YOYAGE.

Tanjore a private trader of 500 tons burden, bound (on her first voyage,) for Madras.and Calcutta ; and commanded by Captain G. H. Dacre, an able and experienced officer of the Royal Navy.

Besides my valued colleague and his wife, I had the happiness to reckon among my fellow-passengers, the pious and much esteemed Sir Richard Otley, now Chief Justice of the Island of Ceylon, and the Rev. Thomas and Mrs. Browning, of the Church Missionary Society, who were appointed to Kandy, in the same Island; whose friendship and society formed a principal part of our enjoyments on board, and rendered more tolerable the prospect of the confinement and tedium of so long a voyage.

On the evening of the following day we anchored off Deal, and gladly embraced the opportunity afforded us of passing another Christian Sabbath in our native land: the Rev. W. M. Harvard, formerly Missionary in Ceylon, shewed us much kindness; he introduced us to his congregations, commended us to their prayers, and when we re-embarked, on the morning of Monday the 22d of May, dismissed us with some valuable advice, respecting our voyage, and the climate in which we should probably have to reside and labour for many years.

Our passage down the Channel, was boisterous, and exceedingly trying to persons unaccustomed to the sea: I was the only passenger who did not suffer from sea-sickness, and was happy to have it in my power to render some assistance to my less favoured friends. The Lizard Point, the last English land we saw, died away from our view on the evening of the 31st of May; we then immediately entered into fine weather, and became more settled and comfortable in our new circumstances.

Our voyage was now become pleasant; the cabins were comfortable and clean, our ship being entirely new; the cuddy, or dining-room, was commodious; our meals were

regular, our food tolerable, our water good; and the party on board, on the whole, social and agreeable. By permission of the Captain, we held divine service once or twice every Sunday; on deck, if the weather permitted; if otherwise, under cover; the Church Missionary and ourselves taking it in rotation, to read and preach to the attentive congregation formed by the passengers, officers, and crew. We administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, three times during the voyage; we assembled for family worship, every morning and evening, in the cabin of our highly respected friend, Sir Richard Otley; and those of us who were Methodists, enjoyed every week the peculiar privilege of a social class-meeting. Thus our spiritual advantages during the voyage, were greater than those of any Missionaries under similar circumstances, I remember to have heard of; and we had reason to believe that our exertions were not lost on those who sailed with us; whilst our diligent attention to reading, study, and composition, happily beguiled the time, and enhanced the pleasantness of our hours of relaxation and mutual converse.

We passed through the Bay of Biscay without experiencing the rough weather we had anticipated: we entered the Tropics, extended our sails to the trade winds, which blow there all the year round, and sailed on the vast ocean as smoothly as on a lake: we had a distant view of St. Antonio, one of the Cape de Verd Islands, the only land we saw till the termination of our voyage; and were delighted by the interesting phenomena peculiar to those latitudes, such as, the thousands of flying-fish, the beautiful bonito and dolphin, the voracious shark, (of each of which we caught several,) the glories of the rising and setting sun; and, during the night, the phosphoric brightness of the waves and spray of the sea, the gradual sinking of the north polar star, and the rising of the beautiful constellations of the southern hemisphere.

Crossing the Equinoctial Line, we had the usual visit from Neptune and Amphitrite; and the ceremony of shaving with tar, and dashing about water in abundance, by the passengers and crew, was duly observed. Some of the

passengers, with myself, disapproving of so ridiculous and heathenish a custom, "more honoured in the breach than in th' observance," gained exemption from any participation in it, by paying a fine of some Spanish dollars each.

Baffling and contrary winds occasioned the loss of ten or fourteen days, in doubling the Cape of Good Hope. Beyond the Cape, in about 36° south latitude, we were overtaken by a tremendous gale of wind; it was impossible to carry sail, the sea rose in awful grandeur, and the mountains and valleys it presented to our view reminded me of the scenery of some parts of Derbyshire. Our vessel was tossed about like a cork or a splinter of wood; and rolled so from side to side, that the heaviest furniture and packages, not well secured, were loosened and dashed about in a manner at o.ce alarming and dangerous. In these seas we saw many grampusses and whales.

The gale and the favourable breezes which succeeded it, carried us so much to the eastward, that when we re-entered the Tropics, we were in the longitude of Point de Galle, and had consequently to keep a due northern course. We rode on the wings of the monsoon, till the 3d of September, when we saw the Island of Ceylon, having been only three months and three days, in making the voyage from land to land. During the whole of this period, we had only seen one sail-a homeward-bound vessel.

Sir Richard Otley and the other passengers for Ceylon, were desirous of landing at Point de Galle; but the wind blowing steadily from that quarter, made it impracticable to retrieve the few miles we had passed to the eastward of it: we therefore coasted along the south-east side of the Island, enjoying the smell of the land, which was extremely

grateful, and like the scent of new hay; and admiring the many romantic views of hill and dale, cultivated land and jungle, skirted by the cocoa-nut tree and the Palmyra, which every hour of our progress opened to us.

On Monday the 4th, we were visited by many of the natives, in their homely but ingenious canoes, who brought for sale various kinds of fruit, which, though unripe, proved very acceptable to us. Adam Munhi Rathana, and Alexander Dherma Rama, the two Buddhist priests, who had been instructed and baptised in England, and were our fellow-passengers in the Tanjore, proved of service here. By their interpretation we learned the news of the Island, and understood we might conveniently land our party for Ceylon, at Batticaloa, which was not far distant. The master of a large native vessel undertook to conduct us; and finding, that though under shortened sail, we went much quicker than themselves, they fastened a tow line to their fore-ship, to enable them to keep up with us. Towards evening the wind freshened a little, and we thought to give them a fair specimen of our superiority in sailing; but they became frantic with terror, and with violent shoutings and gesticulation, begged us to loosen the line, or their vessel would soon be in pieces, for it was already giving way. We could not but be amused with their alarm, from which, however, we quickly relieved them, and proud of our gallant ship, left them far behind.

The following day, we made Batticaloa, and came to anchor. Our excellent friend, Sir Richard, landed the same evening, accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Browning. The boat was too small to accommodate all the passengers, and it was too late in the evening to make more than one trip. The next day, Wednesday the 6th September, Sir Richard's secretary, and other passengers, with Adam, one of the Singhalese, went on shore, with all the baggage belonging

to the Ceylon party; and about 1 P.M. we weighed anchor, and stood out for sea, intending to make direct for Madras.

Although oppressively hot, it was a fine day: in the evening, however, we were neither surprised nor alarmed at a heavy storm of thunder, lightning, and rain, coming direct upon us; for we had seen much lightning every night, since we had been in the neighbourhood of land. It was dusk, and I was taking a farewell view of the tops of the mountains of the Island, fast diminishing in the distance, when I observed an unusually heavy cloud hastening towards us. I pointed it out to Captain Dacre, with whom I was conversing at the time: he replied that it was nothing; and, alluding to a luminous appearance in the centre of it, said that we might see through it. The rain began to pour in torrents, and drove all on deck to seek shelter in the cuddy, or below: the storm increased; and flash after flash of lightning followed each other in such quick succession, that, with little interruption, it would have been possible to have read by the glare.

I sat in the cuddy, watching the storm, till past eight o'clock; when a flash which illuminated the whole hemisphere, and was accompanied with loud cracking, and a tremendous noise, struck the ship, and killed upon the spot, two of the seamen on the fore-castle. I ran to the door, to ascertain the effects of the stroke, and heard the second mate, who was between decks, cry out, "Fire in the hold! Fire below!" The cargo had taken fire from the electric fluid. The scene which followed exceeds all description; it was one that can never be forgotten by any who witnessed it.

In a moment all hands were on deck; buckets were supplied in abundance; the pumps were manned and leaked, that the water might be discharged on the burning cargo; passengers and crew were all on the alert; I threw off my boat-cloak, which I had procured by rushing below