an commodities. We also send out so much life, and it gives a good
return to the Company."

"But not to the poor soldiers, I am afraid."

"No; the Company buy it cheap and sell it dear," replied the captain,
who walked forward.

True, thought Philip, they do purchase human life cheap, and make a rare
profit of it, for without these poor fellows how could they hold their
possessions in spite of native and foreign enemies? For what a paltry
and cheap annuity do these men sell their lives? For what a miserable
pittance do they dare all the horrors of a most deadly climate, without
a chance, a hope of return to their native land, where they might haply
repair their exhausted energies, and take a new lease of life! Good
God! if these men may be thus heartlessly sacrificed to Mammon, why
should I feel remorse if in the fulfilment of a sacred duty imposed on
me by him who deals with us as He thinks meet, a few mortals perish?
Not a sparrow fails to the ground without His knowledge, and it is for
him to sacrifice or to save. I am but the creature of his will, and I
but follow my duty,--but obey the commands of One whose ways are
inscrutable. Still, if for my sake this ship be also doomed, I cannot
but wish that I had been appointed to some other, in which the waste of
human life might have been less.

It was not until a week after Philip arrived on board, that the Batavia
and the remainder of the fleet were ready for sea.

It would be difficult to analyse the feelings of Philip Vanderdecken on
this his second embarkation. His mind was so continually directed to
the object of his voyage, that although he attended to his religious
duty, yet the business of life passed before him as a dream. Assured of
again meeting with the Phantom Ship, and almost equally assured that the
meeting would be followed by some untoward event in all probability by
the sacrifice of those who sailed with him, his thoughts preyed upon
him, and wore him down to a shadow. He hardly ever spoke, except in the
execution of his duty. He felt like a criminal; as one who, by
embarking with them, had doomed all around him to death, disaster, and
peril; and when _one_ talked of his wife, and _another_ of his
children--when they would indulge in anticipations, and canvass happy
projects, Philip would feel sick at heart, and would rise from the table
and hasten to the solitude of the deck. At one time he would try to
persuade himself that his senses