MISCELLANIES. 



579 



he lamented as the greatest mis- 

 fortune he had met with in hfe. 

 She married Nowrojee, the eldest 

 son of Jamsetjee Bomanjee, our 

 venerable naval architect, and head 

 of the Wadia family — a family, 

 which, whether we consider them 

 as British subjects, British mer- 

 chants, or Bi itish architects, have 

 largely contributed to the prospe- 

 rity and strength of the British 

 empire in India. 



ACCOUNT OF A PASSAGE IN AN 

 OPEN BOAT ACROSS THE BAY OF 

 BENGAL, 



By the Captain and Boat's Crew of 

 the Daphne, in 180S. 



(From the same.) 



The Daphne brig, Edward Har- 

 man. Master, quitted, the town of 

 Rangoon on the 28th of October 

 ISOS. About sunset on Nov. the 

 4th, we saw Diamond Island bear- 

 ing N.W. § VV., and at two P.M. 

 on the following day came to an 

 anchor in fi\'e and a half fathoms 

 mud. I attended the Captain and 

 six hands to the shore in search of 

 turtle. At the north end of the 

 island we found a small hut, in- 

 habited by five Bluu'mans (natives 

 of Pegu) who had been sent here 

 to collect the turtles' eggs for the 

 king of Ava. They were very 

 hospitable to us, and shewed every 

 inclination to oblige us. On re- 

 turning to the part of the shore 

 on which we landed, we found 

 from the squalliness of the wea- 

 ther, and the height of the suif 

 that we could not reach our boat, 

 then at anclior under the care of 

 one of the men. We made a fire 



under a large tree, and obtained 

 some rice and fish from the Bhur- 

 mans, on which we made a good 

 supper. The weather continued 

 bad thi'ough the night, and to add 

 to our misfortune we only cavight 

 one turtle. At day-break next 

 morning, the appeai'ance of the 

 Aveather indicated an increase of 

 the storm, and we were then 

 soaked to the skin by the rain. 

 The Daphne still rode it out very 

 easy. The Bhurmans supplied us 

 with food. The weather becoming 

 still worse soon after middle day, 

 our boat began to drive, and we 

 were obliged to order the man on 

 board to cut the peinter, and let 

 her come on shore. He did so, 

 and with the assistance of the 

 Bhurmans we got her secured 

 high and dry on the beach. We 

 dined with the Burmans, and at 

 dusk, leaving one man to take 

 care of the boat, the rest retired to 

 sleep. — In the middle of the night 

 we were all turned out, as the 

 tide had risen so high, that our 

 boat had flooded, and was driven 

 among the rocks. It was an awful 

 and tremendous night ; the gale 

 was furious, accompanied by heavy 

 rain, with a foaming sea all round, 

 and our poor boat was seen on the 

 rocks beating to pieces ; there was 

 no time to think : every thing was 

 now at stake. We reached the 

 rocks as speedily as possible, and 

 with a great deal of trouble got 

 her off, but, alas ! almost too late, 

 she was nearly beaten to pieces. 

 We remained with her until high 

 water, when we made her fast, 

 went back to the house and slept 

 till day-light. Our first thoughts 

 now were to repair our boat in the 

 best manner possiljle j and this 

 we efl'ected by pulling a nail out 

 tP t of 



