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 on 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 Anglois--les Anglois 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 Basseterre, 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 wakened 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 head was seen to rise slowly and fearfully
out of the fore-scuttle, then it disappeared. Another rose up, and went
down again as before; and thus it went on until Newton reckoned ten
different faces. Having individually ascertained that there was but one
man, and that one not provided with any weapons, the negroes assumed a
degree of courage. The first head that had made its appearance, the
woolly hair of which was of a grizzly grey from age, was again popped up
the fore-scuttle, with an interrogatory