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would have attended. Yet, when I consider how great difficulty I have always found in bringing men. of the same age and rank to the sacrament at Hodnet, perhaps I have no reason to be surprised. On talking with one of the under officers in the evening, he told me that more would have staid, if they had not felt shy, and been afraid of exciting the ridicule of their companions. The same feeling, I find, kept one at least, and perhaps more, of the young cadets and writers away, though of these there were only two or three absentees, the large majority joining in the ceremony with a seriousness which greatly pleased and impressed me. And the same may be said of all the midshipmen who were old enough to receive it. One of the young cadets expressed his regret to me that he had not been confirmed, but hoped that I should give him an opportunity soon after our arrival at Calcutta. On the whole, the result of the experiment, (for such it was considered,) has been most satisfactory; and I ought to be, and I hope am, very grateful for the attention which I receive, and the opportunities of doing good, which seem to be held out to me. I am the more so, because Mr. B

had, a few days before, predicted that I should have not above one or two communicants at most; and added, as a sort of apology for himself, that he was brought up in the Church of Scotland, and there-fore held all ceremonies superfluous and unavailing. I reminded him that his Church and mine agreed in the efficacy and necessity of occasionally receiving the Communion, but the conversa

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tion went no further. Possibly he meant that the forms required by the Church of England, where they differ from those of Scotland, were such as he did not approve of. If so, as I have reason to believe that many persons, both in Scotland and on the Continent, have strange notions of our ceremonies, his having been an accidental spectator of them, (for he was on the poop all the time) may remove some of his prejudices. I observed, indeed, that many of the seamen, though they did not join us, looked on after they had left the quarter-deck with much seeming interest, and I almost hope, that if another opporunity occurs before our landing in Bengal, more will attend. Of the Of the young men who did attend, I was happy to observe that they had all religious books in their hands in the course of the evening, and that they appeared, indeed, much impressed.

How different is the treatment which I meet with in the exercise of my duties on ship-board from that of which Martyn' complains! A great change, indeed, as every body tells me, has, since his time, occurred in the system of a sea life. Most

1 Henry Martyn went out to India, as Chaplain on the Bengal Establishment, in the year 1805. He translated the Testament and Book of Common Prayer into Hindoostanee; and on finding that the exist ing translation of the former into Persian was unfit for general use, he undertook a journey into Persia, and, with the assistance of some intelligent natives, completed a new version of the Testament, and also translated the Psalms into that language. He died at Tocat, on his return to England, in the year 1812. A memoir of his life, with his journal, has been published by the Reverend John Sargent.-ED.

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commanders of vessels are now anxious to keep up, at least, the appearance of religion among their men; and, in many cases, the danger is said to be, not from neglect, but fanaticism. To this the custom (which is now extremely common both in the navy and the merchant service,) of prayer meetings among the crew, where each, in turn, delivers an extempore address to the Almighty, must greatly contribute; and I hardly know whether a custom, (however well meant, and however comfortable, and often most edifying to men thrown into close contact with each other, surrounded by dangers and hardships, and removed from all regular ministry of the Gospel,) has not these benefits counterbalanced, by the self-conceit, the enthusiasm, and divisions in faith and doctrine which may arise from it. Yet the practice, after all, is one, which none could venture to forbid, and the dangers of which may be materially abated by supplying these good men with some better guides to devotion than their own extemporaneous invention-and, still more, by a regular performance of Divine service according to the English Liturgy, wherever, and whenever this is possible. On board the Grenville, though the men are extremely orderly, no prayer meetings have been yet thought of, nor, for the reasons which I have mentioned, do I wish for them. The men, however, are extremely well supplied with bibles, prayer-books, and religious tracts, which many of them read aloud to their less educated messmates every evening. The boys sent by the Marine Society have regular instruction in the

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Scriptures every day; and the schoolmaster, Peacock, is an excellent man, who, I have reason to believe, does much good among his messmates, and is very assiduous and intelligent in teaching those who are immediately under his care. Of Captain Manning himself I had previously heard an excellent character, and find every thing true which had been reported.

August 11.-We had a good night, and a smooth though rapid progress. I had the happiness of hearing, for the first time, my dear little Emily repeat a part of the Lord's Prayer, which her mother has been, for some days past, engaged in teaching her. May He who, "from the mouth of babes and sucklings" can bring forth His praise, inspire her heart with every thing pure and holy, and grant her grace betimes, both to understand and love His name!

After writing out my usual translation, I occupied myself during the morning in mastering, by help of Gilchrist's preposterously arranged vocabulary, some of the Hindoostanee poetry in his "Guide." I have thus more and more convinced myself that, what is called, the florid Eastern style, is chiefly to be found in translations, and that the characteristics of the originals are often rather flatness and vapidity, than exuberance of ornament. But I really feel my liking for these studies increase as, by progress, they become less difficult. This is, however, too early a day for me to form

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any fixed opinion on either Hindoo or Persian literature.

August 14.-We passed some sea-weed this morning, which was considered as a singular and perplexing occurrence, since no Saxenberg was ever suspected in our present neighbourhood. It probably came from Tristan d'Acunha. Several whales, some of them of a large size, played round the ship for above half an hour. I obtained a very favourable view of one of them, which struck me from its perfect resemblance to the grampus which I had seen before, both in shape, and the colour and smoothness of its skin. The water which it blew through its nostrils appeared in a form something different from what I had expected. I had imagined, I hardly know why, that it was to be a small high slender jet-d'eau, whereas it escaped in a thick white cloud, like the steam from an engine, and with pretty nearly the same noise. I was pleased to witness the apparent happiness of these poor animals, which were supposed to be two old ones with one or more young; and rejoiced that no southern whaler was in sight. While we were gazing at these leviathans, one of the midshipmen caught a sea-bird on a hook; it was said to be a Cape hen," (I believe a Gannet,) a little larger than a large goose, with brown glossy feathers, large white eyes with black pupils, a broad yellow bill, very slender legs, broad webbed feet, and long wings resembling those of a kite. It bled a little, but seemed very slightly injured by the hook.