in brightness_;' while the transparent
surface both received and returned her silver image. Here, instead of
being covered with sackcloth,[A] she shone with resplendent lustre; or
rather with a lustre multiplied in proportion to the number of
beholders.

[Footnote A: I must be excused for the ideal extravagance of
"clothing" this nocturnal luminary in "SACKCLOTH," on adverting to
that unlimited flight of poetic imagination, which speaks of "_Heaven
peeping through the blanket of the deep_." _Vide Shakspeare's
Macbeth._]

Such I think is the effect of exemplary behaviour in persons of
exalted rank; their course as it is nobly distinguished, so it will be
happily influential; others will catch the diffusive rays, and be
ambitious to resemble a pattern so commanding. Their amiable qualities
will not terminate in themselves, but we shall see them reflected in
their families.

My readers, I trust, will not wonder at my meditations on these
sublunary objects, when they consider that they are the seaman's
guide, and from them the greatest sources of nautical information are
derived.

In the midst of these pleasing reveries, I was aroused by the ship
being taken a-back, the watch being completely intoxicated, and it was
only with difficulty that they could do their duty. Nothing material
happened till our arrival at the Cape, when we experienced a severe
gale for three days. The sea being heavy, she pitched her portals
under water. We were running at the rate of ten knots per hour, under
bare poles; and we soon after made the trade winds.

On the 23d of June we arrived in Madras roads; from the deck the view
of the land has a magnificent appearance; the different offices have,
to the beholder, the appearance of stone, and they are formed along
the beach in a beautiful manner; they are built with piazzas and
verandahs, and they extend about one mile along a sandy beach, while
the natives parading along the shore, and the surf spraying upon the
beach, gave the scene a very picturesque appearance. The surf beats
here with so much violence that it is impossible for any ship's boats
to land without being dashed to pieces.

On our making land we espied a small craft, called a kattamaran,
making towards us; it was manned with two of the natives naked, except
a handkerchief round their waist, and a straw round cap (turban) made
with a partition in it to keep letters dry. This bark is made of three
long hulls of trees, about te