THE ADVENTURES OF A YOUNGER SON.

Tats is a very wicked, but a very clever book : it is a sort of fighting Don Juan, containing all descriptions of adventure in the East—ex- cept those of love; for the hero does not make love, but offers battle. It professes to be an autobiography : the author is said to be, nay, has been advertised as Mr. TRELAWNEY ; and he would evidently make us believe that his hero is himself. If so, we wish hint joy on living once more in a civilized country, and wearing trou- sers : but how will he keep his pistols in their case, and his knife in his belt ? Mr. TRELAWNEY, it is well known, has had some strange adventures ; but if he has led the life here described, Jack. Ketch might go apprentice to him. Our readers have seen (in a play) a stout-limbed, black-whiskered fellow, in a turban, bran- dishing a scimitar, and cutting down, or pretending to cut down, any body or every body that looked him straight in the face. This might be taken for a portrait of the Younger Son, in his Arab dress, on board his India-built grab or his American schooner, scouring the seas of the East in search of plunder. His ferocity is appalling, his courage is invincible, his strength is that of a giant : he fears a cannon-shot no more than others fear the flash powder in a priming-pan ; he will leap you from the maintop into the sea, spear a tiger, ereese a Malay, or cut down an honest British tar, if he can. There is no end to his exploits—in the East : in the West, they were considerable, but not quite so triumphant. In Greece, the author (if not the hero) was shot through and through by an as- sassin : he survived, however; • and, we believe, has come to this country with or without his Greek wife, the daughter of the cele- brated chieftain ULYSSES.

But with all this wildness and much more,—snch as a furious hatred of all kinds of authority, and an eternal anathematizing of priests, who, if he is to be trusted, are bad enough in the East,— the Adventures of a Younger Son is the cleverest book of the sea- son, in its line—not excepting Eugene Aram. Its freshness and vigour are perfectly surprising; and the various and curious experience it unfolds respecting the East, in matter has been equalled in no book of travels, and excelled in no book of poetry. We almost forgive the author even his long list of murders, for the sake of his wild romantic descriptions of island solitudes, un- trod by any feet but those of the wandering savage; or the scarcely less savage or lessviindering buccaneer—for his admirable por- traitures of dark nigtiisic- only rarely seen by the sailor, and very meagrely painted by the geographer—for his excellent sketches of character, and his curious views of human nature, which he has evidently seen under phases that rarely present themselves to the ordinary wayfarer. We are almost won over by him to the East; and begin, under his tuition, to regard. bloodshed with less horror, and to think perhaps that life is most enjoyed which is always on the brink of death, and which the customs of society or the laws of authority have not suceeeded in trammelling. But if this is one of the effects of his book, it is not a moral one : it is ill-suited to the tallow-faced son of the West, as he calls him; and we should almost dread the impression this work might make on an adventurous youth.

The strange life led by the autobiographer, he attributes to two causes,—the first is, the oppression and injustice used towards himself as a boy, by his parents and schoolmasters ; and next, by reflection upon the oppression and injustice exerted by every body vested with any brief authority over their fellow men. The first seems to have greatly developed his organ of combativeness ; and the second, a passion for revenge against all mankind, save a few who share his sentiments. No doubt, these are shallow motives, as far as reason is concerned; yet the effect of cruel treatment in youth might naturally account for the whole series of adventures plunged into by the Younger Son,—provided, indeed, he was him- self endowed with certain qualities which required hard usage to bring to maturity. It is very certain, that a boy originally gifted with dogged obstinacy, a tenacious love of revenge, a sensitive ap- prehension of insult, together with a powerful frame and a hardy constitution, may be soon kicked into a buccaneer : kindness and

judicious discipline might have made him a useful and energetic citizen ; or if he had been weak, bad treatment might have sent him into the grave. But there was no killing the hero of this.

story. The effect of opposition and cruelty on a child, may be exem- plified in two events of his life, as they are detailed with a force and energy which vouch for their truth, and prove the writer to•

be one who understands as well the use of the pen as the penknife.. The reader must imagine a little boy residing with an austere parent, whom the child, with the usual tact of children, knew to

be cold, unfeeling, and avaricious, and whom he felt by sad expe- rience to be capricious and arbitrary. The elder brother is a meek boy, who is afraid and submits : the younger is an urchin whoin.

no blows seem to hurt, and who, with the true mastiff tenacity,. will retain his hold while his limbs are being cut off. Punish- ment and severity erected the little fellow into an opposite- party—an antagonist, to fight and conquer, and sometimes be conquered : so that it may he comprehended, that ultimately his only pleasure came to be running in the face of power. " My brother," he says, " was contented with his daily walk upon the common or the road : I, with my pockets well filled with bread and apples, climbed the hills or descended them to learn swimming in. the. rivers. I hated all thit thwarted me,— parsons, pastors, and masters. Every thing I was directed cau- tiously to shun as dangerous or wrong, I sought with avidity, as giving the most pleasure." An incident quite in accordance with this precious education, is his first murder the subject is, how- ever, not a man, but a raven— My father had a fancy for a raven, that, with ragged wings, and a grave an- tique aspect, used to wander solitarily about the garden. He abhorred children ; and whenever he saw any of us, he used to chase us out of his walks. I was then five years old. Had the raven pitched on any other spot than the one he selected, the fruit garden, I certainly should never have disputed his right of possession. As it was, we had all, from the time we could walk, considered him and my father the two most powerful, awful, and tyrannical persons on earth. The raven was getting into veers ; he had a grey and grisly look ; he halted on one leg; his joints were stiff, his legs rough as the bark of a cork-tree, and he was covered with large warts : his eyes had a bleared and sinister ex- pression ; and he passed most of his time idling in the sun under a south wall, against which grew the delicious plums of the garden. Many were the strata- gems we used to lure hint from this spot ; the garbage, on which he gloated, was offered in vain. His moroseness and ferocity, and our difficulty in getting .fruit, were insupportable. We tried to intimidate him with sticks, but were too weak to make the least impression on his weather-hardened carcase; and we got the worst of it. I used, when I could do so slily, to throw stones at him, but this had no effect. Thus things continued. I had in vain sought for re- dress from the gardener and servants : they laughed at us, and jeered' us.

One day I had a little girl for my companion, whom I had enticed from the nursery to go with me to get some fruit clandestinely. We slunk out, and en- tered the garden unobserved. Just as we were congratulating ourselves under a cherry tree, up comes the accursed monster of a raven. It was no longer to be endured. He seized hold of the little eirl's frock ; she was too frightened to scream ; I did not hesitate an instant. ti told her not to he afraid, and threw myself upon him. He let her go, and attacked me with bill and talon. I got hold of him by the neck, and, heavily lifting him up, struck his body against the tree and the ground, but nothing seemed to 'hurt him. He was hard as a rock. Thus we struggled, I evidently the weaker party. The little girl, who was my favourite, said, " go and call the gardener ! ' I said, "No; he will tell my father ; I will hang the old fellow (meaning the raven, not my father) ; give me your sash ! "

She did so, and with great exertion I succeeded, though I was dreadfully mauled, in fastening one end round the old tyrant's neck ; `I then climbed the cherry tree, and, holding one end of the sash, I put it round a horizontal branch, when,jumping on the ground, I fairly succeeded in suspending my foe.

At this moment my brother came running towards me. When he saw the plight I was in, he was alarmed; but, on beholding our old enemy swinging in the air, he shouted for joy. Fastening the end of the sash, we commenced -stoning him to death. After we were tired of that sport, and as he was, to all appearance, dead, we let him down. He fell on his side, when I seized hold of a raspberry stake, to make sure of him by belabouring his head. To our utter amazement and consternation, he sprung up with a hoarse scream, and caught hold of me. Our first impulse was to run; but he withheld me; so I again fell - on him, calling to my brother for assistance, and bidding him lay fast hold of the ribbon, and to climb the tree. I attempted to prevent his escape. His look was now most terrifying : one eye was hanging outof his head, the blood corn- ' from his mouth, his wings flapping the earth-in *order, and with a ragged tail, which I had half plucked by pulling at him during his first execution. He made a horrible struggle for existence, and I was bleeding all over. Now, with She aid of my brother, and as the raven was exhausted by exertion and wounds, we succeeded in gibbeting him again; and then with sticks we cudgelled him to death, beating his head to pieces. Afterwards we tied a stone to him, and sunk him in a diick-pond.

This was the first and most fearful duel I ever had. I mention it, childish though it be, not only because it lives vividly in my memory, but as it was an event that, in reviewing my after-life, seems evidently the first ring on which the links of a long chain have been formed. It shows how long I could endure . annoyance and oppression, and that when at last excited, I never tried half mea- sures, but proceeded to extremities, without stop or pause. This was my grievous fault, and grievously have I repented it ; for nave destroyed, where, in justice, I was justified, but where, in mercy, I ought only to have corrected ; and thus the standers-by have considered that, which I only thought a fair retaliation, asrevenge.

This passage has all the force of a piece of GODWIN, with more than its picturesqueness. Maltravers is more gloomy, but not so impressive.

The other event we have alluded to is of a graver character : the description is not so remarkable as the circumstances of it are characteristic ; but it affords a thorough insight into the character . of the Younger Son—

At this period of my life, an involuntary passion was awakened in my bosom for reading; so that I seized on every occasion for borrowing and collecting books, and every leisure moment for reading them. Old plays, voyages and travels, were my principal study; and I almost learned by heart Captain Bligh's ' narrative of his voyage to the South Sea islands, and of the mutiny of his • crew : his partial account did not deceive me. I detested him for his tyranny, - and Christian was my hero. I wished his fate had been mine, and longed to - emulate him. It left an impression on any mind which has had a marked in- fiuence on my life.

Our Captain's clerk, seeing I had a good store of books, with no place to put them in, thought they Would be an ornament to his cabin, for he never read. He proposed to take care of them for me, offering me the use of his cabin, -where 1 might read them. I gladly acquiesced in what I, simple fool that . I then was, thought a most kind offer; and for a few days we got on very well -together. One day I went for a book.; he was angry about something or no- -thing, and had the impudence to say, " You may read here if you like ; but I -will not permit any books to be taken out of my cabin." • a Are they not mine? " I asked.

" Not now ;" he replied. " What !" I then asked, "do you intend to keep possession of my books? " To this I received no other answer than—" Come, none of your insolence ! " Upon this, I said, "Give use my books ; I will leave them here no longer, now I see your object." He dared me to touch them ; I snatched one from the shelf; he struck me ; I returned the blow. It was then harmless as the un- weaned colt's.

My opponent was two or three and twenty, strong and thick-set; I a tall dim boy of fourteen. The presumption of my returning his blow so astonished his cowardly nature, that for a moment he hesitated what to do. But some'of the yoiingsters had collected round the door, and cried out, " Well done, my boy ! " which incensed the paltry dirty screwier. He seized hold of me, mad vociferating, " You young rascal, I will tame you ! " gave me a blow with a ruler, which he broke over my head ; then jammed me up against the bulkhead,

that I could not escape, and belaboured me without mercy. As long as my strength lasted, I opposed him. The lookers on were encouraging me, and ex- claiming shame on him. My head grew dizzy from blows ; my mouth and ruse were bleeding profusely ; my body was subdued, but not my spirit. I asked not for mercy, but defied him • and on his attempting to kick me out of the cabin, I increased his fury, by declaring I would not leave it till he had given me my books. We were thus contending—he to force me out, and I to remain in, when he kicked me in the stomach, and I lay motionless ; while he roared and sput- tered,—" Get out, you rascal ! or I'll knock the life out of you!"

I felt I could no longer resist. I was in despair. The being beaten like a hound by a dastardly brute, and the insulting and triumphant language

the fellow used, made me mad. My eye caught, by chance, something glittering close to me. The table was capsized, and a penknife within my grasp. The prospect of revenge renewed my strength. I seized it, and repeating his words of knocking the life out of me, I added, as I held up • the weapon, " Coward ! look out for your own ! " I was then on one knee, struggling to get up. On seeing the knife, and my

wild look haggard with passion, the mender of pens shrunk. back. After this, all I remember is, that I stabbed in several places, and that he shut his eyes, held his hands up to his face, and screamed out in terror for mercy. Sonic one then called to me, with " HolIoa! what are you at ? " I turned round, and replied, " This cowardly ruffian was beating me to death, and I have killed him!" I then threw down the knife, took up my book, and walked out of the cabin. Presently a sergeant of marines was sent down, with an order to bring me on deck. The Captain was there, surrounded by his officers. He inquired of the First Lieutenant what was the matter;: and the answer was —"This youngster

went into your clerk's cabin, Sir, with a carving-knife, and was,—"This

killed him."

The Captain looked at me with horror, and without asking a question, said, " Kill my clerk ! put the murderer in irons, and handcuff him. Kill my clerk ! " I attempted to speak ; but was stopped with, " Gag him ! Take him down below instantly. Not a word, Sir ! Kill my clerk "

As the sergeant attempted to collar me, I said, " Hands off !" looked fiercely, for I now thought myself a man, and walked slowly down the hatchway. A sentinel was put over me, and the master-at-arms brought the irons.

The clerk has twenty wounds about his person, bat recovers ; and lives to be taunted by the youngster who disfigured him. After this, the author's adventures on board a ship are various. He risks his life frequently : once, he jumps from the-lopsail-yard- arm of a frigate, to spite an officer who had mast-headed him ;Arid at another, rushes down into the fore-magazine while on fire, end, as it is momentarily expected to be blown up, extinguishes fhe flame, and saves the ship. Such are some of his Middy adven- tures : they are described with a life and force unequalled. We know nothing more horrible than the description of his descent into the sea from the maintop, and subsequent sense of suffocation; and cannot help feeling well persuaded that some similar event, if not the same, has befallen the writer.

On the frigate arriving in India, the autobiographer takes an opportunity of indulging in every extravagance his heart can devise; and crowns the whole by nearly murdering the second lieutenant, who had tyrannized over him. He then leaves the service, and ultimately takes the command of a half-smuggler half-pirate; and does such deeds, in the course of a year or two, as would make the angels weep. We will quote only one more scene of violence, and then look out for some one or two of the innumerable scenes that present a charming relief to the more torrid passages. The following is a description of a fight with a Malay pirate, and her ultimate destruction—

De Ruyter's patience was now exhausted. He had important despatches for the Isle of France, and would brook no longer detention. We therefore reluct- antly altered our course again to the southward, and after running twenty or thirty leagues in that direction, at daylight, when the horizon was particularly clear, before the sun arose with his misty mantle, the man at the mast-head called out, "A large sail on the lee-bow !" Fearing she might be a man of war, I took a glass up to the mast-head where, after straining my eyes to make her out, De Ruyter hailed me with " Well, what is she?"

I replied with confidence, " The Malay !" " Which way is she standing ?" " She has not yet seen us, and her course is to the northward." Then I described her, and De Ruyter said, " Very possibly you are right."

I came on the deck. The horizon became misty ; and as they had neglected to keep a look-out, we trusted we should get much nearer ere she discovered us. We bore down on her under every stitch of sail we could spread. The studding-sails we wetted with an engine for that purpose, to make them hold the light breeze better ; and at eight o'clock she saw us, and bore away. We

had gained considerably on her ; the bead of her lower yards were then visible from our deck ; and De Ruyter said, "If the breeze holds till mid-day, she cannot escape us."

There was an alacrity and a buzz of joy throughout our crew, intent for plunder. We pumped the water out, lightened her by throwing some tons of ballast overboard, winged and shifted the iron shot, cleared the decks for action,

got the arms and boats ready for service and for hoisting out, and watched and antedated all the motions of the enemy, as the hawk does the curlew. At noon the breeze freshened, and we gained rapidly on her; nevertheless, it was six r. e. before we came within long shot. We then kept up a fire front

the bow-chasers. For some time she disregarded this. We had hoisted a

French tricoloured flag, De Ruyter indeed having a French letter of marque's commission, which he now produced for me to read, as the only person among the officers ignorant of that tact. The shots now falling over and on board of the Malay, her top-gallant sails were lowered ; and we ran up under her lee- quarter, shortened sail, and backed the topsail. A Malay on board of us was desired to bail her. Her deck swarmed with men. We ordered her to send a boat with her papers on board of us, and seeing they paid no attention to this order, De Ruyter again feed a shot over her. She returned this with a volley from four cannonades, divers small swivels on her gunwales, and twenty or thirty matchlock muskets, when the pieces of old

iron, glass, and nails, with which they were loaded, rattled against our rining, and three of our men were wounded. "Damn their impudence!" exclaimed, De Ruyter, "they shall have enough of it !" We opened and kept up such a heavy, low, and well-directed fire, manceuvritig with our broadside on her stern and quarters, that, in ten minutes,. De Ruyter called out to cease firing, as we had not only silenced her fire, but- en- tirely cleared her deck, cut her rigging to ieees, and shot away her rudder. Ouibeats were then ordered to be h out, and, with thirty inwaist.tbfte • w re not wouuded, had jumped overboard to regain their boat. made free the captive, who, perhaps, dreaming of hunting on his native moon- Hailing De Ruyter, I informed him how the affair stood. He desired me to tains, or fondling with his young barbarians, or their mother, was destined to make fast ahalser, which he would send me, to the riug-bolts of her bobstays, se- awake, fettered and bound with festering manacles, chained, like a wild beast, cure it to her bowsprit, and that then we should all return to the grab ; he be- in the worst of dungeons, under the sea, in a ship's hold, doomed to death or ing very careful of the lives of his men, and knowing that these pirates, when slavery.

once they have made up their minds not to be taken, will abide by their resolu- their lurking places, without endangering themselves. The crew were busy in banding our wounded men down into the boat. A a spear, driven through his foot, and was suffering great pain. Hastening for- ward to see him handed into the boat, I stepped over a dying Malay, shot through the body before we boarded her. I had previously, in passing hint, after coming right down on us, apparently of less than a hundred tons bur his caught a glance at his peculiarly ferocious look, and the malignant expression of his broad and brutish face. His coarse, black, straight hair was clotted with blood from a wound in his head, apparently by a splinter. As I now stepped over him, I was arrested by his eye, surrounded by a rigid lid, and deeply 'in- bedded above his high cheek-bone, the sunken pupil still glaring like a glow-

worm in a dark vault. My foot slipped in the gore, and I tell on him ; when, ballast, and the weight above board, than from any swell of the sea) was over- as I was recovering myself, he griped me with his bony hand, and made a hor- grown with barnacles, sea-weed, and green slime. She yawed so widely about, Tilde effort to rise, but his extremities were stiff. He drew a small creese from owing to bad steering, that I could scarcely keep clear of. her. I fired a musket his bosom, and with a last effort tried to bury it iu my breast. The passion• for her to heave to, which she did in so lubberly a manner, by heaving up in the of revenge had outlived his physical powers ; its sharp point slightly grazed me, wind, that she was nearly dismasted. A strange antediluvian crew of almost and he fell dead from the exertion, dragging me down, his hand still clenching naked savages, the most uncouth and wild I had ever seen, tattooed from head to like a vice. I could only extricate myself by slipping my arm out of my vest, foot, were groping about her deck and rigging. A ragged piece of painted and leaving it in his ghastly hand. " Such men as these," I cried out, " are cloth was hoisted by way of ensign. Who or what she was, whence come or

not to be conquered even by death ! Their very spirits fight and stab at us !" • • whither i Be Ruyter became peremptory for our instant return, as the night was now coming on, and the Malays below had again opened a fire on us with their rent and ragged train, made her look as if she had been floating about ever since matchlocks. With rage and disappointment I returned. the flood, and yet the wonder was how she was kept afloat an hour.

observed, " There is no help for it ! We must try to tow her towards the land ; when near the shore, they will perhaps escape by swimming. But I fear we shall not succeed in capturing her." I was more astonished at her wild appearance ; and, having, with great exertion,

at any object they could see moving on board gang her. We found it difficult to the exterior. Her upper deck was thatched over with coir, held together with tow her : not being steered, she yawed about, and in less than an hour they had twinc‘d grass cordage. The savage crew had palmetta-leaf coverings on their contrived to cut the tow-lope. tinder a cover of musquetry we again made last heads, and Adenine inexpressibles. A very tall, thin, and bony man came for-

..i-another, and kept up a continual fire on her bows. Nothing living was seen on ward to receive me. He was distinguished from the savage group that crowded her decks, yet again the }miser was cut. We hailed her, as we often had done, around, by his comparative fairness and fierceness, besides having more covering but no answer was given. to his person. His features were prominent, his complexion a reddish brown, At daylight, De Ruyter came to the determination of sinking her ; which we his hair somewhat darker ; and he would have been strikingly handsome in reluctantly did, by opening a fire with our largest guns, and red-hot shot, which figure and bearing, were it not for the extraordinary and grotesque manner in had been prepared during the night. Symptoms of fire from below soon made which he was tattooed on his face, arms, and breast, which were bare. The their appearance; smoke slowly arose ; several explosions of powder took place ; figure of a hideous serpent was wreathed around his throat, as if in the act of the smoke arose darker, and in masses ; at last we saw the savages themselves strangling him, with its head and lancet-like tongue traced on the lower lip, as crawling up on all-fours upon deck. Their guns having been thrown overboard if, killing twofold, it was darting into his mouth. The bright green eye and by us, they could make no defence. Streams of fire now burst out of her hatch- red tongue of the serpent were so cunningly tattooed in colours, that, with the ways and port-holes. On the balls going through her, our Arabs swore they movement of the lowerjaw, they appeared in motion. Yet there was a placid saw the gold-dust, and pearls, and rubies, sly out of her on the opposite side. I expression of the eye and brocv which did not correspond with his wild attire. I cannot say I did ; nor could I smell the otto of roses, which they affirmed was had no time to examine farther ; for this captain, or chieftain, came forward in running out of her scuppers like a fountain. I saw nothing but the dense flames a most courteous and affable manner, and with a strange accent, but in tolerable and smoke, and the poor devils swarming up and jumping into the waves, pre- English said,—" You are English, Sir?" (I had shown English colours.)

ferring death by water to fire and balls,----for they had no other choice. Though " And who are you, Sir?" I asked.

we lowered our boats to pick them up, not one approached them ; and the boats " I, Sir, am from the Island of Zaoo." • did not near the vessel, fearing her blowing up. She appeared to have an im- " What ! Where is that? I never heard of such an island."

mense number of men • not less than two hundred and fifty to three hundred. He informed me it was in the direction of the Sooloo archipelago. " But it Having given over 'firing, we lay at some distance, intently gazing at her. is strange," I said, for his manner struck me more than his appearance; "are After an explosion, louder than the loudest thunder, which vibrated through the you of those islands ?"

air, we could see nothing but a black cloud on the waters, enveloping all around, " Yes, Sir." like a pall, and darkening the heavens; and where the pirate had been, was only " What ! a native?" to be distinguished by the bubbling commotion and dashing ripple of the sea, " No, Sir." like the meeting of the tides, or where a whale has been harpooned, and sunk. " Who are you then?"

Huge. fragments of the ship, masts, tackling, and men, all shattered and rent, He paused for a moment, and then answered—" An Englishman, Sir." lay mingled around in a wide circle. Some dark heads, still above the surface, " Indeed! How the devil, then, came you there, or rather here, in this trim;?"

awaiting, as it were, the utmost of our malice, faintly yelled their last war-cry " If you'll walk down in the cabin, I'll tell you, Sir." in defiance ; then a few bubbles showed where they had been. Her hull was

driven down stern-foremost, and her grave filled up on the instant. These three volumes only take the hero down to about his twee- the wind became hushed from the concussion of the explosion - and I tieth year : we are promised a sequel ; the scenes of which will started as our sails flapped heavily against the mast, and the grab's hull shook probably be European or South American. We are not sure whe- .as in terror. The black cloud cleared away, and slowly swept along the surface ther Mr. TRELAWNEY joined the patriots of South America; as he • of the sea; then ascended and hung aloft in the air, concentrated in a dense did afterwards those of Greece. What may be the chief material, mass. As I gazed on it, methought the pirate ship was changed, but not de- stroyed, and that her demon crew had resumed their vocation in the clouds. we of course cannot prophesy; though we fear he has nothing in De Ruyter said—"It has been an awful and painful sight !—But they deserved his experience so charming as many of the scenes and adventures their fate. Come, set our gaping crew to work ! Hoist the boats in, and make in Borneo and. the islands of the Indian Archipelago. This must all sail on our proper course. be considered his Iliad—the poem of action; the next will be his By way of contrast, let the reader peruse a description of a scene Odyssey, for most probably his father-in-law, the Greek chief; will of repose as beautiful as pen or pencil ever drew— be its hero.

The evening was singularly beautiful, the sea calm and clear as a mirror, and our crew sinking into rest, outworn by the unwonted toil of this busy day. De Ruyter was in the cabin; I was keeping the watch, and Aston bore me com- pany. He lay along the raised stern, and I leant over the taffrail, gaging on the land. The forms in the distant range of mountains were growing dark and in- cstintit: The transparent, glassy, and deep blue of the sea faded into a dusky olive, Subdivided by an infinity of mazy, glimmering bars, as if embroidered with diamond heads, traced by the varied, wandering ors, .load sporting like the

boats, I shoved off to board her ; De Ruyter cautioning me to be particularly lion's whelps on their mother's quiet bosom ; while be, their mighty parent, bit -careful against their cunning and treachery. " They must have been," said hushed within his lair, the caverned shore, torpid from toil and devastation.. be, laughing, " a colony founded by the ancient Greeks, for they have all the Over the land the glowing sun hastened to his cool sea-couch; his expiring rays.

.characteristics of my modern friend at Goa." stained the lucid sky with bright, fading colours,—deep ruby tints changing tin

. We approached her warily. Not the smallest impediment was opposed to us. purple ; then emerald green, barred and streaked with azure, white, and yellow; 'Indeed, nothing gave token that there was a being on board of her. I ordered and as the sun was dipping, the whole firmament was dyed in crimson, and the Reis, who commanded one boat, to board her on the bow with his Arabs; blazed ; then left the western sky brighter than molten gold, till the sun's last whilst I, with a party, chiefly Europeans, and a gallant set of fellows they were, rays were extinguished. When the moon came forth with her silvery, gleaming climbed up her ornamented quarters and bamboo stern. On getting on board, light, all the gay colours faded, leaving a few fleecy and dappledspecks, like lambs we saw many dead and wounded on her deck, but nothing else. She was only grazing on the hills in heaven. The change was like life in youth and beauty sud- about two-thirds decked, having an open waist, latticed with. bamboo, and co- 5enly extinguished ; white and misty Death, with his pallid winding-sheet, enve. vered with mats. Her sails and yards were hanging about in confusion. We loped all around. As the grab's stern swung round, and as my eye caught our com- were now all on deck, and a party of men was preparing to descend between paion, the corvette, her black hull and white wings alone broke the line of the decks ; when, while replying to r)e Ruyter's questions, I was suddenly startled moonlit horizon, like a sea-sprite reposing on the boundless waters. Enwrapped at hearing a wild and tumultuous war-whoop, and springing forwards, I saw a in our contemplation of the wonderful beauty of an eastern night, we remained grove of spears thrust up from below, which, passing through the matting, hours in silence; and after the turmoil of the day, this stillness had a preterna- wounded many of our men. I was certainly as much astonished at this novel mode tural, or magic effect on the mind, more soothing than sleep. The helmsman,of warfare as Macbeth at the walking wood of Dunsinane. Running round the in his sleep, from habit, called out—" Steady ! steady !" and even the custo- solid portion of the deck, several spears were thrust at me, which I with diffi- mart' forms of changing the watches had been neglected ; while the sentinels,_ culty escaped. Some of my men had retreated; I ordered them to fire down unconscious that their time of duty was expired, dozed on their posts of below, through the open work. Afost of the men belonging to the Rais, who guard over the prisoners; and the balm of sleep medicined the wounded, and • w re not wouuded, had jumped overboard to regain their boat. made free the captive, who, perhaps, dreaming of hunting on his native moon- Hailing De Ruyter, I informed him how the affair stood. He desired me to tains, or fondling with his young barbarians, or their mother, was destined to make fast ahalser, which he would send me, to the riug-bolts of her bobstays, se- awake, fettered and bound with festering manacles, chained, like a wild beast, cure it to her bowsprit, and that then we should all return to the grab ; he be- in the worst of dungeons, under the sea, in a ship's hold, doomed to death or ing very careful of the lives of his men, and knowing that these pirates, when slavery.

tion. I told him that if he had any hand-grenades, or fire-balls, I would rout In another variety is the description of a strange craft encoun- them out. Though we had already made considerable havoc among them, I tered in the Straits of Sunda ; and the romantic story of the cap- was very anxious, as were all the Europeans, to go below at every hazard, but tain, the Prince of Zaoo, an Englishman, is one of the most pleasing our native crew were opposed to this ; and seven or eight of us could have had portions of the book ; where, however, there are many episodes of little chance, unable, in the dark, to see our enemies, who would spear us from equal eccentricity and beauty.

De Ruyter having told me he should go through the straits of Sunda, and touch Swedish lad, whom I valued for being an excellent sailor, had been wounded by at Java, i proceeded to Borneo. I passed the straits of Drion the bur anxious to get through these I did not run out °fray way to board any of the country vessels which I occasionally fell in with. The first vessel I boarded was some time after this, at the dawn of day. She was a singularly constructed and rigged through the body before we boarded her. I had previously, in passing hint, after coming right down on us, apparently of less than a hundred tons bur his caught a glance at his peculiarly ferocious look, and the malignant expression of then, with two masts, snow-fashion ; her ropes were principally of a dark grass • her sails of purple and white cotton, though some looked like matting ; her hull was high out of the water, bleached to a whitish brown ; her bottom (for I could almost see the kelston, as she rolled heavily, more from want of

worm in a dark vault. My foot slipped in the gore, and I tell on him ; when, ballast, and the weight above board, than from any swell of the sea) was over- as I was recovering myself, he griped me with his bony hand, and made a hor- grown with barnacles, sea-weed, and green slime. She yawed so widely about, Tilde effort to rise, but his extremities were stiff. He drew a small creese from owing to bad steering, that I could scarcely keep clear of. her. I fired a musket his bosom, and with a last effort tried to bury it iu my breast. The passion• for her to heave to, which she did in so lubberly a manner, by heaving up in the of revenge had outlived his physical powers ; its sharp point slightly grazed me, wind, that she was nearly dismasted. A strange antediluvian crew of almost and he fell dead from the exertion, dragging me down, his hand still clenching naked savages, the most uncouth and wild I had ever seen, tattooed from head to like a vice. I could only extricate myself by slipping my arm out of my vest, foot, were groping about her deck and rigging. A ragged piece of painted and leaving it in his ghastly hand. " Such men as these," I cried out, " are cloth was hoisted by way of ensign. Who or what she was, whence come or

going, it was impossible to guess. Her upper works were so broken and gaping, that you could see both into her and through her; this, with her We had now altogether eight wounded. On reaching the grab, De Ruyter They were attempting to hoist out an old and ornamented canoe ,- but to save time, and anxious to examine her, more from curiosity than hope of plunder, I lowered a small dingy from our stern, and went to board her. On nearing her, ' As we filled our sails and towed her, a gang of men stood at our stern to fire climbed up her outworks, projecting bamboo outworks I found the interior far surpassing