the breaking of the oar which caused the mis- | then thought they had heard and seen the last hap. of us. Of course, under the circumstances, the joke was laughed at, while various ejaculations of wonder and astonishment were uttered as my shipmates listened to the narrative of our distresses and fortunate rescue. " Eight days on board the dingie!" exclaimed the captain. "You don't mean to say that you rode out the gale in the dingie? "We experienced nothing but a succession of marvellously fine weather, sir," I replied, "for eight days. On the morning of the ninth day, when we were providentially rescued by the Wyandotté, a tremendous gale sprung up from the northward, and continued, with snowstorms and sleet, for fifteen days. In fact, I may say until a day or two ago, for after the fury of the gale was broken, the weather continued tempestuous." I then learnt that the strong southerly current which we had thought would bear us to our destruction, had, in reality, been the cause of our preservation, although at the same time, it had prevented the search that had been made for us from being carried out so far as it would otherwise have been. When the gale broke, both vessels sailed for the Straits of Magellan; and the Beagle was again on her way to Hoste Island, when I espied her from the summit of Cape Desolation." "So, you see, young gentleman," said the captain, when the above explanations had been given on both sides, "had the current been less powerful than it was, you must have perished in the easterly gale, which, it appears, happily for you, did not extend more than a degree or so to the southward." "We got the swell from it, sir," I replied, on the third morning, and did not know what to make of it. We thought a gale was blowing northward from us." "And, I suppose, you young rascal," said the surgeon, jocosely, "while you and that young whelp of a boy, Bob, were drifting away at your case, and eating and drinking your fill of the good things in the dingie, which, by the way, to make the matter worse, you volunteered to fetch on shore, you never once gave a thought to the misery of us poor wretches in the hut? Jove!" he exclaimed, shrugging his shoulders, "that night nearly proved the death of me, and of others besides me. I shall never forget the cold and hunger I suffered never, as long as I live. And you spoilt our anticipated sport the next day, too. Ah! you have much to answer for on that score. All the oaths and execrations that were sent after you lie on your own head." "On the contrary, doctor," I replied, with a smile; "both Bob and I thought of you, and in spite of our own troubles, we laughed heartily at the idea of the rage you would be in when you found that the eatables and drinkables, and the blankets, which, I believe, you especially called for, were not forthcoming. "You did, ch? You laughed at the idea of my rage, eh?" replied the doctor, shaking his fist in pretended anger. "Well, my boy, I'm heartily glad you had the food and the blankets with you, at all events But-ah-ah-it was a bitter night to us in the tent on shore." I was informed that we were not missed until near noon on the day after our mishap, as I had anticipated, when the Beagle was immediately got under weigh, and she, with her pinnace and two cutters, together with the pinnace and two cutters of the Adventure, sailed round the coast in different directions in search of us; but discovering no signs of us after a day's search on the coasts of Hoste and the neighbouring islands, the Beagle (from some information received from the old boatswain, who said we had left the ship with only one oar, which he, after we had left, discovered was splintered and condemned) had put out to sea after us, rightly suspecting that the oar had broken, and that we had drifted helplessly southward. The captain and officers had discovered that a very strong, though comparatively narrow current, was setting southward, and suspecting that we had been caught in it, they had determined to follow its course. Hardly, however, had they lost sight of land, on the second day of our absence, when a strong gale sprung up from the eastward, raising a sea in which it would have been impossible for the largest and stoutest boat on board the ship to live; and, of course, supposing that the dingie, with its heavy load, must have foundered inmediately after the gale sprung up, the Beagle, after having cruised about for several hours, and having had her foretopsail and jib blown clean out of the bolt ropes, without having seen any signs of the wreck of our boat, had been put about, and returned to her anchorage, "Oh! the skipper approves of our Jamaica, giving us up for lost. "D" (dead) was in- does he? Well, he has a good taste. He shall scribed against our names in the crew-list, and have a gallon or so as a present, without 'dicka brief memorandum was inserted in the log-ering' for it with ile, and his oars shall be rebook, to the effect that Mr. M. -, midship- returned too. I'll go on board with you myself man, and Bob --, ship-boy, had perished at to-morrow morning, for I should like to thank sea while on boat duty, and our shipmates the skipper for his kindness, and, morcover, I've While the above conversation, which occupied but a few minutes- though it has taken a longer time to write down was going on, the dingie, with Bob on board, was hoisted to the ship's davits, and Bob was as warmly welcomed back as I had previously been. "Those oars belong to the Wyandotté," I observed, and then I related Captain Pandrake's message to my own captain, and spoke of his great kindness to us. A man-of-war, unless in chase, or bound on some special service, is seldom in a great hurry, and the captain replied: a fancy to see what the inlet of which you speak is like." as may be anticipated, much of the conversation turned upon the mutual adventures of Bob and myself in an open boat, in the bleak, dreary Antartic Ocean. The Beagle was consequently hove-to off the Cape until daylight, when I went on board the Wyandotte with the captain in the pinnace, and To the best of my belief Captain Robert returned Captain Pandrake his oars, and pre- B is still living and hearty. I know that sented him with six case-bottles of Jamaica. he was three years ago, and he is very far from The worthy skipper, however, positively re- being an old man either. Should this narrative fused to accept the rum as a present. He said ever meet his eye, I am confident that he will that no one should ever say that he took pay-attest to the accuracy with which I have related ment for rendering a service to a brother sailor in distress; therefore, to gratify his humour, our captain accepted a barrel of seal oil in exchange for the spirits, and having shaken hands heartily once more with the honest skipper and crew of the Wyandotté, I returned with my captain to the Beagle, which forthwith proceeded on her voyage. We remained nine months longer off the dreary, desolate coast of Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, and then gladly enough sailed for England. Some two years later, having duly served my time as a midshipman, I " passed," and quitted the service. Many years elapsed ere I saw little Bob again, and when we did meet again, he was no longer little Bob" but stout, burly, Captain Robert B- commanding a fine West Indiaman. I spent the evening at his house in the environs of London, a snug little villa, over which his mother -a comely, matronly old lady, happily presided, and I was introduced to his married sister and her husband - the curate of an adjoining parish. They formed together a comfortable, happy, cosey family circle, and, | the several circumstances, which have never heretofore been published. There may have been, in fact, I know that there was, on the return of the Beagle and the Adventure to England, a newspaper paragraph or two written relative to the drifting away of one of the Beagle's boats, off Cape Horn, with a midshipman and a ship-boy on board; but as a midshipman and ship-boy were no such important personages that their mishap should interest the general public, especially as the mishap terminated in their being restored in safety to their ship, and as no one except Captain Robert B- and the present writer, could narrate the circumstances attending our eight days' cruise in an open boat in the Antarctic Ocean, and as the present writer had not then embraced, and did not embrace till many years afterwards, the "idle profession of an author," none beyond our own shipmates on board the Beagle and the Adventure, and our own immediate friends, have ever, until now, heard any further particulars of our adventure than those same newspaper paragraphs afforded. J. A. M. From the Examiner, 29th Dec. We must not forget either that anger may enter even celestial minds, and that Count Bismarck's successful tricks have doubtless left a very sore feeling behind them. NaSUCH was the comforting declaration poleon III. is in no better humour for havwhich assured France and Europe that a ing been humoured to some small extent régime of peace and prosperity was opening, having been allowed to act the part of umand that if the sword were not turned into pire when the reality had departed; having the plougshare, the ploughshare should at been deferred to in Saxony, and the dim least not be displaced by the sword. Some discrowned King, his protégé, received with years have passed, not without great wars, what must be peculiarly pleasing honours at and, though no war menaces France ex- Berlin, and regaled with the " Saxon Hymn" cept from herself, the same voice proclaims by Prussian soldiers, while in all essenthe necessity of turning her whole popula- tials he was cheated and disregarded. This lation to the profession of arms. It is true was an irritant, not a salve to his wound. that nearly all the continent is now armed, The best chance of a lengthened preservabut France has been the general armament, tion of peace is the very general reluctance and even now she knows well that no Bis- of France-though France also, there can marck and no Gortschakoff will, unassail- be no doubt, looks on the Prussian conjurer ed, lift a finger against her. It is but with no friendly eye to sacrifice the prosnatural, then, to suppose that the real ob- pects of the country to revenge for an ject of the threatened measure is a con- affront, and dissatisfaction with the event of templated attack on some other Power. ill-planned diplomatic and military enter One has lately outwitted France, and, with- prises. There is, indeed, a very general out her consent, aggrandized itself suddenly disapprobation in the half-free portion of and enormously. The Mexican failure may the press and probably in the country. have had its share in producing this resolu- Many deputies, it is said, talk loudly in detion to be more powerful for the future, and precation of the measure. But if it come so may the ripening of the Eastern ques- to the vote, the majority will, no doubt, be tion; but we can little doubt that the Prus- found faithful. sian power is the immediate aim as well as Our own duty is evident, to neglect nothcause of the proposal. If the Legislative ing which can contribute to secure us against Body be as obsequious as usual, and the all chances. Europe cannot remain for an desire of the heart of "the man of peace "indefinite time a collection of vast standing be fully carried out, he would hardly be a armies without a spark falling where it will rash prophet who should assign 1867- or explode some of the powder, and, with the still more probably 1868," as Dr. Cumming best intention to keep out of the way, it may We have no says for war between France and Ger- be impossible for us to do so. many. For the first time in his reign, the idea, and happily no need, of "arming the Emperor has been seriously baffled, has fail- people," but let us improve our existing ed in his enterprises and plans, and received means to the utmost, see to our militia, utilan unpleasant impression of mortality. He ize our volunteers, and make our regular wishes to feel himself once more infallible, force such as desirable men may elect to unquestionable, and invincible. Hence it is serve in. Above all, let us see to our fleet, that he cannot be at ease without a million which is already unequalledas any Power of soldiers, his mind is full of military pre- misguided enough to believe Sir John Pakparations, reckons up reserves, ruminates ington would probably find to its cost- and rifles, neque decedit æratâ triremi, like black which may easily be made as prepondercare. Peace and her interests must wait ant" as ever. Then, let who will be the for a more convenient season. But will firebrand of Europe, we can calmly though there be a time for such a word? sorrowfully await the conflagration. No. 1186. Fourth Series, No. 47. 23 February, 1867. POETRY: Somebody's darling, 450. Our Parting Kick, 450. Child's Song in Winter, 472. BOOKS PUBLISHED AT THIS OFFICE SENT FREE OF POSTAGE. 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