of it. Often have I felt my own utter
helplessness--the impossibility that the strength of man could avail
me--when standing, it seemed, on the very brink of destruction; and in a
way beyond all calculation, I have found myself rescued and placed in
safety. It was for this reason that I have drawn the picture which I
have exhibited to you. Ungrateful indeed should I be, and negligent of
my bounden duty, did I not do my utmost to teach the lesson I have
learned from the merciful protection so often afforded me; for know that
I was one of those helpless infants! and the picture before us shows the
first scene in my life, of which I have any record; and this is the
moral I would inculcate--"That God is everywhere."

CHAPTER TWO.

A large ship was floating on the ocean. I use the term floating, for
she could scarcely be said to be doing anything else, as she did not
seem to be moving in the slightest degree through the water. Some straw
and chips of wood, which had been thrown overboard, continued hour after
hour alongside. She was, however, moving; but it was round and round,
though very slowly indeed, as a glance at the compass would have shown.
The sea was as smooth as glass, for there was not a breath of air to
ruffle it; there was, in fact, a perfect calm.

The ship was a first-class Indiaman, on her outward voyage to the
far-famed land of the East; and she belonged to that body of merchant
princes, the East India Company. In appearance she was not altogether
unlike a frigate with her long tier of guns, her lofty masts, her wide
spread of canvas, and her numerous crew; but her decks were far more
encumbered than those of a man-of-war, and her hold was full of rich
merchandise, and the baggage of the numerous passengers who occupied her
cabins. Her sails, for the present, however, were of no use; so, having
nothing else to do, for the sole purpose, it would seem, of annoying the
most sensitive portion of the human beings on board, they continued,
with most persevering diligence, flapping against the masts, while the
ship rolled lazily from side to side. The decks presented the
appearance of a little world shut out from the rest of mankind; for all
grades, and all professions and trades, were to be found on board. On
the high poop deck, under an awning spread over it to shelter them from
the burning rays of the sun, were collected the aristocratical portion
of the community. There were there to be found