THE 
MARII^ER'S CHKOSriCLiE. 
LOSS OF THE ENGLISH SHIP KENT. 
T7ie account of which the foUoiving is an abridgment, was 
written and published in England, by a pious Major in the 
East India Com'pany^ s service. 
The Kent, Captain Henry Cobb, a fine new ship of one 
thousand three hundred and fifty tons, bound to Bengal and 
China, left the Downs on the 19th of February, with twenty 
officers, three hundred and forty-four soldiers, forty-three wo- 
men, and sixty-six children, belonging to the 31st regiment; 
with twenty private passiingers, and a crew (including offi- 
cers) of one hundred and forty-eight men on board. 
The bustle attendant on a departure for India, is undoubt- 
edly calculated to subdue the force of those deeply painful 
sensations to which few men can refuse to yield, in the im- 
mediate prospect of a long and distant separation from the 
land of their fondest and earliest recollections. With my 
gallant shipmates, indeed, whose elasticity of spirits is re- 
markably characteristic of the profession to which they be- 
longed, hope appeared greatly to predominate over sadness. 
Surrounded as they were b)'' every circumstance that could 
render their voyai3;-e propitious, and in the ample enjoyment 
of every necessary that could contribute either to their health 
or comfort — ^their hearts seemed to beat high with content- 
ment and gratitude toward that country which they zealous- 
ly served, and whose interests they were cheerfully going 
forth to defend. 
With a fine fresh breeze from the north-east, the stately 
Kent, in bearing down the channel, speedily passed m.any a 
well-known spot on the coast dear to our remembrance ; and 
on the evening of the 23d we took our last view of happy 
o 
