PREFACE. 
It may be truly said that no reading, not fic- 
titious, is so interesting and exciting, as Narra- 
tives of Maritime Adventure. The imminent 
peril of life, on the uncertain element, and the 
surer horrors of thirst and famine, when cast on 
a desert coast, give to the incidents of storms 
and shipwrecks, such force and power in awa- 
kening attention, that narratives of such events 
are among the first to attract youth, and among 
the last to interest old age. The seaman's life 
is, above all others, one of adventure. Truly he 
may say, he knows not " what to-morrow will 
bring forth." Now he may be scudding along 
cheerily, with a light and steady breeze, or rest- 
ing motionless, on the bosom of a calm. The 
next moment, the clouds may gather, the winds 
rise, and the ocean be roused into fury. Now 
he may be far out in the mid ocean, sailing on- 
