tious, and in the ample
enjoyment of every necessary that could contribute either to their
health or their comfort, their hearts seemed to beat high with
contentment and gratitude towards that country which they zealously
served, and whose interests they were cheerfully going forth to defend.

With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately _Kent_, in
bearing down the Channel, speedily passed many a well-known spot on the
coast dear to our remembrance; and on the evening of the 23rd we took
our last view of happy England, and entered the wide Atlantic, without
the expectation of again seeing land until we reached the shores of
India.

With slight interruptions of bad weather, we continued to make way until
the night of Monday, the 28th, when we were suddenly arrested in lat.
47 deg. 30', long. 10 deg., by a violent gale from the south-west, which
gradually increased during the whole of the following morning.

To those who have never "gone down to the sea in ships, and seen the
wonders of the Lord in the great deep," or even to such as have never
been exposed in a westerly gale to the tremendous swell in the Bay of
Biscay, I am sensible that the most sober description of the magnificent
spectacle of "watery hills in full succession flowing" would appear
sufficiently exaggerated. But it is impossible, I think, for the
inexperienced mariner, however unreflecting he may try to be, to view
the effects of the increasing storm, as he feels his solitary vessel
reeling to and fro under his feet, without involuntarily raising his
thoughts, with a secret confession of helplessness and veneration that
he may never before have experienced, towards that Being whose power,
under ordinary circumstances, we may have disregarded, and whose
incessant goodness we are prone to requite with ingratitude.

The activity of the officers and seamen of the _Kent_ appeared to keep
ample pace with that of the gale. Our larger sails were speedily taken
in or closely reefed; and about ten o'clock on the morning of the 1st of
March, after having struck our top-gallant yards, we were lying to,
under a triple-reefed maintop-sail only, with the deadlights in, and
with the whole watch of soldiers attached to the life lines, that were
run along the deck for this purpose.

The rolling of the ship, which was vastly increased by a dead weight of
some hundred tons of shots and shell that formed a part of its lading,
became so great about half-pas