APPLICATIONS OF TIMBER. 205 



sloping surface, that no boat could attempt to land 

 there. They, however, fell upon the following ex- 

 pedient: having a small boat with them, they moored 

 their principal boat by a grappling to the westward, 

 but as near the rock as they durst; and then launch- 

 ing their small boat, they rowed it toward the rock, 

 veering out a rope, which they fastened to the large 

 boat, till they got near enough to throw a coil of 

 small rope on the rock ; which having been laid hold 

 of by the men, they one by one fastened it round 

 their waists, and jumping into the sea, they were 

 towed into the small boat, and thence delivered into 

 the large one; and as they found it was out of their 

 power to do any further service, the boat hastened 

 to Plymouth to get the men relieved. No sooner, 

 however, were they set on shore, than one of them 

 made off, and has never since been heard of, which 

 would, on the first blush, induce one to suppose, that 

 there were something culpable in this man; and if it 

 had been a house on the shore, one would have. been 

 tempted to suspect hehad been guilty of some foul play: 

 but the circumstance of its being a light-house, situated 

 so as to afford no retreat in the power of its inhabi- 

 tants, seems to preclude the possibility of its being 

 done wilfully; as he must know he must perish, or 

 be in extreme danger of doing so at least, along with 

 the rest." 



Such was the termination of a building, which has 

 always been looked upon as a matchless specimen of 

 skill in carpentry; and which was destroyed by means 

 that had not been contemplated, and therefore not 

 guarded against at the time of its erection. In a 

 few days it was burnt down to the very foundation, 

 after it had stood for forty-nine years, and been the 

 means of saving many a ship from being wrecked 

 upon that dangerous rock, 



VOL. II. 18 



