300 NOTES. 



purpose, we were suddenly hailed by a strange voice from the 

 surrounding gloom, apparently close aboard of us ; at first we 

 thought the sound came from under the ship's bows, but for- 

 tunately it was not exactly there, and it turned out afterward 

 that, while running off in the manner described, we had uncon- 

 sciously (but for being hailed) passed quite close to another 

 ship. 



At such times as these, most men will think, and that se- 

 riously ; but, alas ! it soon passes away ; with the recollection 

 of such dangerous occurrences vanishes, I may say, the recol- 

 lection of the superintending care of an Almighty God. Who 

 can tell how many unseen dangers are passed through by a ship 

 during a three years' voyage ? 



If there be any class of men who ought, more than others, 

 to feel grateful to God, I think that class is sailors, of whom 

 many may well exclaim, " Surely goodness and mercy have 

 followed me all the days of my life." 



C, p. 224. 



Or the twenty thousand men who go in jeopardy of their lives, 

 under every accessible line of latitude and longitude, upon the 

 great highway of nations ; who, on an average, are exiles from 

 home and country, from the social delights and most of the 

 comforts of life, for three or four years at a time, on purpose to 

 bring back the means of enriching the owners of the whale 

 ships, and of adding to the comforts and embellishments of the 

 millions who are spared 'these privations, what can be said ? 

 what shall be done for them ? 



Very encouraging it is that, of late, some attention is given 

 to this class of men. The fact that they are human beings 

 begins to be recognised ; nor are they altogether forgotten, as 

 some notices of their condition and wants clearly prove. It 

 could not be expected that our stately and dignified quarterlies 

 would notice, except in the most general and gingerly manner, 



