steerage,* and cannot describe my temper. I could ill re-assume the first penitence, which I had so apparently trampled upon, and hardened myself against; I thought that the bitterness of death had been past, and that this, too, would be nothing, like the first: but, when the master himself came by me, as I said just now, and uttered such ejaculations, I was dreadfully frightened. I got up out of my cabin, and looked out; but such a dismal sight I never saw; the sea went mountains high, and broke upon us every three or four minutes. When I could look about, I could see nothing but distress around us; two ships that rid near us, we found, had cut their masts by the board, being deeply laden; and our meu cried out that a ship, which rid about a mile a-head of us, was foundered. Two more ships, being driven from their anchors, were run out of the road to sea, at all adventures, and that with not a mast standing. The light ships fared the best, as not so much labouring in the sea; but two or three of them drove, and came close by us, running away, with only their sprit-sailst out, before the wind. Toward evening, the mate and boatswain begged the master of our ship to let them cut away the foremast, which he was very loth to do; but the boatswain protesting to him, that, if he did not, the ship would founder, he consented; and, when they had cut away the foremast, the mainmast stood so Joose, and shook the ship so much, they were obliged to cut it away also, and make a clear deck.

Any one may judge what a condition I must be in at all this, who was but a young sailor, and who had been in such a fright before at but a little. But If I can express, at this distance, the thoughts I had about me at that time, I was in tenfold more horror of mind upon account of my former convictions, and the having returned from them to the resolutions I had wickedly taken at first, than I was at death itself; and these, added to the terror of the storm, put me into such a condition, that I can by no words describe it. But the worst was not come yet; the storm continued with such fury, that the seamen themselves acknowledged they had never known a worse. We had a good ship, but she was deep laden, and so wallowed in the sea, that the seamen every now and then cried out, she would founder. It was my advantage, in one respect, that I did not then know what they meant by "founder," till I enquired. However, the storm was so violent, that I saw, what is not often seen, the master, the boatswain, and some others, more sensible than the rest, at their prayers, and expecting every moment the ship would go to the bottom. In the middle of the night, and under all the rest of our distresses, one of the men, that had been down on purpose to see, cried out, "we had sprung a leak ;" another said, "there was four feet water in the hold." Then all hands were called to the pump. At that very word, my heart, as I thought, died within me, and I fell backwards upon the side of the bed, where I sat in my cabin. However, the men roused me, and told me, "that I" (who was able to do nothing before), as well able to pump as another;" at which I stirred up, and went to the pump, and worked very heartily. While this was doing, the master, seeing some light colliers who, not able to ride out the storm, were obliged to slip their cables, and run away to sea, and did not come near us, ordered us to fire a gun, as a signal of distress. I, who knew nothing what that meant, was so surprised, that I thought the ship had broken, or some dreadful thing had happened. In a word, I was so affected, that I fell down in a swoon. As this was a time when every

was

* STEERAGE:-in this sense, means an apartment immediately before the bulk-head, or partition of the great cabin: it has also another sense as applied to the guidance of the ship in her course, when it means the operation of steering with the rudder.

↑ SPRIT-SAIL is a sail of square form, and, in point of dimensions, it is of the third class used in the ship, that is to say, about the size of the top-gallant-sails. The spritsail is extended upon a yard, or pole, suspended to the bow-sprit, whence it derives its appellation; and is of much more utility, in many emergencies, than modern seamen seem to be aware of; in going before the wind this sail serves to retain and employ that waste portion of it which escapes under the foot of the foresail.

body had his own life to think of, no one minded me or what was become of me; but another man stept up to the pump, and thrusting me aside with his foot, let me lie, as though I had been dead; and it was a great while before I came to myself. We worked on, but the water encreasing in the hold, it was apparent that the ship would founder; and though the storm began to abate a little, yet, as it was not probable she could swim till we might run into a port, so the mas ter continued firing guns for help; and a light ship who had rid it out just a-head of us, ventured a boat out to help us. It was with the utmost hazard the boat came near us, but it was impossible for us to get on board, or for the boat to lie near the ship's side; till at last the men rowing very heartily, and venturing their lives to save ours, our men cast them a rope over the stern with a buoy* to it, and then veered it out a great length, which they, after great labour and hazard, took hold of, and we hauled them close under our stern, and got all into their boat. It was to no purpose for them or us, after we were in the boat, to think of reaching their own ship; so all agreed to let her drive, and only to pull her in towards shore as much as we could; and our master promised them, that, if the boat was staved upon shore, he would make it good to their master; so partly rowing, and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping towards the shore almost as far as Winterton-ness.t

We were not more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship when we saw her sink; and then I understood, for the first time, what was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge, I had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me, "she was sinking" for they rather put me into the boat, than that I might be said to go in. My heart was, as it were, dead within me, partly

BUOY: the root of the adjective buoyant, means generally any thing that is floatable; but, as used here, means a hollow cask, hooped with iron, and tapering at each end; which, being strapped with cordage, is fastened by a rope, thence called the "buoy-rope," to an anchor, so as to float directly over it, and thereby serve as a guide to its situation under water. These are technically named "nun-buoys," to distinguish them from another sort, called after their shape, "can-buoys;" whose use is, to lie for marks on shoals or other hidden dangers. Useful hints, respecting buoys, are to be found in the Babal Chronicle, vol. viii. p. 60; and an improved form recommended in a letter to the editor of that publication, is shewn in vol. ix. p. 509. The same subject is farther pursued in vol. xviii. p. 472.

WINTERTON-NESS is nearly the extreme eastern land, on the coast of Norfolk, in latitude 58 deg. 2 min. N. longitude, 1 deg. 17 min. E. the coast, from hence, bends away north-westerly to Foul-ness, and thence more westerly along the northern coast of Norfolk. On this promontory are placed two lights for the guidance of vessels amid the dangerous shoals by which this coast is fronted; among the principal of them is the Cockle-sand, at the distance of two miles, and of lamentable celebrity for its manifold circumstances of destruction. The undermining of the cliffs by land-springs, and the consequent shooting down of their soil to the sea-shore, from whence it is swept away by the storm-driven waves in high tides tends much to augment the banks alluded to. To the uncommon flatness of the shore, causing such high and lengthened surfs must be attributed the number of lives that annually have perished here. The outer bank which runs parallel with the shore near Winterton has always been found to present great danger to vessels stranded here, and to prove generally fatal unto their unfortunate crews. In hard easterly gales, the violence of the surf prevents boats being Jaunched from the shore to render them assistance. In the note affixed to a preceding page, (7) occasion has been taken to make that honourable mention of the philan thropic patriotism, and ingenious endeavours of Mr. G. W. Manby, towards establishing and carrying into effect a system for saving lives from shipwreck, which those pursuits so highly deserve; for certes, the riches of a country are its population, and the lives of its people, one of the dearest possessions we have to protect. But, having satisfied this claim of contemporaneous merit, justice towards the dead as well as the living, and above all the sacred obligation of truth, renders it imperative on the editor, herein to record the following lines extracted from the Transactions of the Society instituted at London, A. D. 1754, for the encouragement of arts, manufactures, and commerce; volume xxv. [for the year 1807]:

with fright, partly with horror of mind, and the contemplation of what was yet before me.

While we were in this condition, the men yet labouring at the oar to bring the boat near the shore, we could see (when, our boat mounting the waves, we were able to get sight of the shore) a great many people running along the strand, to assist us when we should come near; but we made slow way towards the shore; nor were we able to reach it, till, being past the light-house at Winterton, the shore falls off to the westward, towards Cromer, and so the land broke off a little the violence of the wind.

"Publicity having been recently given to some experiments off the eastern coasts of this island for preserving lives in case of shipwreck, by means of a rope, attached to a shell thrown from a mortar, the society think it incumbent on them to remind the public, that, so far back as the year 1792, a bounty of fifty guineas was given to Mr. John Bell, then serjeant, afterwards lieutenant of the royal artillery, for his invention of throwing a rope on shore, by means of a shell from a mortar on hoard the vessel in distress: the particulars of which were published in the tenth volume of the society's Transactions; but a descriptive engraving having been omitted at that time, it is thought expedient to insert it in the present publication, with some further particulars then omitted, &c." Serjeant Bell's letter to the society, in justification of his pretension to a reward, is dated" Woolwich, 4th April, 1791." For the more particular elucidation of this subject, the reader is referred to the abal Chronicle, xxvii. 310.

CROMER:-is a town on the N. E. coast of Norfolk, where fishermen reside, and are employed in catching lobsters. The coast is so dangerous from rocks and shoals, that mariners call Cromer passage "the devil's throat." There is a lighthouse on the headland called Foul-ness, E.S.E. of it; from whence Cromer is situated at about one third of the distance towards Blakeney and Clay; that is, from Cromer to Blakeney is W.N.W. 2 leagues, and to Foul-ness, eastward, near the light, about 4 miles. About 7 or 8 leagues from the coast athwart of Winterton, and Cromer, the land may be seen in 18 or 19 fathoms water. It is high water here, at spring-tides, about 7 o'clock; the flood setting S.S.E. and the ebb contrary wise. To the north-eastward of Cromer, there are so many shoals and shifting overfalls, as to render this part of the north sea unsafe for shipping of burthen, except in neap-tides, and moderate weather. The following description of the Leman and Oar, banks, may suffice in this place to convey an idea of the principal dangers which impede this navigation. These dangerous shoals have, for a long time been growing up (partly from the sediment of the Lincolnshire waters, partly from the cause explained in the preceding note upon Winterton), and are now, in some places, dry at low water. The main body of them lies E.b.N. from Foul-ness, distant 9 leagues, or 27 miles; E.S.E. 11 leagues from the floating light of the Dudgeon sand and S.E.b.E. 22 leagues from the Spurn; the geographical situation of which last head-land bas been noticed in the note upon Hull, (page 3). The Leman extends about 5 miles nearly S.E. b. S. and N.W, b. N. being

Here we got in, and, though not without much difficulty, got all safe on shore, and walked afterwards on foot to Yarmouth.

Here, as unfortunate men, we were used with great humanity, as well by the magistrates of the town, who assigned us good quarters, as by the particular merchants and owners of ships; and had money given us, sufficient to carry us either back to Hull, or to London, as we thought fit.

Had I now had the sense to have gone home, I had been happy; and my father, an emblem of our gospel parable,+ had even killed the fatted calf for me; for, hearing the ship I went in was cast away in Yarmouth road, it was a great while before he had any assurance that I was not drowned.

But my fate pushed me on with an obstinacy that nothing could resist ; and, though I had several times loud calls from my reason and my more composed judgment, to go home, yet I had no power to do it. I know not what to call this, nor will I urge that it is a secret, over-ruling decree, that hurries us on to be the instruments of our own destruction, even though it be before us, and that we rush upon it with our eyes open. Certainly, nothing but some such decreed, unavoidable, affliction, and which it was impossible for me to escape, could have pushed me forward against the calm reasonings, and persuasions of my most retired thoughts, and against two such practical instructions as I had met with in my first attempt.

My comrade, the master's son, who had helped to harden me before, was now less forward than I: the first time he spoke to me after we were at Yarmouth, which was not till two or three days, for we were separated in the town to several quarters; I say, the first time he saw me. it appeared his tone was altered, and, looking very melancholy, and shaking his head, asked me how I did; telling Lis father who I was, and how I had come this voyage only for a trial, in order to go farther abroad, His father, turning to me with a grave and concerned tone, "Young man," says he, "you ought never to go to sea any more; you ought to take this for a plain and visible token, that you are not to be a seafaring man."

near 2 miles broad. The Oar (or Ower) lies S. b. E. and N. b. W. about 4 miles, and is 1 mile broad: between the sands is a channel of a depth from 15 to 18 fathoms. Near the southern part of the shoals, are 9, and near the northern 15 fathoms. Near the Oar on the east side are 17, and near the Leman on the west, are 20 fathoms at low water. The wood-cut in page 10 represents Cromer light house on Foul-ness; with Robinson Crusoe and his slipmates driving in the boat before the sea off thar headland.

This cut gives a north view of Yarmouth at the entrance by the road from Cromer; after an original sketch from nature by the engraver of it.

"Why, Sir," said I "will you go to sea no more?"-"That is another case," said he," it is my calling, and, therefore, my duty; but, as you made this voyage for a trial, you see what a taste heaven has given you of what you are to expect if you persist. Perhaps, this has all befallen us on your account, like Jonah, in the ship of Tarshish.* "Pray," continues he, "what are you, and on what account did you go to sea?" Upon that, I told him some of my story; at the end of which he burst out with a strange kind of passion. "What had I done" said he," that such an unhappy wretch should come into my ship! I would not set my foot in the same ship with thee again for a thousand pounds." This, indeed, was, as I said, an excursion of his spirits, which were yet agitated by the sense of his loss, and was farther than he could have authority to go. However, he afterwards talked very gravely to me; exhorted me to go back to my father, and not tempt providence to my ruin; saying, "young man, depend upon it, if you do not go Eack, wherever you go, you will meet with nothing but disasters and disappointments, until your father's words are fulfilled upon you."

I made him little answer; we parted soon after, and I saw him no more; which way he went I know not: as for me, having some money in my pocket, I travelled to London by land; and there, as well as on the road, had many struggles with myself what course of life I should take, and whether I should go home or go to sea. As to going home, shame opposed the best motions that offered to my thoughts; it seemed to me, how I should be laughed at among the neighbours, and should be abashed to see, not my father and mother only, but even every body else. From whence, I have often since observed, how irrational the common temper of mankind is, especially of youth: how incongruous to that reason which ought to guide them; so that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent; not ashamed of the action, for which they ought justly to be esteemed fools; but are ashamed of the returning, which only can make them be esteemed wise.

In this state of life, however, I remained some time, uncertain what measures to take, and what course of life to lead. An irresistible reluctance continued to going home; and, as I stayed awhile, the remembrance of the distress I had been in, wore off; and, as that abated, the little motion I had in my desires to a return, wore off with it, till, at last, I quite laid aside the thoughts of it, and looked out for a voyage. That evil influence which carried me first away from my father's house, which hurried me into the wild and indigested notion of raising my fortune, and which impressed those conceits so forcibly upon me, as to make me deaf to all good advice, and to the entreaties, and even the commands of my father; I say, the same influence, whatever it was, presented the most unfortu nate of all enterprizes to my view; and I went on board a vessel bound to the coast of Africa; or, as our sailors vulgarly call it, a voyage to Guinea.‡

Jonah, i. 7. This oriental name would be more faithfully copied from the original if expressed in English, Ionah; or still more correctly Yoonas.

AFRICA:-Naturalized as this name has become, both in the scientific and the vulgar tongue, yet, as a principal object of these pages is the restoration of geography, as well as sometimes placing in a proper light, the civil and natural history of the countries mentioned in the text, the editor will venture to suggest, that this disjointed adjective of the latin phrase Africa terra, african land, or the land of Afer, would be anglicised more conformably to uniformity and truth, by the simpler word Afric; without the roman termination. This seems to be the fit occasion to remind the reader that the continent, so named in the text, was coasted as far as the southernmost extreme, now called the Cape of Good Hope," under Pharaoh-Necho, King of Egypt (HERODOTUS, iv. 42), by Hanno; (PLINY, nat. hist. ii. 67) by one Eudoxus in the time of King Ptolomey Lathyrus. Caelius Antipater, an historian of credit, earlier than Pliny, testifies, that he had seen a merchant of Gades [Cadiz], who had sailed to Ethiopia. Consequently, the Portuguese under Vasco De Gama, rather recovered than discovered this navigation only about three centuries ago.

GUINEA:-is strictly, that portion of the coast of Afric; trending nearly E. and W. in the parallel of latitude about 5° N.; between longitude 179 W. and 10° E. or may