A SAILOR LOST. 105 
weather continued fine and serene, and our men 
expressed a wish to interrupt the uniformity of 
their lives, by getting up a play. The theatre 
was prepared, the play-bills given out, and the 
orchestra had even made the signal for the com- 
pany to assemble, when our merriment was sud- 
denly changed into terror and distress; another 
sailor fell overboard. He had been keeping 
watch on the fore-mast, to provide for our safety 
against land and shallows, in this untried region, 
and having neglected to secure his own, fell a 
sacrifice to his thoughtlessness. Being injured 
by the fall, he immediately sunk, and all our 
efforts to save him proved fruitless. Separated 
as we had long been from our native country, 
the loss of a member of our little society, thus 
bound together through good or ill fortune, 
was sensibly felt; the poor fellow was, besides, 
one of our best sailors: in the most violent 
storms, he had often executed the most dange- 
rous tasks at the mast-head with the greatest 
skill, and now in the finest weather, with the 
ship moving in a manner scarcely perceptible, 
was he destined to end, thus suddenly, his active 
and useful life. 
F 5 
