young man was not devoured; for had he con-
tinued one minute longer in the water, in all pro-
bability he would have been destroyed. By this
little excursion of the boat I saw the extreme
folly and danger of leaving a ship at sea, even in
the finest weather; except in cases of absolute
necessity; for this boat had not got above half
way to the other ship, when a squall came on with
a thick haze, by which we lost sight of them, and
they of us. Had this state of the weather con-
tinued but for a few hours, they, in all likelihood,
would have been lost. When this alteration in the
weather took place, and the boat disappeared, I
confess I was extremely alarmed; although, on the
company's leaving the ship, I gave one of them a
small pocket compass, fearing that by some acci
-dent, they might be separated from us. On my
expressing my fears to the Captain, he said that
he scarcely knew a boat leave the ship in a calm
like this, but a squall of wind came on.

On the 14th day of our voyage, being the 23d of
the 9th month, after taking soundings on the Banks

,
the wind freshened, and being in our favour, we
sailed about 220 miles, and on the 15th day, the
wind still increasing, we sailed about 230 miles in
our direct course. On the evening, between seven
and eight o'clock, we descried a ship going right
before the wind, like ourselves, with all sails set;
and by ten o'clock, being about two hours and a