great, that next day I thought myself waking out of a disturbed sleep, asking the people round me if they had seen any tumult, or heard any cries of despair? Some answered, that they too had been tormented with the same visions, and did not know how to explain them. Many who had been most furious during the night, were now sullen and motionless, unable to utter a single word. Two or three plunged into the ocean, coolly bidding their companions farewell; others would say. 'Don't despair; I am going to bring you relief; you shall soon see me again.' Not a few even thought themselves on board the Medusa, amidst every thing they used to be daily surrounded with. In a conversation with one of my comrades, he said to me, I cannot think we are on a raft; I always suppose myself on board our frigate.' My own judgment, too, wandered on these points. M. Correard imagined himself going over the beautiful plains of Italy. M. Griflen said very seriously, 'I remember we were forsaken by the boats; but never fear, I have just written to Government, and in a few hours we shall be saved. M. Correard asked quite as seriously, and have you then a pigeon to carry your orders so fast?"" It was now the third day since they had been abandoned, and hunger began to be most sharply felt; some of the men, driven to desperation, at length tore off the flesh from the dead bodies that covered the raft, and devoured it. "The officers and passengers," says M. Sevigne, " to whom I united myself, could not overcome the repugnance inspired by such horrible food; we however tried to eat the belts of our sabres and cartouch boxes, and succeeded in swallowing some small pieces; but we were at last forced to abandon these expedients, which brought no relief to the anguish caused by total abstinence." In the evening they were fortunate enough to take nearly two hundred flying fishes, which they shared immediately. Having found some gunpowder, they made a fire to dress them? but their portions were so small, and their hunger so great, that they added huraan flesh, which the cooking rendered less disgusting; the officers were at last tempted to taste of it. The horrid repast was followed with another scene of violence and confusion; a second engagement took place during the night, and in the morning only thirty persons were left alive on the fatal raft. On the fourth night, a third fit of despair swept off fifteen more; so that, finally, the number of miserable beings was reduced from one hundred and fifty, to fifteen. "A return of reason, says M. Sevigne, "began now to enlighten our situation. I have no longer to relate the furious actions dictated by dark despair, but the unhappy state of fifteen exhausted creatures reduced to frightful misery. Our gloomy thoughts were fixed on the little wine that was left, and we contemplated with horror the ravages which despair and want had made amongst us. 'You are much altered,' said one of my companions, seizing my hand, and melting into tears. Eight days torments had rendered us no longer like ourselves. At length, seeing ourselves so reduced, we summoned up all our strength, and raised a kind of stage to rest ourselves upon. On this new theatre we resolved to wait death in a becoming manner. We passed some days in this situation, each concealing his despair from his nearest companion. Misunderstanding, however, again took place, on the tenth day after being on board the raft. After a distribution of wine, several of our companions conceived the idea of destroying themselves after finishing the little wine that remained. When people are so wretched as we,' said they, 'they have nothing to wish for but death.’ We made the strongest remonstrances to them; but their diseased brains could only fix on the rash project which they had conceived; a new contest was therefore on the point of commencing, but at length they yielded to our remonstrances. Many of us, after receiving our small portion of wine, fell into a state of intoxication, and then great misunderstandings arose. "At other times we were pretty quiet, and sometimes our natural spirits inspired a smile in spite of the horrors of our situation. Says one, if the brig is sent in search of us, let us pray to God to give her the eyes of Argus,' alluding to the name of the vessel which we supposed might come in search of us. The 17th in the morning, thirteen days after being forsaken, while each was enjoying the delights of his poor portion of wine, a captain of infantry perceived a vessel in the horizon, and announced it with a shout of joy. For some moments we were suspended between hope and fear. Some said, they saw the ship draw nearer; others, that it was sailing away. Unfortunately, these last were not mistaken, for the brig soon disappeared. From excess of joy, we now sunk into despair. For my part, I was so accustomed to the idea of death, that I saw it approach with indifference. I had remarked many others terminate their existence without great outward signs of pain; they first became quite delirious, and nothing could appease them; after that, they fell into a state of imbecility that ended their existence, like a lamp that goes out for want of oil. A boy twelve years old, unable to support these privations, sunk under them, after our being forsaken. All spoke of this fine boy as deserving a better fate; his angelic face, his melodious voice, and his tender years, inspired us with the tenderest compassion, for so young a victim devoted to so frightful and untimely a death. Our oldest soldiers, and, indeed, every one, eagerly assisted him as far as circumstances permitted. But, alas! it was all in vain; neither the wine, nor any other consolation, could save him, and he expired in M. Coudin's arms. As long as he was able to move, he was continually running from one side of the raft to the other, calling out for his mother, for water, and for food. "About six o'clock, on the 17th, one of our companion looking out, on a sudden stretching his hands forwards, and scarce ly able to breathe, cried out,' Here's the brig almost alongside; and, in fact, she was actually very near. We threw ourselves on each other's necks with frantic transports, while tears trickled down our withered cheeks. She soon bore upon us within pistol shot, sent a boat, and presently took us all on board. We had scarcely scaped, when some of us became delirious again; a military officer was going to leap into the sea, as he said, to take up his pocket book; and would certainly have done so, but for those about him; others were affected in the same manner, but in a less degree. "Fifteen days after our deliverancee, I felt the species of mental derangement which is produced by great misfortunes; my mind was in a continual agitation, and during the night, I often awoke, thinking myself still on the raft; and many of my companions experienced the same effects. One François became deaf, and remained for a long time in a state of idiotism. Another frequently lost his recollection; and my own memory, remarkably good before this event, was weakened by it in a sensible manner. "At the moment in which I am recalling the dreadful scenes to which I have been witness, they present themselves to my imagination like a frightful dream. All those horrible scenes from which I so miraculously escaped, seem now only as a point in my existence. Restored to health, my mind sometimes recalls those visions that tormented it, during the fever that consumed it. In those dreadful moments we were certainly attacked with a cerebral fever, in consequence of excessive mental irritation. And even now, sometimes in the night, after having met with any disappointment, and when the wind is high, my mind recalls the fatal raft I see a furious ocean ready to swallow me up; hands uplifted to strike me, and the whole train of human passions let loose; revenge, fury, hatred, treachery, and despair, surrounding me!" THE MAIN-TRUCK, OR A LEAP FOR LIFE. "Stand still! How fearful And dizzy 't is to cast one's eyes so low!" "The murmuring surge, That on th' unnumbered idle pebbles chafes, Among the many agreeable associates whom my different cruis ings and wanderings have brought me acquainted with, I can scarcely call to mind a more pleasant and companionable one than Tom Scupper. Poor fellow! he is dead and gone now—a viotim to that code of false honor which has robbed the navy of too many of its choicest officers. Tom and I were messmates during a short and delightful cruise, and, for a good part of the time, we belonged to the same watch. He was a great hand to spin yarns, which, to do him justice, he sometimes told tolerably well; and many a long mid-watch has his fund of anecdotes and sea stories caused to slip pleasantly away. We were lying, in the little schooner to which we were attached, in the open roadstead of Laguyra, at single anchor, when Tom told me the story which I am about to relate, as nearly as I can remember, in his own words. A vessel from Baltimore had come into Laguyra that day, and by her I had received letters from home, in one of which there was a piece of intelligence that weighed very heavily on my spirits. For some minutes after our watch commenced, Tom and I walked the deck in silence, which was soon, however, interrupted by my talkative companion, who perceiving my depression, and wishing to divert my thoughts, began as follows: The last cruise I made in the Mediterranean was in old Iron sides, as we used to call our gallant frigate. We had been backing and filling for several months on the western coast of Africa, from the Canaries down to Messurado, in search of slave traders; and during that time we had had some pretty heavy weather. When we reached the Straits, there was a spanking wind blowing from about west-south-west; so we squared away, and, without coming-to at the Rock, made a straight wake for old Mahon, the general rendezvous and place of refitting for our squadrons-in the Mediterranean. Immediately on arriving there, we warped n alongside the Arsenal quay, where we stripped ship to a girtline, broke out the holds, tiers, and store-rooms, and gave her a regular-built overhauling from stem to stern. For awhile, every body was busy, and all seemed bustle and confusion. Orders and replies, in loud and dissimilar voices, the shrill pipings of the different boatswain's mates, each attending to separate duties, and the mingled clatter and noise of various kinds of work, all going on the same time, gave something of the stir and animation of a dock-yard to the usually quiet arsenal of Mahon. The boatswain and his crew were engaged in fitting a new gang of rigging; the gunner in repairing his breechings and gun-tackles; the fo'castle-men in calking; the top-men in sending down the yards and upper spars; the holders and waisters in whitewashing and holy stoning; and even the poor marines were kept busy, like beasts of burden, in carrying breakers of water on their backs On the quay, near the ship, the smoke of the armorer's forge which had been hoisted out and sent ashore, ascended in a thin black column through the clear blue sky; from one of the neighboring white stone warehouses the sound of saw and hammer told that the carpenters were at work; near by, a livelier rattling drew attention to the cooper, who in the open air was tightning the water-casks; and not far removed, under a temporary shed, formed of spare studding-sails and tarpaulins, sat the sailmaker and his assistants, repairing the sails, which had been rent or injured by the many storms we had encountered. Many hands, however, make light work, and in a very few days all was accomplished: the stays and shrouds were set up and new rattled down; the yards crossed, the running rigging rove, and sails bent; and the old craft, fresh painted and all a-taunt-o, looked as fine as a midshipman on liberty. In place of the stormstumps, which had been stowed away among the booms and other spare spars, amidships, we had set up cap to'gallant-masts, and royal-poles, with a sheave for skysails, and hoist enough for skyscrapers above them: so you may judge the old frigate looked pretty taunt. There was a Dutch line-ship in the harbor; but though we only carried forty-four to her eighty, her main-truck would hardly have reached to our royal-mast-head. The sideboys, whose duty it was to lay aloft and furl the skysails, looked no bigger on the yard than a good-sized duff for a midshipman's mess, and the main-truck seemed not half as large as the Turk'shead-knot on the main-ropes of the accommodation ladder. When we had got every thing ship-shape and man-of-war fashion, we hauled out again, and took our birth about half way between the Arsenal and Hospital island; and a pleasant view it gave us of the town and harbor of old Mahon, one of the safest and most tranquil places of anchorage in the world. The water of this beautiful inlet-which though. it makes about four miles into the land, is not much over a quarter of a mile in width—is scarcely ever ruffled by a storm; and on the delightful afternoon to which I now refèr, it lay as still and motionless as a polished mirror, except when broken into momentary ripples by the paddles of some passing waterman. What little wind we had had in the fore part of the day, died away at noon, and, though the first dog-watch was almost out, and the sun was near the horizon, not a breath of air had risen to disturb the deep serenity of the scene. The Dutch liner, which lay not far from us, was so clearly reflected in the glassy surface of the water, that there was not a rope about her, from her main-stay to her signal halliards, which the eye could not distinctly trace in her shadowy and inverted image. The buoy of our best bower floated abreast our larboard bow; and that, too, was so strongly imaged, that its entire bulk seemed to lie above the water, just resting on it, as if upborne on a sea of molten lead; except when now and then, the wringing of a swab, or the dashing of a bucket overboard from the head, broke up the shadow for a moment, and showed the substance but half its former apparent size. A small polacca craft had got underway from Mahon in the course of the forenoon, intending to stand over to Barcelona but it fell dead calm just |