was ready for making sail. "Cut the cable" he shouted at length.

"Sheet home the topsails! Man the starboard braces! Up with the helm !" Our sails filled and the vessel's head slowly turned away from the shore, just as the nearest prow was a dozen fathoms from us. A couple of shot threw her crew into confusion, and before they could grapple us we glided by them, every instant gathering way. "Give the next the stem" shouted the lieutenant, We did so, but we had scarcely way enough to do the vessel much injury. The other prows were now gathering thickly round us, and it was time for us to open on them with our guns. The enemy had no great guns, but the instant we began firing, they returned the compliment with matchlocks and javelins which came flying thickly on board. As we had to fight both sides at once, we had but little time to use our own small arms. However, while the men were working the guns, Esse and I, and another midshipman loaded the muskets with which the men fired while the guns were being spunged and loaded, we youngsters doing our part by firing the muskets which were not used. So rapidly did we work our guns, that many of the prows at a distance hesitated to approach us while those which got near were quickly half knocked to pieces. "Hurrah! there goes one of them down!" sung out Kiddle who was hauling in his gun. "And there's another! and another!" shouted others of the crew. The breeze was increasing. Again the prows came on on both sides, but our guns were all loaded and we gave them such a dose, few of our guns missing, that once more they dropped astern in confusion. The wind had now reached the frigate, which under all sail was standing towards us. When the pirates saw this, they weli knew that their chance of victory was gone, and the crews of the headmost ones again firing their matchlocks and darting a few more spears at us, pulled round, and made off with all speed towards the shore. Luffing up, we brought our broadside to bear upon them, and gave them a few parting shots, our crew giving a hearty cheer in token of victory. We were soon up to the frigate, when Captain Pemberton ordered us by signal to run back and keep as close in shore as we could, in order to watch the proceedings of the pirates. However before long it again fell a calm, and both the frigate and brig had to come to an anchor. Soon after, the captain and several officers came on board the brig to examine her and to ascertain more particularly what she was, and who were the murdered persons on board. Among others was, Mr. Noalles the pilot. No sooner did he enter the cabin, than he started back with a cry of horror.

"What is the matter? Who are those?" asked the captain, seeing the glance he cast at the dead man and the two ladies. "Little did I expect to see them thus," he answered.

were my friends, from whom I have often when at

"They received

great attention. That old man was one of the principal merchants

in the place, and those poor girls were his daughters, and again I observed the look of grief and horror with which Mr. Noalles regarded them. There had apparently been two or three other passengers on board, but what had become of them, or the remainder of the crew, we could find nothing on board to tell us. The sight of those poor girls cruelly murdered in their youth and beauty was enough certainly to make the hardest heart on board bleed, and yet how much worse might have been their fate. A prize crew was put on board the brig, but of course the cabin was held sacred till the murdered people were committed to their ocean grave. At first it was proposed to bury them on shore, but a strong force would have been required had we landed, and as their remains might afterwards have been disturbed, it was determined to bury them at sea. For this purpose the next morning the captain came on board the brig with most of the officers, the sailmaker having in the meantime closely fastened up each form in several folds of stout canvas with a heavy shot at the feet. As Mr. Noalles informed the captain that the deceased were Protestants, he used the burial service from the Church of England prayer book. The words indeed sounded peculiarly solein to our ears. All present probably had heard it over and over again when a shipmate had died from wounds in battle, or sickness brought on in the service, but their deaths were all in the ordinary way. These people had been cut off in a very different manner. remember particularly those words, "In the midst of life we are in death." They made an impression on me at the time, and more so from what afterwards occurred. As they were uttered the old man's corpse was allowed to glide off slowly into the calm ocean, into the depths of which it shot down rapidly. The bodies of the poor girls were launched one by one in the same manner, and I could not help jumping into the rigging to watch them, as the two shrouded figures went down and down in the clear water, till gradually they were lost to view. Most of us then returned on board the frigate. Such stores as the brig required were sent to her, as well as a prize crew, and she was then despatched to Amboyna to bring the frigate certain stores which it appeared she required. As our ship was supposed to be cruising in another direction, we remained on board, in the hopes of falling in with her. A light breeze towards evening enabled the big to get under weigh three or four days after the circumstances I have just related. Esse, who drew very well, made a sketch of her as she stood along the land, the rays. of the setting sun shedding a pink glow on her canvas while the whole ocean was lighted up with the same rosy hue. One side of the picture was bounded by the horizon, the other by the yellow shores and the lofty broken tree-covered heights of the island. We remained at anchor, intending to sail in the morning should there be sufficient wind to enable us to move. As the sun was sinking into the ocean, the sky and water for a few seconds were lighted up with a glow of brightest orange, which faded away as the shades of

night came stealing across the water from the east. In a short time the stars overhead burst forth, and shone down upon us, their light reflected in the mirror-like expanse on which we floated. The heat was very great. Esse and Pember had the middle watch under the third lieutenant of the ship; (the second had gone away in the prize). The heat making me unwilling to turn into my hammock, I continued to walk the deck with Esse. Sometimes we stopped and leaned against a gun carriage talking, as midshipmen are apt to talk of home, or future prospects, or of late occurrences. "That foreign-looking pilot aboard here is a strange fellow," observed Esse to me. The people think him not quite right in his mind. They say he talks in his sleep, and did you observe his look when he caught sight of the murdered people aboard the brig?" I did not however agree with Dicky's notions.

"The man has been employed on ships of war for many years I am told," I answered. And if he was not a respectable character

66

it is not likely that they would take him."

"As to that I have my doubts," answered Esse. "All they look to, is to get a good pilot who knows the ugly navigation of these seas, and that I suppose at all events he does. But see, who is that on the other side of the deck?” As he spoke he pointed to a person who was standing apparently looking out at some object far away across the sea.

"Yes, that is him," I whispered "I hope he did not hear

us."

"If he did it does not signify," said Esse. While we were looking at him, the man walked directly aft and remained gazing as he had done before into the distance over the taffrail. Our watch at length came to an end. "I shall caulk it out on deck," said I. Esse agreed to do the same. Indeed, several of the crew were sleeping on deck, Kiddle and Brady among them. There also was Pember. Indeed it seemed surprising that anybody could manage to exist in the oven-like heat which prevailed in the lower part of the ship. "Sound slumber to you Burton," said Esse, and he and I before a minute passed were fast asleep. How long we had slept I do not know, but I was awoke with the most terrific roar I had ever heard. I felt myself lifted right up into the air, and then as it were shoved off with tremendous violence from the deck on which I was lying, and plunged into the water. Down! down! I sank. My ears seemed cracking by the continued roar. My breath was going. The horror of deep waters was upon me. Then suddenly I appeared to be bounding up again. I thought it was all a dream, I expected to find myself in my hammock, or in my bed at Whithyford, and certainly not struggling amidst the foaming waters in the Indian Seas.

CHAPTER XIX.

When I came to the surface, I found myself amidst a mass

of wreck, and several human beings struggling desperately for dear life. Some were crying out for help, others clutching at fragments. of timber, which floated near, and others striking out, and keeping themselves afloat by their own exertions. . I had become a pretty good swimmer, and seeing a part of the wreck above water not far fron me, I made towards it. On my way, I saw a person clinging to a spar a couple of fathoms off. "Who is that," said a voice. It was that of Dicky Esse. "Burton," I answered. "Oh! do help me!" he cried out. "I cannot swim, and I cannot hold on much longer, and if I do not reach the wreck I shall drop off and be drowned!"

"Hold on," I shouted, "and perhaps I may be able to tow the spar up to the wreck. I will try at all events; but do not let go, Dicky! Do not on any account!"

I was

1 swam to the spar, and partly resting on it, shoved it before me towards the wreck, but still I made but slow progress. afraid that I should be obliged, after all, to give it up, as I felt my strength going, when a man, swimming powerfully, reached us. "Help! help! do help me!" I cried out. He said nothing, but just touching the spar with one hand, so as not to sink it deeper in the water, he shoved it on til we reached the wreck. The hammock nettings were just above water, and afforded us a better resting place than we could have expected. "Thank you! thank you!" I said, as the man hauled Dicky and me into this place of refuge. "What shall we next do?" "Wait till morning, and if we are then alive, we must get on shore as best we can," he answered. I knew by the voice and accent of the speaker that he was Mr. Noalles. The bright stars shining down from the sky gave us sufficient light to distinguish objects at a considerable distance. As we looked out, we saw several other persons still alive, some swimming, others holding on to bits of timber. We shouted out to them, lest they should not be aware that they could obtain a place to rest on, at all events, until morning. A voice not far off answered us. "Who is that ?" I cried out, for I thought I recog nized it. "Toby Kiddle, sir," was the answer. He was swimming up towards us. "I have just passed Mr. Pember clinging to a piece of the wreck. I will go back and try to bring him here." "I will go with you," I said. "No, no, youngster, stay where you are," observed Mr. Noalles, "you will be drowned if you make the attempt, I will go!" The next instant, he was striking out in the direction in which Toby was now 'swimming.

Esse and I watched them anxiously as they disappeared in the gloom. I was very thankful to think that Toby Kiddle was alive, but I could not help wishing that Pat Brady had escaped also, as I knew that he had been on deck and close to Kiddle. While we were looking out for the return of our shipmates, another man, one of the seamen, reached the wreck. He said he was greatly scorched, and it seemed surprising that he should have been able to swim so

far. There were yet a number of people floating about alive, and when we shouted, several voices answered us. Among then I thought I recognised Pat's. "Brady, is that you?" I cried out. "By the powers it's myself, I belave," answerd Pat, "but where I have been to, or what I have been about, or where this is happening bothers me particularly. And how I am ever to get to you is more than I can tell."

"I must go to help him," said I to Esse, for he will be drifted away, even if he manages to cling to whatever he has got

hold of."

"But surely he is drifting towards us," observed Esse." He has got nearer since he began to speak." Such indeed was the case, and even before Kiddle and Mr. Noalles returned with Pember, not only Pat, but two or three other men had been drifted up to us. Pat had helped himself along by striking out with his feet, though he was but a poor swimmer, indeed I have scarcely ever met an Irish seaman who could swim. We could make out other people still floating at some distance. Now and then a cry was heard. We shouted in return, but there was no reply. It was the last despairing utterance of one of our shipmates, before he sunk below the surface. Those on the wreck were already so exhausted that no one could go to their as-istance. There were rather more than a dozen altogether, I believe, clinging to the wreck. Several of them from the exclamations they uttered, I found were suffering from scorching, or the blows they had received from falling pieces of the wreck.

Morning, at length, dawned upon us poor human beings-the sole survivors of the ship's company, who a few hours before were enjoving life and strength. Just then, the words which I had heard at the funeral came across my mind "In the midst of life we are in death." How true it had proved to them. It night prove true to us also, for our prospects of escape were small indeed. Pieces of the wreck were floating about around us, and I thought I made out two or three people still holding on to the fragments, but I could not be certain. In the far distance were the shores of the island. It seemed so far off, that we could scarcely hope to reach it, yet reach it we must, if our lives were to be saved. The sea was smooth, and the warmth of the water prevented our being benumbed from being so long in it. Still as the sun rose, all hands began to complain of thirst. Something must be done however. I asked Pember what he would advise, as he, being the highest in rank among us, would have to take the command, but his drinking habits had unnerved him, and he answered incoherently: "We must swim, I suppose, if we cannot get the wreck under way." Esse and I then turned to Mr. Noalles. He had occasionally uttered a deep groan, as if in pain. I found that he was severely hurt, partly from the fire, and also from the blows he had received. At first, apparently, he had not been