ever, Mr. Bowen! God forbid!
What makes you think so?"

"Why," replied the mate, "the symptoms are precisely those of yellow
fever; and you know there were some fatal cases among the shipping
before we left Savannah."

"That's true, Mr. Bowen true as a book. Perhaps it IS the yellow fever.
O Lord! The yellow fever on board the Joseph! What SHALL we do, Mr.
Bowen? Had we not better put back? Who knows whose turn it may be next?
The yellow fever! Why, this is dreadful!"

And the yellow fever it proved to be. The unfortunate man was seized
with delirium in less than twelve hours after he was attacked, and died
on the following day. The captain was terribly frightened, and was half
disposed to make for the nearest port and resign command of the brig.
But Mr. Bowen succeeded in calming his fears, and convince him, that
by sprinkling the cabin and forecastle freely with vinegar, and burning
brimstone, tobacco-leaves, and tar several hours in a day for several
successive days, the infected atmosphere would be rendered pure and
innoxious. The experiment was tried; and for more than a week the
captain, to the great annoyance of the sailors, was every day busy in
devising means of salutary fumigation, and carrying them into effect,
or, in other words, trying to drive out one poison by introducing
another a hundred times more offensive to our olfactories, and attended,
if possible, with more unpleasant associations.

We pursued our course towards Gottenburg; steering nearly in the
direction of the Gulf Stream, passing to the southward of the Bank of
Newfoundland, and then standing away to the northward and eastward, with
a view to pass north of Scotland and enter the Skager-rack through the
broad passage which separates the Orkneys from the Shetland Islands.
On the passage we fell in with the little islet, or huge rock, known as
Rockal, which lies almost in mid-ocean, being about two hundred miles
west of the coast of Scotland. This rock is only a few hundred feet in
length, and rises abruptly to a height eighty or a hundred feet. It
is craggy and precipitous, and is the resort of seals, and myriads of
birds, as osprays, gulls, and gannets, which abound in that part of the
ocean, and there, undisturbed by the presence of man, lay their eggs and
rear their young. Rockal has the appearance, when first seen, of a large
ship under sail, and is of a dark gray color, being covered in some
parts, probably to the depth of many feet, w