8 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
coursers. The wind came on, steadily increasing its might 
from moment to moment! At first it tore the tops of the 
waves into ragged lines, then rent the whole surface into frag¬ 
ments of every conceivable form, which rose, appeared and 
vanished, with the rapidity of thought, dancing like sprites 
among the lurid moving caverns of the sea ! A struggling 
vastness ! constantly broken by the flail of the tempest, and 
as often reunited, to be cleft still farther by a redoubled blast. 
The darkness thickened as the storm increased ; and when 
the lanthorn was lighted in the binnacle, and the night- 
watch set, the captain and passengers went below to their 
wine and anecdotes. Our company consisted of four per¬ 
sons. One was a singing-master from Connecticut, Texas, 
New Orleans, and St. Louis. He was such an animal as 
one would wish to find if he were making up a human me¬ 
nagerie ; so positive was he of step, so lofty in the neck, 
and dignified in the absurd blunders wherewdth he perpetu¬ 
ally corrected the opinions and assertions of others. 
Another was a Mr. Simpson, a young Scotchman of re¬ 
spectable family, a clerk in the service of the Hudson’s Bay 
Company. This was a fine fellow, twenty-five years of 
age, full of energy and good feeling, well-informed on gene¬ 
ral topics, and like most other British subjects abroad, 
troubled with an irrepressible anxiety at the growing power 
of the States, and an overwhelming loyalty toward the 
mother-country and its Sovereign skirts. The other per¬ 
sonages were the commander, Duncan, and the author. 
The Captain was an old British tar, with a heart full of 
generosity for his friends, and a fist full of bones for his ene¬ 
mies. A glass of cheer with a messmate, and a rope’s end 
for a disobedient sailor, were with him impromptu produc¬ 
tions, for which he had capacity and judgment; a hearty, 
five foot nine inch, burly, stout-chested Englishman, whom 
it was always pleasant to see and hear. 
This little company gathered around the cabin table, and 
all as one listened a moment to the beatings of the tempest 
