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EXTRACTS FROM A LANDSMAN'S LOG. 

 I. THE MATE'S GREGO. 



My fellow passenger and I were kept on deck last 

 night by a story the mate gave us. At sun-set there 

 had been a blaze over all the western horizon, that 

 shone under its pillar of smoky clouds, as if the 

 Cyclops were at work there on the Isle of Aves. 

 The night though close was gusty, with large masses 

 of rack flitting across the weak crescent in heaven, 

 to make that kind of darkness Superstition most 

 delights in. The adventure of the Mate's Grego — 

 for so the tale he delivered to us may be called, ran 

 nearly as follows ; it affords a ludicrous instance of 

 the old proverb, that a certain great personage is 

 never more busy than in a gale of wind. 



" Several years ago,'' said the narrator, " I was 

 second mate in an Irish vessel bound from Monserrat 

 to Belfast. It was during the American war, and 

 we were going north about ; for though our crew had 

 not minded having a brush with one of their private 

 craft — we being a letter of marque carrying twelve 

 guns — the owners, you know, and the shippers and 

 underwriters were another concern. I thought it as 

 well have made the strait run as beat about in the 

 bad weather we did, and no clear sailing either : only 

 two days before the Norge, seventy four, with a 

 donkey frigate in company, spoke us, in search of 

 that flying fish. Commodore Rogers, they pressed 

 three of our best hands. However, the skipper 

 avoided St. George's Channel, because of the Yan- 

 kees, and by the token one of their sloops, the Argus, 

 and a Baltimore clipper, that had the heejs of the 

 Cork squadron, and played Davy Jones himself with 

 our trade, were taken there about that time. Well 

 it was a sharp evening in spring, and I had been in 

 the foretop during the second day watch, looking out 

 for the land. - Some heavy rain had fallen, and the 

 wet sail flapping about me, for we were nearly before 

 the wind, made the grego I had on wet enough : 



VOL. V. — 1835. HH 



