e my feelings so
worked upon as they were on that occasion. I went to my hammock with
an aching head and an almost broken heart. A retrospection of my life
afforded me no comfort. The numerous acts of depravity or pride, of
revenge or deceit, of which I had been guilty, rushed through my mind,
as the tempest through the rigging, and called me to the most serious
and melancholy reflections. It was some time before I could collect
my thoughts and analyse my feelings; but when I recalled all my
misdeeds--my departure from that path of virtue, so often and so
clearly laid down by my affectionate parent--I was overwhelmed with
grief, shame, and repentance. I considered how often I had been on the
brink of eternity; and had I been cut off in my sins, what would have
been my destiny? I started with horror at the dangers I had escaped,
and looked forward with gloomy apprehension at those that still
awaited me. I sought in vain, among all my actions since I left my
mother's care, one single deed of virtue--one that sprang from a good
motive. There was, it is true, an outward gloss and polish for the
world to look at; but all was dark within: and I felt that a keener
eye than that of mortality was searching my soul, where deception was
worse than useless.

At twelve o'clock, before I had once closed my eyes, I was called to
relieve the deck, having what is called the middle watch, i.e. from
midnight till four in the morning. We had, the day before, buried
a quarter-master, nick-named Quid, an old seaman who had destroyed
himself by drinking--no very uncommon case in His Majesty's service.
The corpse of a man who has destroyed his inside by intemperance is
generally in a state of putridity immediately after death; and the
decay, particularly in warm climates, is very rapid. A few hours after
Quid's death, the body emitted certain effluvia denoting the necessity
of immediate interment. It was accordingly sewn up in a hammock; and
as the ship lay in deep water, with a current sweeping round the bay,
and the boats being at the same time all employed at the dockyard, the
first lieutenant caused shot to be tied to the feet, and, having read
the funeral service, launched the body overboard from the gangway, as
the ship lay at anchor.

I was walking the deck, in no very happy state of mind, reflecting
seriously on parts of that Bible which for more than two years I had
never looked into, when my thoughts were called to the summons whic