clude by a few verses describing a virtuous woman, written by one William Knox, an obscure poet, who died in Edinburgh, a few years ago :— Her eye as soft and blue as even', When day and night are calmly meeting, The shadowy blush that tints her cheek, Her song comes o'er my thrilling breast Then ask not what hath changed my heart, I tell thee Tamar's virtuous art Hath made my spirit holy. And so doth the virtuous art and soft beauty of woman ever make holy the rugged spirit of man; and so doth her smile solace him in sorrow, and her trembling tears melt his heart, and shape it to virtuous resolution, amidst the hardening cares and rude jostlings of the world; and so doth the cold and lonely bachelor pant for her soothing and sobering society, as the hart panteth for the quiet and cool waters; and so he ought to seek to pillow his head upon her gentle bosom, and to cleave to her as a wife and an abiding friend, Ere youth and genial years are flown, And all the life of life is gone! TOM CRINGLE'S LOG.* CUBA FISHERMAN. It was now five in the afternoon, and the breeze continued to fall, and the sea to go down, until sunset, by which time we had run the corvette hull down, and the schooner nearly out of sight. Right a-head of us rose the high land of Cuba, to the westward of Cape Maise, clear and welldefined against the northern sky, and as wc neither hauled our wind to weather the east end of the island, nor edged away for St. Jago, it was evident, beyond all doubt, that we were running right in for some one of the piratical haunts on the Cuba coast. The crew now set to work, and removed the remains of their late messmate, and the two wounded men, from where they lay upon the ballast in the run, to their own berth forward in the bows of the little vessel; they then replaced the planks which had been started, and arranged the dead *Continued from p. 508, vol. 3d. body of the mate along the cabin floor, close to where I lay, faint and bleeding, and more heavily bruised than I had at first thought. The captain was still at the helm; he had never spoken a word either to me or any of the crew, since he had taken the trifling liberty of shooting me through the neck, and no thanks to him that the wound was not mortal; but he now resumed his American accent, and began to drawl out the necessary orders for repairing damages. When I went on deck shortly afterwards, I was surprised beyond measure to perceive the injury the little vessel had sustained, and the uncommon speed, handiness, and skill, with which it had been repaired. However lazily the command might appear to have been given, the execution of it was quick as lightning. The crew, now reduced to ten working hands, had, with an almost miraculous promptitude, knotted and spliced the rigging, mended and shifted sails, fished the sprung and wounded spars, and plugged and nailed lead over the shot-holes, and all within half an hour. I don't like Americans; I never did, and never shall like them; I have seldom or never met with an American gentleman; I have no wish to eat with them, drink with them, deal with, or consort with them in any way; but let me tell the whole truth, nor fight with them, were it not for the laurels to be acquired, by overcoming an enemy so brave, determined,and alert, and every way so worthy of one's steel, as they have always proved. One used to fight with a Frenchman, as a matter of course, and for the fun of the thing as it were, never dreaming of the possibility of Johnny Crapeau eating us, where there was anything approaching to an equality of force; but, say as much as we please about larger ships, and more men, and a variety of excuses which proud John Bull, with some truth very often I will admit, has pertinaciously thrust forward to palliate his losses during the short war, a regard for truth and fair dealing, which I hope are no scarce qualities amongst British seamen, compels me to admit, that although I would of course peril my life and credit more readily with an English crew, yet I believe a feather would turn the scale between the two countries, so far as courage and scamanship goes; and let it not be forgotten, although we have now regained our superiority in this respect, yet, in gunnery, and small-arm practice, we were as thoroughly weathered on by the Americans during the war, as we overtopped them in the bull-dog courage, with which our boarders handled those genuine English weapons, the cutlass and the pike. After the captain had given his orders, and seen the men fairly at work, he came down to the cabin, still ghastly and pale, but with none of that ferocity stamped on his grim features, from the outpouring of which I had suffered so severely. He never once looked my way, no more than if I had been a bundle of old junk; but folding his hands on his knee, he sat down on a small locker, against which the feet of the dead mate rested, and gazed earnestly on his face, which was immediately under the open skylight, through which, by this time, the clear cold rays of the moon streamed full on it, the short twilight having already fled, chained as it is in these climates to the chariot-wheels of the burning sun. My eye naturally followed his, but I speedily withdrew it. I had often bent over comrades who had been killed by gun-shot wounds, and always remarked what is well known, that the features were a benign expression, bland, and gentle, and contented as the face of a sleeping infant, while their limbs were composed decently, often gracefully, like one resting after great fatigue, as if nature, like an affectionate nurse, had arranged the death-bed of her departing child with more than usual care, preparatory to his last long sleep. Whereas, those who had died from the thrust of a pike, or the blow of a cutlass, however mild the living expression of their countenance might have been, were always fearfully contorted both in body and face. In the present instance, the eyes were wide open, white, prominent, and glazed like those of a dead fish; the hair, which was remarkably fine, and had been worn in long ringlets, amongst which a large gold ear-ring glittered, the poor fellow having been a nautical dandy of the first water, was drenched and clotted into heavy masses with the death-sweat, and had fallen back on the deck from his forehead, which was well formed, high, broad and massive. His nose was transparent, thin, and sharp, the tense skin on the bridge of it glancing in the silver light, as if it had been glass. His mouth was puckered on one side into angular wrinkles, like a curtain drawn up awry, while a clotted stream of black gore crept from it sluggishly down his right cheek, and coagulated in a heap on the deck. His lower jaw had fallen, and there he lay agape with his mouth full of blood. His legs, indeed his whole body below his loins, where the fracture of the spine had taken place, rested precisely as they had been arranged after he died; but the excessive swelling and puffing out of his broad chest, contrasted shockingly with the shrinking of the body at the pit of the stomach, by which the arch of the ribs was left as well defined as if the skin had been drawn over a skeleton, and the distortion of the muscles of the cheeks and throat evinced the fearful strength of the convulsions which had preceded his dissolution. It was evident, indeed, that throughout his whole person above the waist, the nervous system had been utterly shattered; the arms especially, appeared to have been awfully distorted, for when crossed on his breast, they had to be forcibly fastened down at the wrists by a band of spun-yarn to the buttons of his jacket. His right hand was shut, with the exception of the fore-finger, which was extended, pointing upwards; but the whole arm, from the shoulder down, had the horrible appearance of struggling to get free from the cord which confined it. Obed, by the time I had noticed all this, had knelt beside the shoulder of the corpse, and I could see by the moonlight that flickered across his face as the vessel rolled in the declining breeze, that he had pushed off his eye, the uncouth spyglass which he had fastened over it during the chase, so that it now stood out from the middle of his forehead like a stunted horn; but, in truth, it was not exalted,' for he appeared crushed down to the very earth by the sadness of the scene before him, and I noticed the frequent sparkle of a heavy tear as it fell from his iron visage on the face of the dead man. At length he untied the string that fastened the eye-glass round his head, and taking a coarse towel from a locker, he spunged poor Paul's face and neck with rum, and then fastened up his lower jaw with the lanyard. Having performed this melancholy office, the poor fellow's feelings could no longer be restrained by my presence. 'God help me, I have not now one friend in the wide world. When I had neither home, nor food, nor clothing, he sheltered me, and fed me, and clothed me, when a single word would have gained him five hundred dollars, and run me up to the fore yard-arm in a wreath of white smoke; but he was true as steel; and oh that he was now doing for me what I have done for him! who would have moaned over me, me, who am now without wife or child, and have disgraced all my kin! alack-a-day, alack-a-day!'-And he sobbed and wept alond, as if his very heart would have burst in twain. 'But I will soon follow you, Paul, I have had my warning already; I know it, and I believe it.' At this instant the dead hand of the mate burst the ligature that kept it down across his body, and slowly rose up and remained in a beckoning attitude. I was seized with a cold shivering from head to foot, and would have shrieked aloud, had it not been for very shame, but Obed was unmoved. 'I know it, Paul. I know it. I am ready, and I shall not be long behind you.' He fastened the arm down once more, and having called a couple of hands to assist him, they lashed up the remains of their shipmate in his hammock, with a piece of iron ballast at his feet, and then, without more ado, handed the body up through the skylight; and I heard the heavy splash as they cast it into the sea. When this was done, the captain returned to the cabin, bringing a light with him, filled and drank off a glass of strong grog. Yet he did not even now deign to notice me, which was by no means soothing; and I found, that since he would'nt speak, I must, at all hazards. 'I say, Obed, do you ever read your Bible?' He looked steadily at me with his lacklustre eyes. 'Because, if you do, you may perhaps have fallen in with some such passages as the following:-" Behold I am in your hand; but know ye for certain, that if ye put me to death ye shall surely bring innocent blood upon yourselves."" 'It is true, Mr. Cringle, I feel the truth of it here,' and he laid his large bony hand on his heart. Yet I do not ask you to forgive me; I don't expect that you can or will; but unless the devil gets possession of me again-which, so sure as ever there was a demoniac in this world, he had this afternoon when you so tempted me-I hope soon to place you in safety, either in a friendly port, or on board of a British vessel, and then what becomes of me is of little consequence, now since the only living soul who cared a dollar for me is at rest amongst the coral branches at the bottom of the deep green sea.' 6 Why, man,' rejoined I, 'leave off this stuff; something has turned your brain, surely; people must die in their beds, you know, if they be not shot, or put out of the way somehow or other; and as for my small affair, why I forgive you, man-from my heart I forgive you; were it only for the oddity of your scantling, mental and corporeal, I would do so; and you see I am not much hurt,- -so lend me a hand, like a good fellow, to wash the wound with a little spirits-it will stop the bleeding, and the stiffness will soon go off-so' 'Lieutenant Cringle, I need not tell what I know you have found out, that I am not the vulgar Yankee smuggler, fit only to be made a butt of by you and your friends, that you no doubt at first took me for; but who or what I am, or what I may have been, you shall never know-but I will tell you this much' 'Devil confound the fellow!-why this is too much upon the brogue, Obed. Will you help me to dress my wound, man, and leave off your cursed sentimental speeches, which you must have gleamed from some old novel or another? I'll hear it all by and by.' At this period I was a reckless young chap, with strong nerves, and my own share of that animal courage, which generally oozes out at one's finger ends when one gets married and turned of thirty; nevertheless I did watch with some anxiety the effect which my unceremonious interruption was to have upon him. I was agreeably surprised to find that he took it all in good part, and set himself, with great alacrity and kindness even, to put me to rights, and so successfully, that when I was washed and cleansed, and fairly coopered up, I found myself quite able to take my place at the table; and having no fear of the College of Surgeons before my eyes, I helped myself to a little of the needful, and in the plenitude of my heart, I asked Obed's pardon for my ill-bred interruption. 'It was not quite the thing to cut you short in the middle of your Newgate Calendar, Obed-beg pardon, your story, I mean; no offence now, none in the world-eh? But where the deuce, man, got you this fine linen of Egypt?' looking at the sleeves of the shirt Obed had obliged me with, as I sat without my coat. I had not dreamt you had anything so luxurious in your kit.' I saw his brow begin to lower again, so the devil prompted me to advert, by way of changing the subject, to a file of newspapers, which, as it turned out, might have proved to be by far the most dangerous topic I could have hit upon. He had laid them aside, having taken them out of the locker when he was rummaging for the linen. What have we here?-Kingston Chronicle, Montego Bay Gazette, Falmouth Advertiser. A great newsmonger you must be. What arrivals?-let me see;--you know I am a week from head-quarters. Let me see.' At first he made a motion as if he would have snatched them out of my hands, but speedily appeared to give up the idea, merely murmuring'What can it signify now?' I continued to read-"Chanticleer from a cruise-Tonnant from Barbadoes-Pipe from Port-au-Prince, Oh, the next interests me-the Firebrand is daily expected from Havanna; she is to come through the gulf, round Cape Antonio, and beat up the haunts of the pirates all along the Cuba shore." I was certain now that at the mention of this corvette mine host winced in earnest. This made me anxious to probe him farther. 'Why, what means this pencil mark- Firebrand's number off the Chesapeake was 1022?" "How the deuce, my fine fellow, do you know that?' He shook his head, but said nothing, and I went on reading the pencil memoranda-"But this is most probably changed; she now carries a red cross in the head of her foresail, and has very short lower masts, like the Hornet." Still he made me no answer. I proceeded- Stop, let me see what merchant ships are about sailing. "Loading for Liverpool, the John Glandstone, Peter Ponderous, master;" and after it, again in pencil-"Only sugar; goes through the gulf."-Only sugar,' said I, still fishing;' too bulky, I suppose.'-"Ariel, Jenkins, Whitehaven;" remark-" sugar, coffee, and logwood. Nuestra Senora de los Dolores, to sail for Chagres on 7th proximo; " remark-" rich cargo of bale goods, but no chance of overtaking her.'-El Rayo to sail for St. Jago de Cuba on the 10th proximo;" remark― "sails fast; armed with a long gun, and musketry; thirty hands; about ten Spanish passengers; valuable cargo of dry goods; main-mast rakes well aft; new cloth in the foresail about half way up; will be off the Moro about the 13th." And what is this written in ink under the above ?" The San Pedro from Chagres, and Marianita from Santa Martha, although rich, have both got convoy." "Ah, too strong for your friends, Obed-I see, I see."-" Francis Baring, Loam French, master"-an odd name, rather, for a skipper; remark- "forty seroons of cochineal and some specie; is to sail from Morant Bay on 5th proximo, to go through the windward passage; may be expected off Cape St. Nicolas on the 12th or thereby." I laid down the paper, and looked him full in the face. 'Nicolas is an ominous name. I fear the good ship Francis Baring will find it so. Some of the worthy saint's clerks to be fallen in with off the Mole, eh? Don't you think as I do, Obed?' Still silent. Why, you seem to take great delight in noting the intended de |