HAPPY DELIVERANCE. 
311 
times averted the threatened danger by discharging 
their artillery at the waterspout. Having a loaded 
musket in the boat, they at first thought of firing 
at the advancing column; but as it approached, 
the agitation of the water was so great, and the 
phenomenon so appalling, that their hearts failed ; 
and when it was, according to their own account, 
within a hundred yards of their boat, and advancing 
directly upon them, they laid the musket down. 
The man at the helm now shut his eyes, and his 
companions threw themselves flat on their faces in 
the bottom of the boat. This is the exact position 
in which a captive, doomed to death, awaited the 
fatal stroke of a victor by whom he had been over¬ 
come in battle. After waiting in fearful suspense 
several minutes, the helmsman, hearing a rushing 
noise, involuntarily opened his eyes, and saw the 
column passing, with great velocity, at a dis¬ 
tance from the stem of the boat. He immediately 
called his companions, who joined not only in 
watching its receding progress, but in acknow¬ 
ledging the protection of the Almighty in their 
preservation. 
When returning from the Sandwich Islands on 
board the ship Russell, in 1825, we experienced a 
happy deliverance from one of these wonderful and 
alarming objects. Our Sabbath afternoon worship 
on the quarter-deck had just terminated; Mrs. 
Ellis was lying on a sofa, and, observing unusual 
indications of terror in the countenance of the boy 
at the helm, she said, “ What is it that alarms 
you ?” He answered, in hurried accents, “ I see 
a whirlwind coming,” pointing to a cloud a little 
to the windward of the ship. His actions attracted 
the notice of the officer on deck, who instantly 
sent an able seaman to the helm, and called the 
