dead in the cabin. Without giving them time to prepare for the assault, we quitted our shelter, and sprung among them at once, Laying about with our cutlasses.

For a little space the skirmish was toughly and hotly contested; for the pirates were resolute and reckless, and fought with the desperation of men who knew that the only chance for their lives lay in their own exertions. In the confusion of the fray I had lost sight of Duff, and was closely engaged with one of the Spaniards, when the voice of the boatswain shouting forth a horrible imprecation sounded immediately behind me. I turned round, and sprung aside from the sweep of his cutlass, and, as my pistols were both empty, retreated, acting on the defensive; when he pulled out his, fired, and hurled the weapon at my head. The shot passed without injuring me-but the pistol, aimed with better effect, struck me full in the forehead. A thousand sparks of light flashed from my eyes-I felt myself reeling, and on the point of falling, when a cut across the shoulder stretched me at once on the ground. When I recovered from my stupor, and opened my eyes, the morning was far advanced-the sun was shining bright over head; and I found myself at sea, lying on the deck of the cutter; and Duff busily engaged in examining my wounds. From him ĺ learned that the pirates had been mastered after a severe conflict -in which four had been slain, and left on the island; two had escaped unobserved during the fight, and made off with their boat; and two had been wounded, and were prisoners on board, one of whom was Mahone. On our arrival at Porto Rico, we delivered them over to the civil power; and, soon afterwards, Mahone was

tried for the murder of the priest, when he was convicted on our evidence, condemned, and executed. Under good nursing, and care, I gradually recovered.

Isabella is not now that destitute and unprotected orphan whom I first saw on the middle of the western ocean-but the happy mistress of a happy home, diffusing life and gladness on all around her. My friend Duff has lately been placed on the list of post captains, and is anxiously waiting for more bustling times, when there will be more knocking about, and more hard blows got, than what our present peace establishment admits of John Wyllie, too, has had advancement in his line, being now master of one of the finest ships from Clyde; and I had the additional satisfaction of knowing that none of the crew had reason tc regret their having jeopardized their lives in fighting for the "Pirate's Treasure."

MISSIONARIES IN GREENLAND.

The hardships encountered by the early missionaries in Greenland were many and severe. The missionary Rudolph, in attempting to return to Europe after devoting twenty-six years of his life to the cause of God in Greenland, experienced a very remarkable and merciful deliverance. On the 18th of June, he quitted Lichtenau, in company with his wife, and in the evening embarked on a vessel which was lying off the Danish factory of Julianenhaab. The bay being nearly blocked up by drift-ice, they were detained here for several weeks; but, some Greenlanders having stated that the sea was open at a short distance, the captain weighed anchor on the 22d of August, though the wind was contrary, and vast bodies of ice were still within sight. For some time they advanced with a roaring noise and a most uneasy motion, through immense fields of ice; but, on the 25th, a storm arose from the south-west, which drove the mountains of ice close upon the ship, and appeared to menace immediate destruction. The scene was now truly tremendous, and it appeared that the vessel, with her sails closely reefed, and driving before the wind must inevitably be dashed to atoms. At one time she struck upon a small rock; but was got off without receiving any particular damage; but soon afterwards, she struck with such violence against an immense field of ice, that several planks started at once, the water rushed in, and the vessel filled so rapidly that the captain and the sailors had scarcely escaped with their boats to an adjacent field of ice, when nothing more appeared above the surface of the water than the larboard gunwale. Our missionary and his wife were the last who were

taken from the wreck; and, just before they quitted it, they were above their knees in water, and clinging firmly to the shrouds.

The mariners were now anxious to make toward the shore, which was only about a league distant; but the large boat was so heavily laden, and the wind was so high, that it was deemed more advisable to steer for the nearest island they could reach. This proved to be a rough pointed rock, and destitute of vegetation, except one small plot at a considerable height which was covered with short grass.-Here they attempted to land the provisions which had been saved from the wreck; but the waves beat with such fury against the rock, that the boats, with eight of the sailors on board, were driven to the opposite shore and appeared to be crushed in pieces. "All our hopes of being saved," says Mr. Rudolph, "now vanished; and the whole company gave vent to their feelings in loud and general cries and lamentations. In the evening we lay down to rest, close to each other, without either tent or covering, and, as it continued to rain heavily during the whole of the night, the water rushed down upon us in torrents from the summit of the rock, and we were completely soaked in wet, lying as it were, in the midst of a pool.'

On the 27th the captain and most of the sailors determined to attempt to reach the shore, by walking across the ice; though, as it was frequently necessary to leap from one mass to another, and a fall into any of the intermediate chasms would have been instantly fatal, this undertaking was extremely dangerous. Rudolph and the partner of his affections would willingly have joined them, but they were too much weakened by fatigue and want of food to allow of such an exertion. They were, therefore, compelled to remain, together with the ship's cook, who was in the same enfeebled situation. The crew, however, promised that if they succeeded in reaching the shore, a boat should be sent to rescue them from their painful and perilous situation.

Time now passed heavily indeed, with our missionary and his companions, who, when the sun shone, employed themselves in drying the few articles which they had been enabled to save from the wreck; but they were, at last, so enfeebled by cold and hunger, that even this little exertion proved too much for their exhausted strength. Day after day they looked with inexpressible anxiety towards the land, with the hope of discovering some Greenlander hastening to their relief.

On the 2d of September, as they were lying down to sleep, the wife of Rudolph happened to raise herself, and discovered some Greenlanders, who had been rowing about in their kajaks the whole of the day without seeing any persons on the rock, and who were now proposing to return. From them the sufferers obtained a few herrings, but were obliged to remain on the rock another night, as the Greenlanders had no boat for their accommodation. The following evening however, they were safely conveyed to the

colony of Julianenhaaf, where they learned that the whole ship's company, with the exception of one man, had been providentially preserved; and on the 11th they proceeded to the settlement at Lichtenau, where their miraculous deliverance afforded inexpressible pleasure to their fellow laborers and to the whole congregation. Here they passed the winter; and in the course of the following year they removed to Lichtenfels, whence they sailed .n one of the Danish vessels, to Copenhagen

DOLPHINS AND FLYING FISH.

Perhaps there is not any more characteristic evidence of our being within the tropical regions,—one, I mean, which strikes the imagination more forcibly,-than the company of those picturesque little animals, the flying-fish. It is true, that a stray one or two may sometimes be seen far north, making a few short skips out of the water; and I even remember seeing several close to the edge of the banks of Newfoundland, in latitude 45°. These, however, had been swept out of their natural position by the huge gulf-stream, an ocean in itself, which retains much of its temperature far into the northern regions, and possibly helps to modify the climate over the Atlantic. But it is not until the voyager has fairly reached the heart of the torrid zone that he sees the flyingfish in perfection. No familiarity with the sight can ever render us indifferent to the graceful flight of these most interesting of all the finny, or, rather, winged tribe. On the contrary, like a bright day, or a smiling countenance, or good company of any kind, the more we see of them, the more we learn to value their presence. I have, indeed, hardly ever observed a person so dull, or unimaginative, that his eye did not glisten as he watched a shoal, or, it may well be called, a covey of flying-fish rise from the sea, and skim along for several hundred yards. There is something in it so very peculiar, so totally dissimilar to every thing else in other parts of the world, that our wonder goes on increasing every time we see even a single one take its flight. The incredulity, indeed, of the old Scotch wife on this head is sufficiently excusable. "You may hae seen rivers o' milk, and mountains o' sugar, said she to her son, returned from a voyage; "but you'll ne'er gar me believe you hae seen a fish that could flce!”

We were once stealing along under the genial influence of a light breeze, which was as yet confined to the upper sails, and every one was looking open-mouthed to the eastward to catch a gulp of cool air, when about a dozen flying-fish rose out of the

water, just under the fore-chains, and skimmed away to windward at the height of ten or twelve feet above the surface.

Á large dolphin, which had been keeping company with us abreast of the weather gangway, at the depth of two or three fathoms, and, as usual, glistening most beautifully in the sun, no sooner detected them take wing, than he turned his head towards them, and, darting to the surface, leaped from the water with a velocity little short, as it seemed, of a cannon ball. But although the impetus with which he shot himself into the air gave him an initial velocity greatly exceeding that of the flying-fish, the start which his fated prey had got, enabled them to keep ahead of him for a considerable time. The length of the dolphin's first spring could not be less than ten yards; and after he fell, we could see him gliding like lightning through the water for a moment, when he again rose and shot forwards with considerably greater velocity than at first, and, of course, to a still greater distance. In this manner the merciless pursuer seemed to stride along the sea with fearful rapidity, while his brilliant coat sparkled and flashed in the sun quite splendidly. As he fell headlong on the water at the end of each huge leap, a series of circles were sent far over the still surface, which lay as smooth as a mirror; for the breeze, although enough to set the royals and top-gallant studding sails asleep, was hardly as yet felt below. The group of wretched flying-fish, thus hotly pursued, at length dropped into the sea; but we were rejoiced to observe that they merely touched the top of the swell, and carcely sunk in it,-at least they instantly set off again in a fresh and even more vigorous flight. It was particularly interesting to observe that the direction they now took was quite different from the one in which they had set out, implying but too obviously that they had detected their fierce enemy, who was following them with giant steps along the waves, and now gaining rapidly upon them. His terrific pace, indeed, was two or three times as swift as theirs-poor little things! and whenever they varied their flight in the smallest degree, he lost not the tenth part of a second in shaping a new course, so as to cut off the chase, while they, in a manner really not unlike that of the hare, doubled more than once upon their pursuer. But it was soon too plainly to be seen that their strength and confidence were fast ebbing. Their flights became shorter and shorter, and their course more fluttering and uncertain, while the enormous leaps of the dolphin appeared to grow only more vigorous at each bound. Eventually, indeed, we could see, or fancied we could see, that this skilful sea-sportsman arranged all his springs with such an assurance of success, he contrived to fall, at the end of each, just under the very spot on which the exhausted flying-fish were about to drop! Sometimes this catastrophe took place at too great a distance for us to see from the deck exactly what happened; but on our mounting high into the rigging, we may be said to have been in at the death; for

that