To be of any service as a means of transit, it was necessary that some way should be contrived by which people might slide along it; and to effect this, a large iron ring with a hook attached, called a traveller, had been slipped over the end, before it was passed on shore. The line thrown to the vessel being firmly fastened to it, as well as another line, one end of which was retained in the ship, so that by pulling alternately on shore or on board the traveller journeyed from one to the other.

All being secured, a small wooden seat slung with rope, called a stool, and used for the purpose of blacking down rigging, &c., was fastened to the hook of the traveller, and one of the seamen sitting upon it, was pulled on shore, to test its efficiency. When but a little way from the wreck, his weight brought the bight, or curve, of the rope into the water; and thence, for a long distance, he was dragged partly through it, undergoing a process not very unlike the ancient punishment called "keel-hauling," and he reached the land in a very exhausted state.

The traveller being hauled off to the ship again, it was proposed that Miss F., a spirited young lady of about nineteen, should be the next to tempt the dangerous path; but fearing lest

she should be unable to maintain her hold whilst passing through the water, Mr. Gillies, the mate, volunteered to take her in his lap, and thus they were safely landed, although half drowned by the

way.

The gale had subsided by this time considerably, and the reflux of the tide had left comparatively but a narrow channel between the wreck and shore. The life-boat was therefore again launched, made fast to the traveller, and thus hauled off to the ship, affording a more commodious carriage than that hitherto in use. In it were placed the two ladies and their husbands, a lady's maid, and two sick soldiers, who were passengers, with a seaman whose foot had been crushed by the falling of one of the masts.

Gratified by the success of their efforts, the people on shore set up a loud hurrah, and ran the boat to land with great speed; but, as ill luck would have it, something accidentally caught the part of the small rope which connected the traveller with the ship, and the forcible jerk, caused by the powerful exertions of so many men pulling on the other extremity, snapped it like a thread, thus cutting off the ready communication formed between the wreck and beach.

It was an untoward event for the short win

ter's day was drawing to its close; and unless men were prepared to pass another night on the precarious shelter they then occupied, it would be necessary to effect their landing very quickly.

Captain Robertson, who had superintended all the operations hitherto, and had evidently been in a state of great anxiety until the sick and females were safely landed, now saw that sauve qui peut must be the order of the day; and calling upon all to follow him fearlessly, threw off his clothes and plunged into the sea, swimming stoutly to land. One or two of the sailors clung to the hawser with their hands and legs, and so made their way on shore ; "And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they escaped all safe to land."

Such shelter as a few neighbouring cottages could afford, was readily offered and most gratefully accepted for the night. We were too thankful to the Almighty for our own great deliverance, and too thoroughly exhausted, to be at all fastidious as to our lodgings. The next afternoon, I drove with V. into the little town of B. It was Sunday; and from church and chapel poured forth a throng of well dressed respectable-looking people. They had all been worshipping the same

God, their common Maker and Preserver, but after very different forms. There were Quakers, Baptists, Wesleyans, Moravians, Church of England men. All wore a serious and devout expression on their countenances, and seemed deeply in earnest in their several creeds.

I looked around, and saw the walls were placarded with notices of a public meeting to be held in a few days, to take into consideration the proper course to adopt respecting the late insolent and insidious papal aggression.

I drove with my companion to the principal inn in the place, and we had a well served dinner, to which we did ample justice after our late privations.

In the evening, my ear caught the old familiar sound of the church-bell. I'm a Protestant of the Church of England, by education and conviction, and gladly availed myself of the opportunity for attending the public worship of that church, long denied me. V., a Roman Catholic, of course would not accompany me.

After the usual beautiful liturgy, a very excellent and impressive sermon was preached on the subject of Christian charity. The preacher took his text out of 1 Corinthians, xiii. 4—7. "Cha

C 4

rity," he said, "thinketh no evil,... believeth all things, hopeth all things."

I thought it a very good discourse; but I'm an unlearned man, and a poor Theologian.

some

I returned to my inn, took a cup of tea, and retired at once to bed; but I was restless, and fevered, and could not sleep, though my mind was in a dreamy state, and crowded with thick-coming fancies. Sometimes I was on the wrecktimes in the little town, watching the pious crowds issuing from the different places of worshipsometimes I was listening to the preacher I had so recently left.

I must have slept at last, I suppose; for methought he said, "As shipwrecked mariners, in their endeavours to reach the longed-for shore, support themselves by broken spar, or plank, or life-buoy, the same broad wave sustaining them on its bosom, and by its mighty power alone rendering the scanty aid they have sought available, and so escape safe to land;' so may we hope that, trusting ourselves to the broad ocean of Christianity, howsoever different the human and subordinate means we adopt for our purpose, we may all get 'safe to land,' the promised land, the heavenly Canaan."