ose poor girls, cruelly
murdered in their youth and beauty, was enough certainly to make the
hardest heart on board bleed, and yet how much worse might have been
their fate. A prize crew was put on board the brig, but of course the
cabin was held sacred till the murdered people were committed to their
ocean grave. At first it was proposed to bury them on shore, but a
strong force would have been required had we landed, and as their
remains might afterwards have been disturbed, it was determined to
commit them to the deep. For this purpose the next morning the Captain
came on board the brig with most of the officers, the sailmaker having
in the meantime closely fastened up each form in several folds of stout
canvas, with a heavy shot at the feet. As Mr Noalles informed the
Captain the deceased were Protestants, he used the burial service from
the Church of England prayer book. The words, indeed, sounded
peculiarly solemn to our ears. All present probably had heard it over
and over again when a shipmate had died from wounds in battle or
sickness brought on in the service, but their deaths were all in the
ordinary way. These people had been cut off in a very different manner.
I remember particularly those words, "In the midst of life we are in
death." They made an impression on me at the time, and more so from
what afterwards occurred. As they were uttered the old man's corpse was
allowed to glide off slowly into the calm ocean, into the depths of
which it shot down rapidly. The bodies of the poor girls were launched
one by one in the same manner, and I could not help jumping into the
rigging to watch them, as the two shrouded figures went down and down in
the clear water, till gradually they were lost to view. Most of us then
returned on board the frigate. Such stores as the brig required were
sent to her, as well as a prize crew, and she was then despatched to
Amboyna to bring the frigate certain stores which it appeared she
required. As our ship was supposed to be cruising in another direction,
we remained on board, in the hopes of falling in with her. A light
breeze towards evening enabled the brig to get under weigh three or four
days after the circumstances I have just related. Esse, who drew very
well, made a sketch of her as she stood along the land, the rays of the
setting sun shedding a pink glow on her canvas, while the whole ocean
was lighted up with the same rosy hue. One side of the picture was