d a gun, spread additional canvas on her wide booms,
and stood away before the wind, to join her consort, whose upper sails
were already dipping to the surface of the sea, in the southern board.
With this change in her movements, vanished all expectation of succor from
the cruiser of the enemy.

Perhaps, in every situation of life, it is necessary that hope should be
first lessened by disappointment, before the buoyancy of the human mind
will permit it to descend to the level of an evil fortune. Until a
frustrated effort teaches him the difficulty of the attempt, he who has
fallen may hope to rise again; and it is only when an exertion has been
made with lessened means, that we learn the value of advantages, which
have perhaps been long enjoyed, with a very undue estimate of their
importance. Until the stern of the French frigate was seen retiring from
the raft, those who were on it had not been fully sensible of the extreme
danger of their situation. Hope had been strongly excited by the return of
dawn; for while the shadows of night lay on the ocean, their situation
resembled that of one who strove to pierce the obscurity of the future, in
order to obtain a presage of better fortunes. With the light had come the
distant sail. As the day advanced, the ship had approached, relinquished
her search, and disappeared, without a prospect of her return.

The stoutest heart among the group on the raft began to sink at the
gloomy fate which now seemed inevitable.

"Here is an evil omen!" whispered Ludlow, directing his companion's eyes
to the dark and pointed fins of three or four sharks, that were gliding
above the surface of the water, and in so fearful a proximity to their
persons, as to render their situation on the low spars, over which the
water was washing and retiring at each rise and fall of the waves, doubly
dangerous.--"The creature's instinct speaks ill for our hopes!"

"There is a belief among seamen, that these animals feel a secret impulse,
which directs them to their prey;" returned the Skimmer. "But fortune may
yet balk them.--Rogerson!" calling to one of his followers;--"thy pockets
are rarely wanting in a fisherman's tackle. Hast thou, haply, line and
hook, for these hungry miscreants? The question is getting narrowed to
one, in which the simplest philosophy is the wisest. When eat or to be
eaten, is the mooted point, most men will decide for the former."

A hook of sufficient size was soon produced, and a