replied,- Probably you will pray with us first?' We knelt down and prayed. All wept. 'Praise the Lord,' said one, 'thou hast plucked me as a brand from the burning. I thank thee for subduing my stubborn will. O Lord, continue to be gracious to a wretched sinner, such as I have been.' The language of the other, amidst many tears, was, 'Lord! I confess that, not long since, I was seeking death and destruction, by sinning against thee. Oh! 'tis of thy mercy I am now bowed at a throne of grace. Hadst thou taken me off in the storm in which my shipmates were drowned, oh! where had I been? I had been reaping the reward of my crimes, with devils and damned spirits ; -but oh my God, thy mercy found out sinful me.' I scarcely recollect such a season as this; surely God was in our midst! I held a Bethel meeting on board this vessel, the following evening; those persons were present.— After the meeting closed, the captain of the ship said,—' Well, sir, religion has made a very great change upon my mate and sailors, lately. I must think about myself, though I don't intend to be a Methodist. A man can do very well, without being so very strict.' I conversed with him very fully on the nature and necessity of the new birth. He began to yield,—his prejudices appeared to give way. I enforced the importance of present salvation. I left him giving his assent to what had been said. I renewed my visit next morning, and was happy to find he was anxious to hear more on the subject. I spent an hour with him in conversation and prayer, and trust it was an hour long to be remembered. He has since become what he once dreaded,— a Methodist, for he is a member of the Wesleyan connection in the north of England.

Another circumstance, equally singular, was at a meeting held on board the 'Frances Ann.' The captain, with some reluctance, hoisted the Bethel flag; saying at the time,-"You must

make the best of it. I shall not be on board at the meeting.' I replied,-'Sir, unless you have business of importance, I hope you will.' 'Importance-im portance,' he muttered; and turning to the mate, said, 'See that everything be got to rights for the meeting, and don't wait if I am not here.' In the evening, when I came into the tier, and was passing over the ships, I saw Capt. A., of the 'F. A.', on deck; and when I came on board, he walked forward on the forecastle. spoke to the mate, as our time to commence the meeting was near, and said, 'Are your people on board?" He said, 'Yes, but the master is just going on shore, and we shall lose some of the crew."

I immediately stepped forward to the captain, and said,-'Sir, I hope we shall have the pleasure of your compauy at the meeting.' He angrily replied,-Go and begin if you choose.' I said,' But surely you'll come with us?' I left him, and went and commeneed the meeting. There were about twenty-four present. Whilst engaged in prayer, I heard some person come into the cabin, and on rising from my knees, was glad to find it was the captain. After singing a verse, I desired (as is usual on those occasions) any one who felt disposed to engage in prayer. To my great astonishment, the captain, apparently under much anguish of mind, cried out,- Lord, have mercy upon such a sinner as me! I had not intended being here to-night, Lord, thou knowest; but here I am at thy footstool, seeking for mercy. O Lord, save my soul, and save the souls of all present. Lord, teach me to pray. I could pray once. My hard heart! I cannot pray now.' In this way he continued for some time. At the close of his prayer, he gave out that wellknown verse,

Shew mercy, Lord, O Lord forgive!
Let a repenting sinner live!
Are not thy mercies large and free?
May not a sinner trust in thee?

This was a most interesting meeting. After the service, I conversed with the captain, and found he had made a profession of religion some years ago, but had fallen away. He seemed to be aware of the dangerous state in which he was, and acknowledged, that although he attempted to get away from being present at the meeting, he could not. I have had the pleasure of marking a great change in this man, since this period. He has again taken up the cross, and is now foremost to promote Bethel meetings.

I have held twenty-four meetings on the river, attended by about 370 persons; have dedicated eight new vessels to the Bethel cause;-have obtained forty-seven ships for agents; - have held fourteen public services on shore; -have visited the London, St. Kathe

rine's, and West India Docks, and Regent and Surrey Canals;-have held much conversation with many coal. whippers, ballast-heavers, and lighter. men, and find that amongst those men there is a greater disposition to receive and read religious tracts,-about 1,000 of which have been distributed amongst them.

Sailors' boarding-houses have been visited as usual. Many of the sailors freely receive tracts, and also occasionally attend the Sailors' Chapel. I have had much conversation with many of them.

The Sailors' Chapel.-The cause here is not so cheering as in days that are past; nevertheless, we trust, even in its low state, it will yet be the spiritual birth-place of many souls.

Launceston, 9th April, 1841.

MY DEAR SIR.-Being fully sensible of the kind interest that you take in my welfare, I cannot think to let an opportunity of a ship bound to England pass, without writing you, to announce our safe arrival here on the 4th instant, after a pleasant and prosperous passage of 115 days; which, although rather long, is shorter than performed by any of the vessels which left England about the same time.

As you have followed a maritime profession yourself, and I know that you feel interested in everything connected with it, I shall enter a little into the minutiae of our voyage. The day after we sailed, we took our final departure from the smalls, with a fresh gale from E. N. E., which continued to increase until the night of the 15th December, when it blew a heavy gale; and as the sea was very cross and

heavy, we did not consider it prudent to scud, for fear of getting any damage so early in the voyage, particularly as we had such a long passage before us: we therefore hove her to, until the afternoon of the 16th, when we again run her. On the 20th we made Madeira, and carried a strong fair wind until we got hold of the north-east trades. On the 28th we passed among the Cape de Verd Islands, leaving Sal and Bonavista on the eastward, which we passed two miles distant. As the sun was at its greatest southern declination, which, I believe, affects the trade-winds greatly, we determined on taking this route, which is different from that generally taken, in order to make a straight course of it down to the equator. We found our expectation very fully realized; for on speaking other ships that went to the westward of those Islands, we found that

we had carried the trades much longer than they did. We lost the north-east trades in 4° north, and had light variable winds, with squalls, thunder and lightning, heavy rains, etc., until we got in 2° north, when we got the s. E. trades, but so far to the southward that we could only lay s. w. and s. w. by w., which obliged us to cross the equator in 25° 36' w., which was 2o to the westward of what we wished. Some of the ships which went to the westward of the Cape de Verd's, crossed in 29° w., and consequently got down upon the coast of Brazil. As we got to the southward, the wind veered more to the eastward, and latterly we had it from E., to E. N. E. We lost the s. E. trades in about 30° south, and from there to the Cape, we had light baffling winds. On the 18th February, we doubled the Cape in 38° south, with a strong breeze from w. N.w., which continued to increase, until it blew a furious tempest. We were obliged to scud under a small six-cloth lower studding-sail, set on the fore-yard, and with that our little craft behaved in a most admirable manner; she shipped little or no water, although the sea was running the heaviest I had ever before witnessed, during my nautical career. I have been in 600 ton ships that dared not have looked at it. We had the mainsail-balance reefed, life-lines ranged along the deck, and every thing ready to heave to, on a moment's warning, should it have been required. During the three days that the gale continued, the little 'Shamrock' averaged 220 miles per diem, without loosing a rope-yarn, which gave us great cause of thankfulness to God, who mercifully covered our head in the day of danger.

On the 5th February, we observed a total eclipse of the moon, which afforded us an excellent opportunity of proving the rate of our chronometers to the utmost nicety; which, to our satisfaction, we found were going

as well as we could possibly wish. From the time we doubled the Cape, until the 2nd March, nothing particular occurred. That day in lat. 38° 24′ s. long. 50° 32′ E., we saw two large ships standing to the north-westward, which had top-gallant-masts and yards down; that with the course they were steering, and their general appearance strongly indicated that they had come from a high southern latitude, which led us to suppose that it was the expedition under the command of captain Ross, returning from the Antarctic regions. On the 12th March, we made the Island of St. Paul's, which has a sterile appearance, and seems to be of volcanic formation. We found our "landfall" excellent, as from the mean results of sights taken before and after noon, on both sides of the island, gave our longitude 77° 53' 15", when within 300 yards of the east end of the island. The longitude in which the island is laid down, is 77° 52′, making only a difference of l′ 15'', or 1 mile; but this we did not consider as an error, as probably the longitude laid down was that of the centre of the Island. Admitting it as an error, 1 mile out of 12,000, was nothing. We never used a log, but did all by astronomical observations. From that time we had good runs all the way, and on the 3rd April, we made King's Island in the entrance of Bass Straits; as the wind was fair, we went through Hunter's Channel, and the next day entered the river Tamer, and proceeded towards Laun

ceston.

Having given you an imperfect description of our voyage, I shall now endeavour to describe those things of an infinitely higher import, namely, the concerns of our souls. And it is with a heart full of gratitude to the Most High, that I tell you, that I do believe God has been amongst us; and often during this voyage has His promises been verified to us, that-" where two or three are met together in His name,

that he would be in the midst of them." Often, when our little ship's company were met together, and our united prayers and praises were ascending (I trust acceptably) to a throne of grace, have we felt God's presence in the midst of us; and I trust that some of our number will have cause to look back on this voyage with thankfulness and joy, on that great day when we must all stand before the Judge of quick and dead.

I was not long out, until I saw that our respected captain was a man of a pious disposition; and I took the earliest opportunity of suggesting to him the blessings to be derived from establishing the worship of God in the ship. He replied, that he was glad that I introduced the subject, as he had partly promised to the owner to establish it, but he felt a diffidence to come forward; however he saw that it was his duty, and the Lord strengthened him to carry out his purposes, which I trust have been of infinite advantage to all our souls. The captain generally leads the service one day, and I the next; and we let the people alternately take a part, by reading a portion of scripture. One of our men was a catholic; but, blessed be God, his prejudices were soon overcome, and now he joins in our devotions, not only with willingness, but with delight. Another of them is a Fin, who does not understand much of the English language, but for all that, it pleased God to break in upon his heart; and early in the voyage he was led to make the enquiry,-" What shall I do to be saved?" We endeavoured, in our humble manner, to point him to the bleeding Saviour, who died that we might have life through his name: and also endeavoured to impress on his mind not to trust in himself, or his own works of righteousness, but to look for salvation through the merits of a crucified Redeemer; and, glory be to God, I hope that he is now rejoicing in his Saviour, and travelling through

this "vale of tears," with his face Zion-ward. The night on which we sailed, about the time I was used to meet with my dear brethren in the Bethel Room, I felt deep regret that I was cut off from those blessed means which I had for some time previously enjoyed; but I was cheered with the assurance, that God would be with me in all my ways, and uphold me under all my difficulties. Often when I was far distant from you, on the bosom of the mighty deep, has my mind wandered back to the delightful hours I spent in sweet converse and fellowship with God, in the Bethel Room; and althongh my dear christian friends there, were absent from me in body, yet they were often present with me in spirit, particularly in my approach to a throne of grace. A few days after we sailed, it pleased the great Disposer of events to lay His afflicting hand upon me; and I was for a week unable to get out of my cabin, but in my affliction I found delightful consolation in religion; and although my outward man was apparently fast fading and decaying, yet my inward man was growing stronger and stronger in the Lord. It seemed to be a severe bilious attack that I had. I cannot omit mentioning, how much I am indebted to captain Daldy for the watchful care 1 received from him. I must say that I have found the character I got of him, more than realized; for, in a few words, he is every thing that I could wish. His method of government is excellent; for I never before saw a crew in such a complete state of discipline, which you may be able to form some idea of, when I assure you, that after performing a passage of 16,000 miles, I have not seen a frown or heard a grumble from a man on board; as for an oath, that is out of the question. We have not had occasion to reprove a man sharply in the voyage. Some captains and mates might ask, "How could that be done?" I would at once say, that the great and