Mo?ithly Review of Literature, 



[FEB. 



excited a yawrt in the reader -instead, as 

 how, of interest and admiration. In the 

 night, through the moonbeams, the masts 

 and rigging of the far distant pirate like a 

 spider's web are descried in the remote 

 horizon fresh exertions are made in vain 

 the pursuer seems gaining on them, till, 

 to complete the danger, a tremendous storm 

 comes sweeping over them ; and again the 

 new perils, and the new expedients em- 

 ployed to contend with it are detailed ; the 

 masts are finally cut away ; and by the 

 time the storm subsided, the vessel is left a 

 wreck, water-logged, without a stick stand- 

 ing. The crew desert her; but Wilder 

 resolves to abide by her, and the two ladies 

 and their attendant, whose confidence in 

 him had been growing, determine to do the 

 same. The water gains rapidly on them, 

 and their sole hope of escape rests on their 

 placing themselves in the larger boat, left 

 by the crew, from the difficulty of launching 

 it, placed as it was between the stumps of 

 the two principal masts, and v/aiting till the 

 sinking of the ship left it afloat. The peril 

 of being sucked in by the sinking vessel 

 was but too imminent. Happily they 

 escaped absorption and scarcely had they 

 thus escaped, when the boat, in which the 

 crew had fled, was seen, keel upwards, float- 

 ing past them. Another night was thus 

 passed, when the pirate hove in sight, and 

 took them on board. To the surprise of the 

 ladies, the next day Wilder was observed of- 

 ficiating as first officer. By degrees they sus- 

 pect the nature of the vessel, ad Wilder has 

 difficulty enough to elude their searching 

 inquiries. In the midst of their worst 

 apprehensions a sail was observed, which 

 proved to be the very ship to which Wilder 

 originally belonged, but his knowledge of 

 which he laboured to conceal, and endea- 

 voured to deter the pirate from attacking 

 her by urging her superior size, and greater 

 weight of metal. The vessel comes at length 

 within speaking distance, and haiils the 

 pirate, taking her for a king's cruiser, and 

 invites the captain on board. The Rover 

 who is ready for any masquerade, and equa 

 to all disguises, assuming the name of an 

 English captain, ventures on board and 

 while there, overlooking the ship's list, 

 is led to suspect the first lieutenant, then 

 absent, was the new officer of his own ship. 

 The captain tells him the vessel was em- 

 ployed especially to discover the pirate, and 

 put an end to his devastations, and that the 

 lieutenant was absent for the purpose of for- 

 warding the same object. 



Struck by this intelligence, the pirate 

 returned to his own ship summoned Wil- 

 der to his presence and charged him with 

 being the lieutenant of the king's ship, and 

 of course a traitor to himself. Thus driven 

 into a corner, Wilder avows his purpose , a 

 struggle of feeling on the part of the pirate 

 follows, which ends in dismissing the ad- 

 venturous Wilder to his own ship with the 

 two ladies, for he refused to stir without 



them. With his legitimate superior Wil- 

 der makes an effort, in gratitude for the 

 generous treatment he had met with, to pre- 

 vent an attack on the pirate, and is eventu- 

 ally empowered to propose to him terms of 

 surrender, which are of course rejected and 

 Wilder narrowly escapes the resentments of 

 the crew. The old captain of the king's 

 ship is now no longer to be withheld ; he 

 advances to the combat the pirate nothing 

 loth to meet him and, after a sharp engage- 

 ment, is defeated and killed, and the ship 

 taken possession of by the pirate. The crew, 

 now acquainted with the whole treachery of 

 the lieutenant and his two companions, de- 

 mand their lives ; to which demand the pi- 

 rate apparently yields ; but they are respited 

 first by the elder lady discovering the lieu- 

 tenant to be her own lost son, and working 

 upon the feelings of the crew, and finally 

 rescued by the generous determination of 

 the pirate, who resolves making, with the 

 aid of Wilder, due preparations to secure 

 his object to break up his crew ; and ac- 

 cordingly puts the lieutenant in possession 

 of the conquered ship, and sets fire to his 

 own, and is himself lost sight of perishing,' 

 for any thing that is known, in the explo- 

 sion. But, years after, when America had 

 gained her independence, he re-appears, 

 and, in a dying state, visits the lieutenant, 

 now in high station, and the husband of the 

 young lady, and residing with his mother, 

 the elder lady, whose brother the pirate 

 proves to be. 



But all these family complications are of 

 very, very inferior interest. To describe the 

 manocuvrings of the vessel the chace 

 the evasion the horrors of the storm the 

 wreck the escape the battle these are 

 the prominent points of the story, and must 

 fasten the attention of all who read sea- 

 man or landsman. They have never been 

 equalled. 



The Seven Ages of Women, by Miss 

 Strickland; 1827. Miss Strickland writes 

 unaffectedly, at least; and we may add 

 with ease, propriety, feeling, with good 

 sense, and as a woman should. .The little 

 volume before us is entitled " The Seven 

 Ages of Women," and might as appro- 

 priately have taken its title from any other 

 of the pieces that follow this brief compo- 

 sition of a page or two. It was probably 

 considered the best specimen of the lady's 

 muse ; and it is undoubtedly good in a 

 certain moderate sense, we mean, of the 

 term good, by which we understand, gene- 

 rally, a production, which challenges neither 

 arl miration, nor envy, nor ridicule; but 

 one which is allowed quietly to slide along 

 the even tenor of its way, and retain the 

 unmolested favour of the sober pei'sons, 

 whose taste it suits. Perhaps, indeed, such 

 poetry as MissStrickland's, is the only poetry 

 which a wise woman would wish to in- 

 dits Pegasus being but an unruly animal 

 under any management, and under female 

 mauagcment giving freer course to his 



