that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment that
accompanies a new and alarming discovery if, at any time, the ideas
themselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is,
probably, this vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whose
minds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, that
enables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the very
brink of that precipice which divides the world of time from the regions
of eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded,
with real tranquillity. How much it is to be lamented that we do not
keep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that our
indifference or blindness to danger, whether it be temporal or eternal,
cannot possibly remove or diminish the extent of that danger.

Some time after the shades of night had enveloped us, I descended to the
cuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; and
the scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy in
the extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had been
the seat of kindly intercourse and of social gaiety, was now entirely
deserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched in
irrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about, like beasts
of prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other articles
of furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought and
pains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered in
confusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped from
their confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig,
wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large in
undisturbed possession of the Brussels carpet that covered one of the
cabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, and
rendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, I
returned to the poop, where I again found, amongst the few officers that
remained, Capt. Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieuts. Ruxton, Booth, and Evans,
superintending, with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidly
diminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived to carry them
off.

The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as the
night advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fed
as much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid as by the
real and evident a