. Nor would its advantages be confined to this alone, for besides preventing the imbecile and ignorant from entering the Service, it would prove an efficient obstacle to another class of officers, to which these terms are inapplicable, but which nevertheless prove a great bane to the well-being of the Service; I mean such officers as enter the Service to make it a convenience and a pastime, to the very great detriment of those who devote themselves to it as a profession. It would moreover have the effect of restricting in a great measure the extensive trafficking in commissions which now obtains; for monied men, without any real love of the profession, though wellenough inclined to part with their cash for the sake of promotion, would not be so willing to submit to the greater bore of an examination as to their scientific pursuits.

Limited service, by the passing of the late Bill, has now become the law. Some years ago the following observations on the subject were penned, which even now may not be unworthy of placing on record. "The nature of the colonial service to which our troops are subjected makes limited service almost impracticable. The period for which a regiment is sent abroad is usually ten years, or if to Australia and India twenty. Now if a soldier's engagement was limited to seven or ten years, how would such a regulation affect the Service? Why a regiment would require to be renewed twice or even oftener in that time. Eight hundred or a thousand cannot all be enlisted in a day or in a year; they are got together slowly and gradually by constant and persevering exertion; and if their service was limited, there would be a perpetual and never-ceasing change going on, recruits arriving, timeexpired men returning. In such circumstances a corps on service would almost never be efficient, besides its expense would be nearly tripled. How would the country relish this; seeing that the charges for the military are already considered exorbitant. The only way to escape from such a predicament, and which would most assuredly follow, would be the dispensing altogether with our colonies. In continental states, such as Prussia, where the troops are never required to leave their native country, environed as they are by rival and warlike Powers, and of necessity a military nation, the institution and working of limited service appears to be alone practicable: and with them it not only is so, but eminently advantageous, by its creating a large and available force in case of any sudden emergency. In our circumstances the resources of Great Britain ought to be more especially directed to its naval power." That desertion is not attributable to unlimited service is proved by accurate and incontestable statistical deductions, which show that it seldom takes place after five years' service, the great majority taking place under half that period, nay even before the first year is completed. A very small proportion, indeed, of old soldiers desert. In the American army, although the period of service is only from three to five years, about thirty per cent. are said to desert annually, notwithstanding that their pay is is. a-day above the expense incurred for their clothing and living, and that their comforts in barracks are usually superior to those of our troops. The author who gives this account even imagines that discon