THE first incident, dear H, worthy of notice since we left the Sandwich Islands, is one of sadness and of death. The most youthful and most healthful of our quarter-masters expired in great agony this morning, after a few hours only of serious illness. The sudden death of such men is always accompanied to me with a shock from which I cannot at once recover. Sinful, and confident of life, they entertain no fear or thought of death, till they find themselves in his terrific and paralyzing grasp!every power withers at his touch; the body sinks into helplessness and decay, while the spirit-ah! the immortal spirit, ascends to God only to hear, if his Word be true, the awful sentence of justice and holiness proceeding from his throne, against every guilty and impenitent sinner-" Depart from me, ye accursed!" In view of such a destiny, well may we exclaim, "O, that men were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!" 284 DEATH AND How different the death of the righteous man "No horror pales his lip, or rolls his eye, With the bier of a shipmate, who but yesterday moved among us in all the vigor of health and manhood, in our view, the day has been one, as may be supposed, of more than ordinary quiet and soberness. The weather too has been of a character to add to the general listlessness and depression: an almost entire calm-the sails flapping uselessly against the masts, and every thing glaring in the burning heat of a tropical sun. -. Just after sunset, the boatswain's call summoned us to the deck, to perform the last service of fellowship for poor The hour was well suited to the melancholy duty; the shades of the night had began to fall around us; the vessel scarcely moved upon the water; the sea was smooth as a lake; and not a sound was to be heard, except the echoing of the last footsteps gathering round the gang-board at the ships's side, on which the corpse was poised, ready to be lanched below at the appointed signal. After such introductory portions of the Burial Service, as I thought appropriate to the funeral rite of one, for whom I fear-melancholy as the apprehension is that there will be no "resurrection of BURIAL AT SEA. 285 life," I gave one word of admonition and exhortation-a word to which, under the circumstances, no ear could be stopped; and to the power of which, it is to be hoped, that every heart, for the moment at least, was open ;-and then came the slide and dull plunge of the body which committed it to the bosom of the Pacific-a grave more wide and more deep than even a sailor often finds. The scene was one which all appeared to feel, and one which, I pray, none of those witnessing it may entirely forget. The circumstance led to a conversation the most interesting, as regards the character and strength of feeling excited by it, I have yet known on board the Vincennes-with Mr. Hoyt, a young gentleman who joined our ship, from the merchant service at Oahu, to secure a passage to the United States, and who has had assigned to him the duty of a sailing-master's mate. The correctness and dignity of his general deportment early secured my good opinion; and the little direct intercourse that, till now, had taken place between us, had confirmed every kind feeling in his favor. We met this morning, in a mood of mind induced by the sight of the corpse, which neither of us felt disposed to conceal from the other; and which led to one of those conversations of undisguised feeling, which win the heart more fully, than years of common-place civility. He appears to be one of the few "sons of the ocean," whose character and principles in all points are such as to command the respect of those with whom they are associated; and to whom the most pure in morals and the most refined in sentiment need not fear to |