"No spot on earth but has supplied a grave,

And human skulls the spacious ocean pave."

Our sick list has been gradually diminishing, and to-day we all assembled at our meals, except the ladies. One of them has not taken effectually, a particle of nourishment since she came on board, and I have heard of cases in which abstinence from food has been continued, even as long as that which occurred in St. Paul's voyage to Rome. The passage, however, referring to this circumstance in the Acts, ought not to be taken literally.

30th. Though we have been sailing a considerable part of our voyage under close-reefed topsails, the sea frequently coming in at the scuppers on both sides of the ship, the weather appears now to have settled into a more mild condition. From the noise which the live animals we have on board produce, when one first awakes in the morning, he might almost fancy himself in the country near a farm-yardfor the crowing of cocks, the cackling of geese, and the quacking of ducks, to say nothing of our sheep and the cow, always salute our ears at the dawning of day.

May 1st. The first morning of this romantic month has opened upon us in beauty. Oh how I wish I were in England at this season of holiday pastime, to see the Queen of May of some rural spot, crowned with flowers by her joyous associates, and all gambolling together on the green-frolicks which have so often delighted my childhood in the reading. The wind is still favourable. We passed an English brig about six o'clock, which is the sixth vessel we have as yet seen. In the afternoon the wind increased considerably, and continued blowing all night, so that scarcely any one of us could sleep, owing to the rocking and groaning of the ship.

Before coming to sea, I had heard

a great deal of the immense height of the waves; and the paintings which I had seen, representing a ship in a storm, also conveyed to my mind, that they were mountains high. The plunging of the ship from her giddy height, into dark and roaring caverns below-the noise, confusion and echoing of the waters-all this now appears to me the exaggeration, or the fiction, of a terrified fancy. From what I can learn from the sailors and the captain, I have seen a fair specimen of a storm at sea in these latitudes; and though the waves foamed and raged with awful fury, I never saw them, I think, more than twenty-five or thirty feet high. The noise of the waters I do not think so loud or sublime, as that produced by the waves along the sea shore. There is enough that is really terrifick and appalling to a novice, in a heavy gale of wind, without exaggeration.

The vast expanse or boundless extent of the ocean, did not strike me, by any means, as so imposing and magnificent as I had antici pated. If we except calm weather, the vision is generally confined by the waves, within quite a narrow circle; and during a calm, if the scene were calculated to produce sublime emotions, which I very much doubt, the mind is in no proper state to enjoy them: the concern then is, when and from what quarter of the compass will the wind spring up-By the way, you must not talk about the wind on such occasions, for the sailors are really foolish enough to think that if you do, the wind will either not come at all, or if it does, that it will be unfavourable: you may whistle however for it, as much as you please, and the more the better.

2d. and 3d. These days passed very heavily along, the wind being almost dead ahead. It is very mortifying to be within six or eight days' sail of our port, and thus to

be arrested by a calm or head winds. In spite of reason and religion, the mind becomes ruffled and disturbed under these circum

stances.

4th. This is the second Sunday I have passed on board, and I can truly say they have been no "Sabbath days to me." My mind perpetually wanders, not only from serious, but from all other objects, on which I attempt to fix it. I cannot think, or read, or write, or talk, or sleep, or eat, or walk, or do any thing else, here out of soundings, as I can on terra firma; and I now think, if I once get home, nothing can tempt me to cross the seas again.

This morning the wind changed in our favour. Upon going on deck I saw three or four large birds, like hawks, called by the sailors Boatswain birds, sailing round the masts of our ship. One of them fluttered for some time, pecking with his bill the very top of our mainmast, just as a humming-bird flutters about a flower; and this was done though we were going between eight and nine miles an hour. The noise made by the bird pecking on the top of the mast, carried my mind back to the scenes of my childhood, when I used to wander alone through my native woods, when all was silent except now and then the noisy prattle of the Blue-jay and the Woodpecker, tapping some tall and decaying tree. If I know myself, I do not think I am apt to be lost in reveries of this kind; but somehow or other, the most trifling occurrence here at sea, will set me musing about home and the days of my youth. In the evening, the wind turned against us, so that we made little or no progress.

5th. This morning the mate, at our request, called Messrs R. and S. and myself, very early upon deck, to see the sun rise out of the waves. The rising of the sun is always an interesting object, but I

think not more so at sea than in an open country situation: the only thing which struck me, as being at all peculiar, was his apparent nearness: this I suppose must be occasioned by the absence of all other objects with which to compare its distance. We were all disappointed, and duly resolved that for the future we would pass the hour of sunrise in our state-rooms, and not upon deck. The setting of the sun I have always thought produces a much more beautiful effect upon the heavens, than he does at rising; the heaps of golden clouds reposing on the surface of the dark blue sea

the fantastic forms and gorgeous colours of different portions of the sky-and the long and brilliant track of light which is thrown over the waves, as he appears to sink beneath them, are certainly very fine; yet all the imagery of this beautiful picture, except the last trait, which is certainly the least impressive, may be enjoyed to more advantage on shore. Never shall I forget the glorious sunsets I have seen, when taking my evening walk in our spacious garden at P

We are now in an almost perfect calm, the sea being as smooth as the still surface of a lake. We are therefore arrested in our progress, and begin to give up the hope of making a very short passage. Just as I had prepared some glass vessels, hermetically sealed, to sink into the sea, in order to ascertain what effect the pressure of the water would have upon them, the wind sprung up, and thus disappointed us all. This was pecu. liarly mortifying, as the wind was ahead.

6th. Still a slight head wind when it blows; the calm, however, predominates-producing a very unpleasant rolling of the ship, and a horrid flapping of the sails against the spars; the weather is nevertheless pleasant. We are scarcely nearer our port of destination now,

than we were two days ago-By the way, a day at sea is always reckoned from twelve o'clock at noon of one day, till the noon of the next. If it were not that we have a good large ship, and most excellent provisions, I see not how any of us could get along in any tolerable manner. Our larder appears inexhaustible; it is supplied with almost every thing: we have all kinds of poultry, even peacocks, to eat; young pigs, fresh veal, and divers other kinds of meat; wines, including the best Madeira, Champaigne, and all the choice French liquors; porter, ale, cider, &c. &c. these at the free call of every cabin passenger. After the ordinary dinner every day, we have, besides oranges and apples, raisins, figs, filberts, almonds, and other dried fruits: yet with all this, our dinner here is not half so palatable, as a plain one at home-the ship the ship, spoils every thing. We often have to hold our soup plates in one hand up from the table, and the spoon in the other, and then, notwithstanding the utmost caution, as much soup will sometimes get into your coat sleeve, or lap, or on the table, as into your mouth. The other day a fine pair of roast ducks, with gravy, boiled potatoes, and many other etceteras, were pitched, by a lee lurch, some feet from the table-But enough of this. I have been much disappointed in the phosphorescence of the sea; it is by no means so brilliant, or abundant, as I expected to find it. It presents two distinct appearances; the first, which is the most common, is in little sparks, which resemble a good deal the light of our fire-fly, though not quite so brilliant; the other is like phosphorescent oil, and seems to break out and float from the tops of the waves. Dr. Franklin states that the water in the Gulf stream does not phosphoresce; and some other writers say, that its waves appear to be wrapped in total darkness. VOL. VII.-Ch. Adv.

These remarks are certainly not correct in every case; for the water in the gulf, when we passed through it, seemed to give out as much light as that upon either side of it. It is well known, however, that this sea is much more luminous at one time than another; that the greatest quantity of light emitted is by the water out of the gulf, and that in tropical and southern regions the phosphorescence of the water is so brilliant as to enable a person to read a book by its light. The light given out by the sea has been accounted for in a variety of ways. I have no doubt it arises principally from animal matter, both in a living and a decayed state. As I hope to have a better opportunity of observing this luminosity before we get to Liverpool, I shall say nothing more on the subject at present.

7th. A dull and dead calm has completely arrested our progress; we have indeed advanced but little for the last two days. It being now a favourable time for my experiment on the pressure of the sea at great depths, the captain lent me his assistance to sink a number of bottles, and a hollow glass globe. The boat was lowered down from its place at the stern of the ship, and the captain, myself, and four men, rowed off about half a mile from the ship. From the boat our ship presented a most interesting appearance: all her sails were exposed, and her graceful motion on the surface of the waves produced in my mind a sublime emotion. She moved on the water "like a thing of life." What a glorious monument of human invention, "that has triumphed over wind and wave-that has brought the ends of the earth into communion, and established an interchange of blessings-that has diffused light and knowledge' and the charities of cultivated life, and has thus bound together those scattered portions of the human race, between which nature seemed to have thrown an

2 D

insurmountable barrier." The bottles were sunk 230 fathoms; some of them were filled with water, the corks being apparently undisturb. ed; some were crushed by the pressure, and some were unaffected; the glass ball, which was the lowest on the line, came up without suffering any change.*

In the afternoon we saw a log floating about half a mile from us, the captain and four men put off in the ship's boat to reconnoitre it. They soon returned with an abundance of barnacles (Lepas anatifa) which were found adhering to it, and two fine fish, which were captured with a kind of gig; one of the fish weighed about five pounds. Whenever a large piece of wood is seen afloat at sea, fish are almost always found near it, and they are generally killed, for they cannot be frightened from it. They follow the log no doubt, for the barnacles, on which they feed. The fish that are thus found at seâ, are probably unwilling wanderers through the deserts of the ocean, being carried away by their appetite for the barnacles on the logs, to a returnless distance. We saw also, to-day, a large red molluscous animal in the water, about four feet long, of a red colour, it is called a Squid, or Sepia.

8th. The calm still continues, and the weather is delightful; two brigs passed us this morning; they were quite distant, and appeared like spectres slowly moving along the horizon. We ate at dinner today the large fish we took yesterday, and found it very good, and sufficient for the whole of our company. I could not, as I was unable to determine the species of fish, help thinking of the fatal repast before alluded to. This evening I amused myself with the stars, as it

*For all the particulars relating to this experiment, we refer those who may be curious on this subject, to the Literary and Philosophical Intelligence in the September Number of the Advocate for 1828.

was a fine clear night. The difference between the latitude here and at Philadelphia, places the Great Bear in the zenith; I was therefore a good deal interested in comparing the position of the constellations as they now stand, with that which was before familiar to me. Some of the ladies on board I found exceedingly apt in acquiring the names of the constellations, and in pointing out the most remarkable stars; after a few hours' instruction, almost all the northern groups became familiar, even the golden chair of Cassiopea could be distinguished from the fair princess who reclined upon it. I little thought that I should so soon prove the truth of a remark in my Astronomical Recreations, that the knowledge of the stars would afford new objects of interest to those who delight in evening rambles, and would enable the mariner to pass away the night-watches with pleasure to himself, and with gratification to his friends.

9th. The weather is pleasaht, though we still have but little or no wind. I am getting, I find, more reconciled to living at sea than I have yet been, but it is still horrid. A vessel hove in sight this evening, but we passed her, as we had done all the others we have seen, without hailing her. The captain seemed desirous to speak her, but a breeze springing up just as our signals were hoisted, we soon lost sight of each other. It is wonderful how acute the sight of an old sailor is upon the ocean; our first mate has often discovered a sail, or rather spar, just peeping above the horizon, which could not be seen even with the assistance of the telescope, by most of us on board.

10th. We shall make, perhaps, but little progress to-day, as we are nearly becalmed. We are only 300 miles from Cape Clear, which is the nearest land, yet we shall not probably make it for many days. During the first eight days of our

passage, we sailed more than half the distance of our whole voyage, and it is a little trying to be kept here doing nothing, when my time is so precious. Inevertheless endeavour to be satisfied, knowing that all things and all occurrences, will be ordered aright.

11th. Another Sabbath is passing over without, I fear, being properly improved.

12th. This morning I was roused by the cry of" sail ho!" Upon going on deck I saw a Danish merchant ship just off our lee bow, with her national flag flying from one of her spars; the captain was preparing to speak her, and when we were side by side, and about 20 yards apart, a short dialogue ensued, between the captains of both vessels, through their speaking trumpets, the most important part of which was, that their longitude and ours was almost identical. The Danish ship was from Vera Cruz, and bound to Copenhagen. The whole of this transaction was by far the most interesting of any that I have witnessed at sea-whether it was approaching so near to a fine ship under full sail, or whether it was seeing human beings and hearing their voices, coming, as it were, from the bosom of the deep, I know not; but my blood thrilled through every vein. The former remarks made upon this subject are still correct, for the process of seeing a ship at sea is pretty much as follows: a passenger or officer on board inquires whether you see that ship, pointing in a particular direction; you answer no; he then endeavours to bring it into your view by remarking its position, in regard to certain of your own spars or rigging; you are still in doubt; he then hands you the telescope; and after much manoeuvring and reconnoitring, you at last see something-this is called passing a ship at sea.-There is a strong breeze, but then it is dead ahead, and we have little prospect

of seeing Cape Clear for some days, though only at the distance of 150 miles.

14th. Yesterday we were becalmed till towards evening, when a strong head wind carried us directly south, and continued to blow all night-During the night the mate of the ship supposed we were just on a reef of rocks, as the water appeared white; but upon heaving the deep-sea-lead, soundings were obtained at about 120 fathoms. The white appearance of the water was then found to be occasioned by myriads of small fish, similar to those used for making anchovies. The sea air now, for the first time, has the same odour as that on shore. Last evening two swallows flew and chirped round the ship, driven I suppose by the wind from shore, and then probably lodged on our shrouds during the night. The wind being still ahead to-day, all hands of us seem dejected and irritable.

(To be continued.)

SPEECH IN THE GENERAL SYNOD OF ULSTER.-IRELAND.

(Continued from p. 175.) ·

There is one topic connected with this subject on which Mr. M. has been peculiarly impressive. He accuses us of "attempting to infringe on the rights of the people." This is a fine topic for a declamation; but it is quite unfit for an accusation against the Orthodox members of this Synod. I trust I shall not be accused of unpardonable egotism when I tell this house, that the only instance in which the original rights of the people have yet been restored, was friends, after many a hard and uncomproeffected by myself, aided by my Orthodox mising contest for the ground, which was yielded to us only inch by inch-a case in which also we enlarged the privileges and opportunities of our Probationers, as well as restored the rights of our congrega tions-I allude to the manner in which vacant congregations were formerly supplied with preaching. They were made the absolute monopoly of each Presbytery. And in cases of Arian Presbyteries,

with Arian Probationers, and some Orthodox vacancies, the people know full well how their religious interests were neglected. Such congregations were compelled