29th, the famished crew deliberated upon selecting a second victim. They again came to inform the captain of their intention, and he appeared to give his consent, fearing lest the enraged sailors might have recourse to the lot without him. They left it with him to fix upon any method that he should think proper. The captain, summoning all his strength, wrote upon small pieces of paper, the name of each man who was then on board the brigantine, folded them up, put them into a hat, and shook them well together. The crew, meanwhile, preserved an awful silence; each eye was fixed, and each mouth was open, while terror was strongly impressed upon every countenance. With a trembling hand one of them drew from the hat the fatal billet, which he delivered to the captain, who opened it and read aloud the name of DAVID FLATT. The unfortunate man on whom the lot had fallen appeared perfectly resigned to his fate. "My friend, (said he to his companions,) the only favor I request of you is, not to keep me long in pain; dispatch me as speedily as you did the negro." Then turning to the man who had performed the first execution, he added;"It is you I choose to give me the mortal blow." He requested an hour to prepare himself for death, to which his comrades could only reply with tears. Meanwhile compassion, and the remonstrances of the captain, prevailed over the hunger of the most hard-hearted. They unanimously resolved to defer the sacrifice till eleven o'clock the following morning. Such a short reprieve afforded very little consolation to Flatt.

The certainty of dying the next day made such a deep impression upon his mind, that his body, which, for above a month, had withstood the almost total privation of nourishment, sunk beneath it. He was seized with a violent fever, and his state was so much aggravated by a delirium, with which it was accompanied, that some of the sailors proposed to kill him immediately, in order to terminate his sufferings. The majority, however, adhered to the resolution which had been taken of waiting till the following morning.

At ten o'clock in the morning of the 30th of January, a large fire was already made to dress to limbs of the unfortunate victim, when a sail was descried at a distance. A favor. able wind drove her toward the Peggy, and she proved to be the Susan, returning from Virginia and bound to London.

The captain could not refrain from tears at the affecting account of the sufferings endured by the famished crew. He lost no time in affording them relief, supplying them immedi

ately with provisions and rigging, and offered to convoy the Peggy to London. The distance from New-York, their prox. imity to the English coast, together with the miserable state of the brigantine, induced the two captains to proceed to England. The voyage was prosperous; only two men died, all the others gradually recovered their strength. Flatt himself was restored to perfect health, after having been so near the gates of death.

LOSS OF THE MAGPIE, AND ESCAPE OF TWO

OF HER CREW.

I KNOW many men in the navy, who have served their years and years afloat, who have passed through the rugged life of a sailor, untouched by the enemy, and unhurt by misfortune. How true it is, "that in the midst of life we are in death!" that the very moment of intoxicating joy may be our last of existence; and the instant of the greatest apparent security, the date of our death;-how vain are all our precautions against the unerring hand of fate!

The Magpie, a small schooner, under the command of Lieutenant Smith, an active, intelligent officer, was ordered to cruise between the Colorados, a shoal at the western extremity of the island of Cuba, and the Havana, in order to intercept a piratical vessel, which had committed innumerable depredations both on shore and at sea, and which every trader had seen, but none could accurately describe. It was a service of the utmost importance, inasmuch as the existence of this vessel rendered higher insurances requisite. The merchant vessels dared not sail without a convoy, and the men-of-war were otherwise in great request in every part of Columbia and Mexico, to protect the merchant from the rapacity of the different governments, or the constant revolu. tions which threw the weak entirely on the power of the strongest, without a chance of assistance.

The Magpie proceeded to her destination, and there remain. ed, in hopes of capturing the marauder. It was one evening when the sea-breeze had lulled, and the calm in being which occurs before the land-breeze commences, that the schooner lay upon the silent waters without a motion, with her head to.

ward the shore, and about eight miles distant from the Colorados. Smith, who had swept the horizon with his glass from the mast head of his charge, until the twilight had died into darkness, was in his cabin, the mate on deck, the crew talking over past scenes and occurrences, every thing apparently in the most perfect security, when an event occurred, which I well know I cannot paint in the glowing colors the heart-rending fale deserves.

It is requisite here to mention, that the schooner had her fore-topsail set, the yard being braced for the starboard tack; the foresail was in the brails, and the jib and boom mainsail, the latter with the tack triced up, hanging up and down in the calm. On the larboard bow a small black cloud had hung over the land; and in tropical climates, almost invariably, the clouds settling on the hills is the sign of the land-breeze being about to commence. Perhaps many of my readers have not been in these climates, where the blessings of the cool night. breeze must be felt to be appreciated; generally speaking, the land-wind comes on in light flaws, until it settles into its strength, which is rarely sufficient to drive a frigate at the rate of five knots an hour.

No one can guess with what impatience the navigator, who has been beating all day against the sea-breeze and current, awaits the arrival of his fair wind, and cooling breeze, which is to give him renewed existence by its bracing qualities, and to forward him toward his port. It is a blessing eagerly sought after, and heartily welcome when it comes.

The cloud, which at first seemed only of small dimensions, gradually increased; and the moon, which was shining brightly just over the vapour, perhaps made it appear darker than it really was. The mate looked at the gathering blackness without apprehension, although some foreboding of approach. ing mischief seemed to render him unquiet and uneasy.

"Mr. Smith," said the mate, looking down the hatchway, "I think the land-breeze is coming off rather strong, sir; the clouds look very black."

"Very well," replied Smith, "keep a sharp look-out, I shall be on deck myself in a moment."

It is proper for the historian of all misfortunes, to show how by cautious attention such misfortunes might have been guarded against. When the mate observed the increasing blackness and density of the cloud, he ought to have braced the foreyard round, and thus to have prevented the schooner being taken aback; for there are no vessels so ticklish (as we

call it) as schooners, and no yards so difficult to manage in a squall, as the long overgrown yard for a schooner's fore-topsail or squaresail. Had this slight manœuvre been executed, the horrible consequences which ensued might have been obviated; at any rate, the men ought to have been kept in readiness, the fore-top-sail should have been furled, or lowered, and preparations to meet any circumstances ought to have been made.

It is a singular fact, that the crew, who had been engaged in relating all kinds of wonderful events about five minutes before the catastrophe occurred, became awfully silent; not a word escaped them: there seemed a preparatory stillness for death itself, or a respectful fear at its approach.

A squall of wind, which must have been fearfully strong, seemed to burst from the cloud alongside the schooner; it reached her before the mate could call the watch into activity. The vessel was taken aback; and Mr. Smith, as he put his foot upon the last step of the ladder, found his schooner upset, and scarcely time had he to reach the deck before she sunk to rise no more.

The crew, amounting in all to twenty-four, happened luckily to be on deck, with the exception of two, who were drowned in the schooner; and in one minute they found themselves struggling in the water-their home, their ship, and some of their companions, lost for ever. The wild cry for assistance from some, of surprise from others, and fear from all, seemed to drown the wind; for, as if sent by Providence to effect this single event, no sooner had the schooner sunk, than the wind entirely ceased, a calm came on, and the bright rays of the moon fell upon the wet faces of the struggling crewmost fortunately, as some would think, but in reality the most painfully unfortunate from what followed. The boat on the booms of the schooner floated clear of the sinking vessel, and seemed prepared for their salvation; the fore-yard-arm had somehow got fixed on the gunwale, and as the schooner sunk, it naturally heeled the boat, until she was nearly upset and half full of water, when the yard got disentangled, the schooner sunk, and the boat floated.

The only ark of their safety was amply large enough to have saved the twenty-two men who instantly swam to her; but such was the impetuosity occasioned by their fright, that prudence was overlooked: and in the hurried exertion of eight or ten endeavoring to scramble in, all on one side, the half-filled boat heeled below her gunwale in the water, and

rolled over and over; some got across her keel, the others held on by her and all were safe from drowning.

Mr. Smith, who appears to have been a man of most consummate command and coolness, began to reason with his crew on the impossibility of their being saved, if they continued in their present position; for those who were on the keel would shortly roll off, and exertion and fatigue would soon force the others to relinquish their holds, or urge them to endeavor forcibly to dislodge the possessors from their quiet seats. He pointed out the necessity of righting the boat, of allowing only two men to get in her to bale her out, whilst the others, supported by the gunwales, which they kept upright, might remain in the water until the boat was in such a condition as to receive two more; and thus by degrees to ship the whole crew in security.

Even in this moment of peril, the discipline of the navy assumed its command. At the order from the lieutenant, for the men on the keel to relinquish their position, they instantly obeyed, the boat was turned over, and once more the expedient was tried-but quite in vain; for no sooner had the two men begun to bale with a couple of hats, and the safety of the crew to appear within the bounds of probability, than one man declared he saw the fin of a shark. No language can convey the panic which siezed the straggling seamen. shark is at all times an object of horror to a sailor; and those who have seen the destructive jaws of these voracious fish, and their immense and almost incredible power-their love of blood, and their bold daring to obtain it-alone can form an idea of the sensations produced to a swimmer by the cry of "a shark! a shark!"

A

Every man now struggled to obtain a moment's safety. Well they knew that one drop of blood would have been scented by the everlasting pilot fish, the jackalls of the shark; and that their destruction was inevitable, if one only of these monsters should discover the rich repast, or be led to its food by the little rapid hunter of its prey. All discipline was now unavailing, the boat again turned keel up. One man only gained his security, to be pushed from it by others; and thus their strength began to fail from long continued exertion. As, however, the enemy so much dreaded did not make its appearance, Smith once more urged them to endeavor to save themselves by the only means left, that of the boat; but as he knew that he would only increase their alarm by endeavoring to persuade them that sharks did not abound in those