such fantastic tricks before high Heaven."
SHAKESPEARE.

The reef upon which the brig had been wrecked was one of those extending
along the southward of the Virgin Isles. Newton had intended to steer
well to the eastward, with the view of reaching one of the northernmost
English colonies; but not having a compass, he naturally was not very
equal in his course. The fact was that he steered well to the southward
of it; and after he fell asleep, the boat ran away still further off her
course, for she was on the larboard tack, and having no weight in her
except Newton, who was aft in the stern-sheets, she did not feel
inclined to keep her wind. Newton's sleep was so profound, that neither
the pulling of the main-sheet, which he held with a round turn round
his hand, nor the dancing of the boat, which during the night had run
fast before an increasing breeze, roused him from his lethargy. On
sailed the boat, left to the steerage of Providence; on slept Newton, as
if putting firm reliance in the same. It was not until the break of day
that his repose was very abruptly broken by a shock, which threw him
from the stern-sheets of the boat, right over the aftermost thwart.
Newton recovered his legs, and his senses, and found himself alongside
of a vessel. He had run stem on to a small schooner, which was lying at
anchor. As the boat was drifting fast by, Newton made a spring, and
gained the deck of the vessel.

"Ah! mon Dieu!--les Anglais--les Anglais--nous sommes prisonniers!"
cried out the only man on deck, jumping on his feet, and making a
precipitate dive below.

The vessel, of which Newton had thus taken possession, was one employed
in carrying the sugars from the plantations round to Basse Terre, the
port of Guadaloupe, there to be shipped for Europe,--Newton's boat
having run away so far to the southward, as to make this island. She was
lying at anchor off the mouth of a small river, waiting for a cargo.

It happened that the crew of the schooner, who were all slaves, were
exactly in the same situation as Newton, when their vessels came in
contact--viz., fast asleep. The shock had awakened them; but they were
all below except the one who had kept such a remarkably good watch.

Exhausted as Newton was, he could not but smile at his uninterrupted
possession of the vessel's decks. Anxious to have communication with the
people on board, he sat down, awaiting their coming up from below. In a
minute or two, a black h