Since entering the northeast Trades, our passage, as regards every thing external, has been more than ordinarily devoid of interest. Even the monsters of the deep have so studiously secreted themselves from observation, that I have seen neither whale, shark, nor dolphin, and scarce a porpoise or bonetta. From all former experience, I should have thought it almost impossible to have been so long a time at sea, without more sights of interest and beauty: and every present appearance indicates that we are still likely to be without a gale, or waterspout, an exhibition of phosphorescence, or any thing except plain sailing, with smooth water and a prosperous breeze. We were partially becalmed for a day, two or three degrees north of the Equator, and during the period boarded the first vessel we have spoken-a Spanish ship, the Preciosa, one hundred and twenty days from Manilla, bound to Cadiz. Shortly afterward, the southeast trade wind reached us, and we are now sailing charmingly onward, with an atmosphere and sky like June. You recollect the beauty of the sea within the limits of this Trade, the only true Pacific, in my opinion, in any part of the world. It is delightful as ever; and with the additional advantage of a splendid moon, we hope, in ten days, to be safe at anchor in the bay of Rio de Janeiro. For the first fortnight out, it was impossible to write, and most of my time was occupied in reading. There is a large and good collection of books on board. Besides several private libraries, a public one of many hundred well chosen volumes, purchased by a subscription of the ship's company, is arranged in the dining cabin under the direction of a librarian: a provision for the recreation and improvement of the crew, of which no public ship, bound on a long cruise, should be destitute. Irving's Life of Columbus, Scott's Napoleon, the Lady of the Manor, Erskine's Freeness of the Gospel, Weddell's Voyages, Payson's Sermons, and Martyn's Life, are the volumes which have thus far principally occupied my attention. The last has long been a kind of text book with me; and I have now finished it for the fourth time since its publication, in the devoutest prayer that my life might partake some little of the character of his, and my death be blest with the spirit which dictated the last paragraph he ever penned. The situation of my apartment is such as to afford almost the retirement of a study at home; and with the exception of an hour or two on deck for air and exercise, in the morning, and a visit to the sick in the afternoon, most of the day is devoted by me to studies and writing immediately connected with my profession and official duties on board. During the same period, the whole crew are variously but busily employed; and the ship, in every part, presents the industrious activity of a village of mechanics on shore. With the approach of evening, however, this ceases to be the case; and the two or three hours preceding the setting of the night-watch, at eight o'clock, is a time of general relaxation and amusement. During it, the thrumming of the guitar, with the low voice of the song, may be heard in the cabin; while the gayer notes of the flute and violin enliven the ward-room and steerage, and the band on the forecastle sends its full-toned strains far and wide upon the deep. Along the decks every where is to be heard the hum of busy talk, the earnestness of argument, the repartee and the laugh, the jest and the jeer, intermingled with the tread of the dance among the more youthful and light-hearted of the crew. As the night gathers round us, I generally myself take possession of one of the gangways, at the side of the ship, the better to gaze on the expanse of water around and the heavenly hosts above, and in their sublimity to trace the power and majesty of their Maker. Notwithstanding the various and confused sounds on every side, the meditations stealing over the mind at this period are not unfrequently such in a degree as I could wish; and in the multitude of my thoughts, my spirit is often refreshed within me. If such glory is discernible in the revelation which the Almighty makes of Himself in His works, O! what will be the power of that, in which all the moral, as well as natural perfections of the Godhead, shall be exhibited to us face to face! In one respect, however, I have proved the spot chosen to be most unfortunate: the gangway is the place of punishment; and twice, within the last two evenings, the keenest emotions I have known on board the Guerriere, have come suddenly upon me in the sound of the lash and the cry of some wretch suffering at my side. This mode of punishment is deemed by many indispensable on-board a man-ofwar: and it may be so-but as yet I am far from being reconciled, in feeling, to the necessity. To me there is an indignity and degradation in it, which seem inconsistent with the high toned principles and spirit of Americanism; and independent of all other considerations, I never witness it without being tempted to ask Paul's question to the centurion, "Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman ?" But though there was sorrow in the case, and I felt every stroke almost as if across my own shoulders, it was not without a profit too. Only the moment before, I had been gazing on the mild splendour of the southern Cross, absorbed in associations inseparable from it, in the life and death of Him who hung upon the accursed tree; and the mind at once reverted powerfully to that scourging "endured for us," and to those "stripes by which we are healed." The reality and extent of the ignominy suffered by Him who "thought it not robbery to be equal with God," never before forced themselves upon me in such fulness and such freshness; and my soul melted within me in thought of the love which caused Him to "humble Himself and become man," and to submit unmurmuringly, not only to the power of death and the grave, but thus also to scourges and to shame. 18 WORSHIP ON LETTER IV. MORAL ASPECT OF THE CREW. Worship on the Sabbath.--Evening Prayers.-Disposition to Seriousness.-Burial at Sea. U. S. Ship Guerriere, at Sea, BELIEVING with Pope, that "the proper study of mankind is man," I have ever delighted in opportunities of observing my fellows in new lights and relations; and find daily amusement, with an admixture of other emotions, in the developement of character among those around me. A man-of-war is a world in miniature, in which every different kind of temper and disposition is to be found, under the various modifications of a diversity of early habits and impressions. The moral field in which I am to labour is confessedly a hard one; but I am far from being discouraged in attempts to recover, and eventually draw from it both fruitfulness and beauty. A right use of the means of grace will ever produce, in a greater or less degree, both in ourselves and others, their destined results; and in the persuasion of this efficacy, I found all my confidence and my hopes. A more interesting and attentive audience than that formed by the five hundred of our crew at worship on the Sabbath, I have seldom addressed; and every look, and the whole appearance of the men, after the first sermon I preached, as I passed among |