ed element. At every plunge she took, the
bow divided a mass of water, that appeared, at each instant, to become
more vast and more violent in its rushing; and more than once the
struggling hull was nearly buried forward, in some wave which it had
equal difficulty in mounting or penetrating.

The mariners narrowly watched the smallest movements of their vessel. Not
a man left her deck, for hours. The superstitious awe, which had taken
such deep hold of the untutored faculties of the chief mate, had not been
slow to extend its influence to the meanest of her crew. Even the accident
which had befallen their former Commander, and the sudden and mysterious
manner in which the young officer, who now trod the quarter-deck, so
singularly firm and calm, under circumstances deemed so imposing, had
their influence in heightening the wild impression The impunity with which
the "Caroline" bore such a press of canvas, under the circumstances in
which she was placed, added to their kindling admiration; and, ere Wilder
had determined, in his own mind, on the powers of his ship, in comparison
with those of the vessel that so strangely hung in the horizon, he was
himself becoming the subject of unnatural and revolting suspicions to his
own crew.

Chapter XV.

----"I' the name of truth,
Are ye fantastical, or that indeed
Which outwardly ye show?"--_Macbeth._

The division of employment that is found in Europe, and which brings, in
its train, a peculiar and corresponding limitation of ideas, has never yet
existed in our country. If our artisans have, in consequence been less
perfect in their several handicrafts, they have ever been remarkable for
intelligence of a more general character. Superstition is however, a
quality that seems indigenous to the ocean. Few common mariners are exempt
from its influence, in a greater or less degree; though it is found to
exist, among the seamen of different people, in forms that are tempered by
their respective national habits and peculiar opinions. The sailor of the
Baltic has his secret rites, and his manner of propitiating the gods of
the wind; the Mediterranean mariner tears his hair, and kneels before the
shrine of some impotent saint, when his own hand might better do the
service he implores; while the more skilful Englishman sees the spirits of
the dead in the storm, and hears the cries of a lost messmate in the gusts
that sweep the waste he navigates. Even the better instruc