120 CONFLICTING FEELINGS. 



tentous darkness. The sense of personal danger, 

 Mr. Ellis confesses, and the certainty of instant 

 destruction if brought within their vortex, prevented 

 a very careful observation of their appearance and 

 accompanying phenomena. 



The storm continued all day, and at intervals the 

 party in the boat beheld, through the driving clouds 

 and rain-, one or other of those towering waterspouts ; 

 which, however, did not come nearer to them. 



It is interesting to read the record left by a 

 Christian missionary of his conflicting feelings on 

 that terrible occasion. Mr. Ellis believed that all 

 hope of escape was over, and his mind went through 

 that ordeal which must be the experience of every 

 one who sees the steady approach of speedy death. 

 He says that during those hours when he sat await- 

 ing his doom, the thought of death itself did not 

 make a deep impression. " The struggle, the gasp, 

 as the wearied arm should attempt to resist the im- 

 petuous waves ; the straining vision, that should 

 linger on the last ray of retiring light, as the deepen- 

 ing veil of water would gradually conceal it for ever; 

 and the rolling billows heaving over the sinking 

 and dying body, which, perhaps ere life should be 

 extinct, might become the prey of voracious inhabi- 

 tants of the deep;" these things caused scarcely a 

 thought, compared with the immediate prospect of 

 the disembodied spirit being ushered into the pres- 

 ence of its Maker ; the account to be rendered, and 

 the awful and unalterable destiny that would await 



