ent of
pin-money, as ladies were either kicked out of it or kissed out of it;
but his lordship, in the whole course of his legal practice, never saw a
captain of a man-of-war kissed out of forty men by two pretty Irish
girls. After this, who would not shout "_Erin go bragh_!"

Dashing with a fine breeze out of the harbour, I saw with joy the field
of fortune open to me, holding out a fair promise of glory and riches.
"Adieu!" said I, in my heart, "adieu, ye lovely Nova Scotians! learn in
future to distinguish between false glitter and real worth. Me ye
prized for a handsome person and a smooth tongue, while you foolishly
rejected men of ten times my worth, because they wanted the outward
blandishments."

We were ordered to Bermuda, and on our first quitting the port, steered
away to the southward with a fair wind at north-west. This breeze soon
freshened into a gale at south-east, and blew with some violence; but
after awhile it died away to a perfect calm, leaving a heavy swell, in
which the ship rolled incessantly. About eleven o'clock the sky began
to blacken; and, before noon, had assumed an appearance of the most
dismal and foreboding darkness; the sea-gulls screamed as they flew
distractedly by, warning us to prepare for the approaching hurricane,
whose symptoms could hardly be mistaken. The warning was not lost upon
us, most of our sails were taken in, and we had, as we thought, so well
secured everything, as to bid defiance to the storm. About noon it came
with a sudden and terrific violence that astonished the oldest and most
experienced seamen among us: the noise it made was horrible, and its
ravages inconceivable.

The wind was from the north-west--the water, as it blew on board, and
all over us, was warm as milk; the murkiness and close smell of the air
was in a short time dispelled: but such was the violence of the wind,
that, on the moment of its striking the ship, she lay over on her side
with her lee guns under water. Every article that could move was danced
to leeward; the shot flew out of the lockers, and the greatest confusion
and dismay prevailed below, while above deck things went still worse;
the mizen-mast and the fore and main top-mast went over the side; but
such was the noise of the wind, that we could not hear them fall; nor
did I, who was standing close to the mizen-mast at the moment, know it
was gone, until I turned round and saw the stump of the mast snapped in
two like a carrot.