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impressment this time. We all declared that we would stand a hundred, rather than be taken on board of a man-of war. 'Very well,' says he'starboard a little, and keep her a little away, so as to let her go through the water; but keep the fore sheet to windward, so that we may appear only to have fallen off.' By this plan we gradually increased our distance from the frigate, and got more on her bow. All this while the boat was pulling towards us, rising and tossing on the sea, but still nearing us fast. As she came nearer to us, we let the lugger come up in the wind again for a short time, that we might not appear to be dodging away; and then, when the bowman was almost ready to lay in his oar, away we let her go through the water, so that she was left astern again. They could not well perceive this on board of the frigate, although the officer in the boat was very savage; for at one time he had his bow oar in, and his boat-hook out. At last the frigate, perceiving that we were apparently slipping away, put her helm up, and fired a shot across our bows. 'Now's your time, my boys,' said the captain; 'let draw the sheets, the breeze is strong; she must wait to pick up her boat, and that will give us a mile at least.' Up went the helm, and we made all sail right for the French coast. How's her head, Tom?" I replied; and Bramble resumed :—

"The frigate ran down to her boat, and then rounded to, to hoist it up the sea was heavy, and she was delayed a minute or two, although, to do them justice, they were very smart on board of her. As soon as the boat was up, she made all sail, and came foaming after us, as if she were in as great a rage as the captain and those on board of her. Every now and then she yawed to throw a shot at us from her bow-chasers; but that we didn't mind, as the yawing checked her way, and it's not very easy to hit a low vessel like a lugger in a toppling sea. Well, very soon we were not four miles from the French coast, so we hauled down our English colours and hoisted French. The frigate gained on us very fast; but we continued to steer on, and she in pursuit, until we were within gun-shot of the batteries. What the Frenchmen thought, we did not know; at all events they did not fire; and we steered right on as if we were chased, and the frigate followed after us, until we were within a

mile and a half of the batteries, when the frigate thought proper to haul her wind; then the battery opened upon her, and we could see that she was hulled more than once; and as she kept her wind along the shore, the other batteries opened upon her, and she got a good mauling. We saw her shift her fore-topsail yard as soon as she went about again, and we afterwards heard that she had several men hurt, which was a pity."

“And did not the batteries fire upon you?"

"No, for we kept the French colours up, and hove to within a mile of the coast. It was a lee-shore, and there was too much surf and sea for them to send off a boat and ascertain whether we were a French privateer or not; so there we lay till dusk, and then made sail again, and, being so close into the French shore, we picked up a good prize that very night. When the cruise was over, I was satisfied. I got my prize money; and then, as I knew our own coast well, I passed for pilot, and have served as one ever since. her head, Tom?"

"S.W. almost."

How's

"S.W. almost won't do, Tom. It's not quite S.W., quarter-south; so you must say S.W. southerly. D'ye understand?"

When Bessy knocked at my door the next morning, she cried out, laughing, "How's her head, Tom?" and those words made me jump up like lightning.

CHAP. XXV.

IN WHICH BRAMBLE POINTS OUT TO ME THAT SINGING IS PART OF the PROFESSION OF A PILOT.

IN about a fortnight from the time that Bramble commenced his tuition, I was quite perfect with the compass: his method certainly was very good, for, by such reiterated catechising, what you had to learn was graven on your memory. All day long the same system

was pursued. Even if dinner was on the table, the compass was on a chair close by; and as I was putting my fork to my mouth, much to Bessy's amusement, out would come the question, "How's her head, Tom?" Bramble soon gained his point: I could answer like lightning. But whether I was by the fire in-doors, or on the shingle beach, his system was ever the same: every time that Bramble opened his lips, I gained some information - he was never wearying, and often very amusing.

we had been con

One morning we were out on the beach versing with the other pilots, and examining the vessels in the offing with my glass when he pointed out to me, it being low neap tide, that the Godwin Sands were partially dry. "Tom," continued he, "of all the dangers, not only of the Channel, but in the wide ocean, there is none to be compared with those sands:- the lives that have been lost on them, the vessels that have been wrecked, and the property that has been sucked into them, would be a dozen kings ransoms; for you see, Tom, they are quicksands, and the vessel which goes on shore does not remain to be broken up, but in two tides she disappears, sinking down into the sands, which never give her or her cargo up again. There must be a mighty deal of wealth buried there, that is certain.

They say that once they were a flou

rishing fertile island, belonging to an Earl Godwin, whose name they now bear; it may be so the sea retreats from one place while it advances at another. Look at Romney marshes, where so many thousands of sheep are now fed; they run up many miles inland; and yet formerly those very marshes were an arm of the sea, which vessels rode in deep water, and sea-fights, I am told, took place. Howsomever, when the sea took the Godwin island to itself, it made the best trap for vessels that old Neptune now possesses, and he may consider it as the most productive spot in his dominions. Lord help us! what a deal of gold and merchandise must there be buried below yon yellow patch!"

"Do you never save any thing when vessels are run on shore there?"

"When they only tail on, we occasionally get them off again; but when once fixed, there's an end of it. Yes, we save life occa

sionally, but at great risk of our own.

a vessel ashore on these sands."

"Indeed! pray tell me how it was."

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I saved little Bessy from

"Why you see, Tom, it was just at the breaking out of the war. It was in this very month of October, '93, that I was out in a galley, with some others, looking for vessels. I had just then left off privateering, and got my warrant as pilot (for you know I did serve my prenticeship before I went a-privateering, as I told you the other night). Well, it was a blowing night, and we were running in for the Downs, intending to beach the galley and sleep on shore, for we had been out five days, and only put a pilot on board of one vessel. We were just to windward of the Sands, out there, where I am now pointing: the sea was very rough, but the night was clear, and the moon shone bright, when we saw a brig running down before the wind, under foresail and close-reefed topsails. Why, Bill, as she steers she'll be right between the Callipers,' said I to the man sitting by me. 'There's no mistake about that,' replied he 'let's haul the fore sheet to windward, and lay to, to hail him; he's coming right down upon us.' Well, we did so, and we hailed some time without any answer. At last a man looked over the gunnel, just as she was flying past us, and told us in Dutch to go to the devil. 'I think you'll go there if you don't look sharp, replied Bill. Come, my lads, we may as well follow her, and see if we cannot prevent mischief.' So we bore up after her, and hailed her several times, for we sailed very fast, and there was a scuffling on deck: I think that the captain was drunk. All this passed in less than five minutes; and then, as I knew would be the case, she struck on the sands, and with such force, that all her masts went over the side immediately. Now the sea rolls awfully over the shallow water of those sands, Tom. We had kept with her as far as we dared, and then hove to about two cables' lengths to windward of her, when she struck, for the ebb was still running strong under our lee, which only made the sea more cross and heavy. The waves inade a clean breach over her, and we knew that she would go to pieces in less than half an hour; but we did not like to leave so many to perish, without a trial to save them: so we

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