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But when did an unthinking multitude set life above gold? The latter had been secured, and the bold Anson could truly declare that he had taken from the Spaniards property to the amount of a million sterling. But in these triumphs, the crew of the Wager had no share: death in the sea or on faminestricken shores had become their portion; and the few who returned home met no reward except the honour ever bestowed on brave endurance of calamity.

Young Byron's subsequent career was distinguished by stirring events. In 1759, the midshipman of the Wager commanded as a captain in the fleet of the bold Boscawen, in the action against the French off Cape Lagos. The government also appointed him commander of the expedition for discovery in the South Sea, which sailed round the globe between June 1764, and May 1766. He subsequently rose to the rank of an admiral, was a great favorite amongst the sailors, and at last died full of honours in 1798, unconscious of the literary splendour which, in a few years, would be connected with the name of Byron, by one who, at the admiral's death, was but a boy ten years old.

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HE thunder-storms which expend their fury in the ocean, strike a solitary ship, and leave her a wreck upon the waters. Such accidents are not so nu

merous as we might expect, after reading those descriptions of sea-tempests which appear in our naval publications; for whilst thunder-storms at sea are amongst the grandest, and perhaps the most fearful of natural phenomena, a ship may move through the waters, lashed by the electric shocks, without drawing the fiery bolts upon herself; or the lightning may even run along her decks, circle the masts, and flash amidst her rigging, without producing any serious injury, as the fluid passes off by numerous conductors into the sea. The total destruction of a ship by lightning is therefore an event so singular, and its consequences of so fearful a character, that one such occurrence seems necessary in a series of adventures by sea. The vessel to which the reader's attention is now directed was a British frigate of forty-four guns, named the Resistance, commanded by Captain Edward Pakenham, and cruising during the summer of 1798 in the Indian ocean.

No other ship was in sight when the calamity about to be described happened; and England might have long remained ignorant of her frigate's fate, wondering, year after year, and

at last forgetting her name, as we do in the case of the unfortunate President, had not some rumours of the event spread from isle to isle, until they reached Malacca. A trading ship heard the story, and carried it to Major Taylor, the commander of some troops in that island. The story was to the effect, that a British frigate of war had been blown up in the straits of Banca, and that a small part of her crew had fallen into the hands of the ferocious Malay pirates, by whom they were kept as slaves in the island of Lingan. Major Taylor did not listen with a lazy official ear to these reports, but immediately despatched a vessel to Lingan to make inquiries into the rumoured event, and to procure the restoration of the survivors, whilst, to prevent all mistakes, a Sepoy, well acquainted with the Malayan tongue, accompanied the party. A letter was also despatched to the chief of the island, requesting his influence in the promotion of the object. When the major's messengers arrived at Lingan, they soon ascertained the truth of the sad reports, but to their amazement found only one man of the whole crew of the Resistance. Him they brought to Malacca, in December, 1798. This was a young sailor named Thomas Scott, aged twenty-two, whose account soon confirmed, in every particular, the startling rumours which had excited the attention of the British officer.

The following was the substance of Scott's narrative. It appears that the Resistance was employed in watching the Malay pirates, who then swarmed in the seas around Malacca, Sumatra, and Java, and afflicted, by their horrid cruelties, the peaceful merchants both of Europe and Asia. Whilst engaged in exercising this police-duty, the Resistance entered the straits of Banca, on her route to Malacca, in the month of July. The sun set on the 26th of that month over a sea upon which nothing like danger seemed to impend; and as the ship anchored, no one would have supposed that anchor which stayed the brave frigate against the quiet rippling of the sea, should never be moved from its deep rest by human hands. So warm was the night, relieved by summer thunder, that some of the crew slept on deck when their watch was over, instead of going below. Amongst them was Thomas Scott, who lay down between two guns, and was almost hushed to sleep by the deep sound of the sea. Some

times he slept, and then woke for an instant, dozing on and off for some time, while he enjoyed the grandeur of the scene around him.

He at length awoke in a fright; a sudden blaze flashed round him; his hair was burned, his clothes scorched, and before his confused thoughts could recover, a deafening explosion, accompanied by a horrible feeling, as if lifted towards the sky, deprived him of all sensation. Consciousness soon returned, and the astonished sailor found himself in the sea. The ship was gone; he saw nought save the sky, and felt himself sinking, upon which the strong instinct of self-preservation led him to struggle for life; and, grasping some large substance which floated near, he kept himself above water. What had happened?—was he in some strange dream? or had he fallen overboard? were questions which the startled sailor ran through without giving them anything like a distinct shape. A few minutes revealed the dreadful truththe Resistance had been blown up by a sudden flash of lightning, whilst resting at anchor, and her sleeping crew had passed, without even waking, from this life to the mysteries of the next.

The lightning had been observed by Scott to dart from the heavens upon the ship, and go down the fore-hatchway like a bolt shot direct from the sky. Scarcely could the astonished man exclaim "Lord have mercy on us!" when all was over; and the ship, splitting into fragments, went down in a moment. No shriek mingled with the deep reverberation of the explosion, for death came in the stillness of slumber; and if the roar were heard by the startled sleepers, few could have understood its meaning. When Scott recovered, he was not alone; a few stupified men were clinging to pieces of the ship, and he soon discovered that thirteen only had escaped of all the crew. After clearing his eyes from the powder, by which he was almost blinded, Scott saw part of the ship floating near, and swimming towards it, clung to the timber until dawn enabled him to survey more clearly his melancholy position.

Of the thirteen who had escaped immediate death, some were terribly scorched, so that it was with the utmost difficulty they held on to the floating timbers of their lost ship. Some time elapsed before the survivors could understand their

condition; nor will this surprise those who know the effect of sudden catastrophes upon even strong minds. Nothing had prepared the sufferers for the blow; and the intimations of impending ruin, which generally precede destructive calamities, were here all wanting-the living being taken from life in an instant.

When the New Horn blew up, the stroke was expected; the crew had been long watching the progress of the flames, and all saw their end approaching; but here there was no preparation; a flash and a report these were the only manifestations that the end had come.

The morning found the living resolved still to struggle for life, and a raft was prepared from the scattered pieces of the ship, upon which it was hoped they might in a short time reach land. The few whose burns permitted them to join in the work completed a rude raft by the middle of the next day; and raising something like a sail, endeavoured to direct their course towards Sumatra. Time was indeed precious, as no water was in their possession, and the whole supply of food consisted of a pumpkin, which could not last long amongst thirteen men. Evening approached without bringing any sight of land; and still more to dispirit them, the sun set amid storm-clouds, flinging his last rays over a swelling sea, the force of which threatened to tear the rude raft asunder. The evil which had been feared soon happened. A large part of their vessel was washed away, the sail torn down, and the wounded began to yield to the slow but fatal action of hunger and storm. One soon died, whose departure seemed but the forerunner of the fate now reserved for all. A sad resolve was now taken; the four men who were least injured determined to abandon the raft, and swim towards an anchorstock, which had been torn from it, and yet floated at some distance. Thus these twelve isolated men were compelled still further to increase their loneliness by a separation to which nothing but the desperate nature of their circumstances could have driven the remnant of the frigate's

crew.

Sailors are not daunted by trifles, nor easily subdued by danger; but the moment in which the only four able men swam to the anchor-stock seemed like the beginning of death to the wounded and exhausted eight left on the raft. Each

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