pearance. For war then
prevailing, they were probably taken for the French lugsail-boats,
that used to frequent the lands off Scilly. The cutter, however,
gained fast on the brig, when, having got about half way, a very thick
fog came on, and neither the brig nor the cutter were again seen from
the long-boat.

Night fell, and the weather still continuing very foggy, the people,
almost dead for want of sleep, reposed themselves, sitting half way in
water, it being impossible for so many to find seats. Their captain,
anxious for their lives and his own, strove to keep his eyes open,
though it was the fifth night that he had taken no rest. About eleven
o'clock, when every one was asleep but the helmsman and himself, he
thought that he saw land. Yet he was determined not to call out land
until he should be sure that it was so. He squeezed his eyelids
together to let the water run out of his eyes, as he found them very
dim.

Again he thought he saw land very plain, and was convinced that he
could not be deceived. By this time the man at the helm had dropped
asleep, and he took the tiller himself.--Some space longer elapsed
before he would disturb any body, but at last he awoke Captain Moore,
telling him he thought he saw land. Captain Moore only answered that
they should never see land again. Captain Nicholls then awoke Mr. Fox,
who had obtained a sound sleep, and seemed quite refreshed. He
immediately cried out that they were near land and close in with the
breakers. Lucky it was that he had been awakened, otherwise, Captain
Nicholls, from being absolutely unacquainted with them, was satisfied
that all on board would have perished.

At the word land every one awoke, and, with some difficulty, the boat
cleared the rocks. At first the precise part of the English coast
could not be ascertained, but, as it cleared more and more every
moment, Captain Nicholls, on looking under the lee-leech of the
blanket main-sail, discerned St. Michael's Mount in Mount's Bay. The
boat would not fetch the land near Penzance, and, as she had no oars,
it was determined to avoid steering round the Lizard and so for
Falmouth, but to run her boldly on shore, whatever place she might
chance to make. It was a fine night, and, after getting round the
point, the people found the water very smooth; keeping the boat close
to the wind, they made between Penzance and the point.

Their joy at finding themselves in so favorable a situation, is not to
be