250 THE JANE. 



in the general distribution. The outlaw stood upon a carron- 

 ade, and waved his hand as we pulled from the ship's side ; 

 and in a short time set his head-sails, and stood off to sea 

 with the ebb tide and a spanking breeze, which carried him 

 out of sight directly. 



This was fated to be the last landing of the Jane, and 

 the last exploit of her commander ; she foundered on her 

 next voyage, and every person on board perished with the 

 vessel.* 



We had nearly reached the bar, when we observed a large 

 sailing-boat strike on the tail of Carrig-a-boddagh, and as the 

 tide was falling fast, she was in momentary danger of falling 

 over. Every exertion of the crew to get her off was ineffec- 

 tual ; and on our nearer approach they evinced such unequi- 

 vocal symptoms of inebriety, as accounted for the disaster. A 

 solitary passenger was on board, who appeared in desperate 

 alarm ; and, at his own earnest solicitation, we received him 

 and his personal effects, which were extremely limited, into 

 our boat. The crew remained with the hooker, which they 

 calculated upon floating off the following tide. 



I was much struck with the appearance of the stranger. 

 His voice and bearing told that he was not indigenous to 

 the soil : low in stature, delicate in form, with a timid and 

 suspicious bearing, I was greatly puzzled to account for his 

 being a passenger in a Connemara fishing-boat. Although 

 nervous as a woman before we reached the pier, I had tran- 

 quillized him so far as to find out generally that he had left 

 the Galway coast, in the expectation of being landed on the 

 shores of Sligo ; but that the crew, having boarded the 

 smuggler, managed to get gloriously drunk, and, diverging 

 totally from their course, ran the hooker on a reef, from which 

 they should have been several leagues distant. 



The stranger was an Englishman. He met from my kins- 

 man a hospitable reception and the Colonel and I united 

 our attentions, and in a great degree restored his confidence. 

 Nothing, however, could persuade him that the hooker had 

 not been run designedly upon the rock, and that he and his 

 travelling-bag would have been victimized by what he termed 



* The Jane went down in a tremendous gale off the north-west coast 

 of Ireland. Her consort, The Blue-eyed Maid, witnessed the melancholy 

 event, without being able to render any assistance. 



