132 



who are doomed to make the voyage in the 

 gloomy George and Bridget, 



\Ve have met with many of the officers 

 at Portfmouth who were out, in the fleet, 

 during the late deftrudlive gale. Their re- 

 ports are fad and afflidting beyond all the 

 fuggeftjons even of fearful anticipation. De- 

 duding in due allowance for the augmented 

 terrors of young and frefh-v/ater failors, ftiil 

 the whole fcene, and its refult have been moft 

 painfully difaflrous ; for, melancholy to re- 

 peat ! multitudes of fouls have perifhcd ; and, 

 no lefs than fix or feven vefTels have not beea 

 heard of fmce the ftorm. 



By our letters we find that many of our 

 friends had imagined us to be at fea, and, 

 confequently, they had read our deftiny in 

 fate's darkeft page. We are happy in the 

 pow'Cr of reUeving tliem from their fears, 

 and rejoice that thofe with whom we w^ere 

 in the habit of more immediate correfpon- 

 dence, have not been expofed to fimilar ap- 

 prehenlions/ 



