ment hence. I cast my eyes to the Flag Ship. The fatal signal to execute the sentence of the court, was, that instant, being run up. I turned away my face, and two or three times paced across the forecastle deck. The cap was now drawn over the face of the prisoner. As I drew near him the words came from his lips, in earnestness of entreaty: "Oh God-have mercy on my soul !"

"Oh Christ-have mercy on my soul'!"

"O Jesus, into thy hands I commit my spirit!".

It was while one of the last two sentences was dwelling on the lips of this unfortunate man, that the officer, leaning over the forecastle deck, said, in rather a suppressed voice, "FIRE!" At the same moment the platform on which the prisoner stood, rose-the prisoner himself bounded a few feet in the air as the loud report of the cannon echoed over the waters; and, as if no space had intervened, the now senseless but one moment before praying man, was hanging, at the fore-yard-arm of the Saint Mary's! No muscle moved -no limb contracted. The concussion of the gun had indeed killed him; and there he hung the spectacle for a fleet to look upon, as evidence that a broken law will have its penalty, and to what an end a man may suddenly be brought, by the indulgence of ONE EBULLITION OF PASSION.

I walked to the cabin amid the stillness that now held the ship's decks, while the officers and crew were gazing in silence on the sad spectacle; and the other ships of the fleet in like array and silence, were beholding the scene. After a short conversation with Captain Saunders of the Saint Mary's, a signal, at twelve o'clock, was made by the Flag Ship "to haul down all colors at present flying," and soon after, a boat took me aboard the Cumberland.

At four o'clock Captain S. sent a boat for me, and I accompanied the funeral procession from the Saint Mary's, under the direction of the First Lieutenant, to a little green

island, (Salmedina,) not very distant out to sea, forming part of the coral reef that inhems our anchorage ground. There we interred the poor sailor boy, who, in a rash hour, sacrificed his life in his early years. It was his request that no stone-no letter-no mark should designate his grave. It has been made in the coral sand-it is level with the green plain of the island-his name is untold-though, on the ship's books it reads SAMUEL JACKSON.

On the Sabbath succeeding the melancholy exhibition before our fleet, in the execution of this unhappy man, I preached again aboard the Saint Mary's. I found the officers grave -the men depressed, perhaps superstitiously disheartened. A solemn lesson by a solemn scene had been read to that ship's company, as well as to the whole squadron, which none who witnessed it could ever forget; and to the crew of the Saint Mary's especially, was the transaction one oppressingly affecting, and thrilling even to terror. Perhaps some of the crew had even allowed their natural superstitions to work on their minds, in view of the melancholy scene which they had been called to witness on their own deck, and at the yard-arm of that beautiful ship. "I do assure you, sir," said the coxswain of the boat, which took me back to the Cumberland, after the services of the day were over, "I do assure you, sir, that I had not wept before for ten years; but I could not help it, on that day."

VARIETIES.

On the 22d of September, Captain Carpender, of the brig Truxton, whose loss we have already described, with other officers and some thirty men, returned to the squadron, from Vera Cruz. The men, with much fatigue, had marched from Tuxpan-were generally treated with kindness; but from exposure and probable imprudence in drink, most

of them were reduced to sickness; and a day or two after their arrival, I had the funeral services to perform over one of them, who died, as not a few seamen do die, with mania a potu. Strange that the government of the United States will not dispense with the spirit ration in the Navy, as well as to have done it in the Army. The delivering out of liquor two or three times a day on board our ships, will make the young seaman, however temperate when first entering the service, in a little time an habitual drinker, and induce a habit, which finally makes him a drunkard, and a sorrow to his family. Hundreds on hundreds of young men, who enter the service from the spirit of adventure, are thus finally ruined-disgracing themselves, dishonoring their kindred, and fearfully wrecking their hopes for this and the world to come. The broken hearts of a thousand mothers call loudly to those who legislate in the halls of Congress, to do away with this crying evil. The plea of necessity is all an absurdity, known to all who sail on board our ships, though such officers, as themselves drink, may advocate and allow the evil. I say there is no necessity for the continuing of this high reproach to our Navy, which is the cause of sorrow to thousands and ruin to many a valuable man. If there be cause, where is it? Many men of the ship's company do not draw their grog. Frequently two-thirds of a crew. And who are they? Do these men skulk from duty? Do they sustain less fatigue than others? Do they stand back when any deed of daring adventure, or of benevolent action, is to be done? No. They are as ready to volunteer as others, and are the first to do, and to do aright. But enough of this here, though the subject elsewhere ought to be and may be renewed.

The FLAG SHIP is always the centre of interest in a squadron; and of consequence the most frequented of any ship in the fleet. To her all letters for the different ships of the squadron are first conveyed. To her letters are sent, which

are to be despatched homeward. To her the officers, on their first arrival on the station, report. From her, the orders to all the fleet are issued. And to her, are all the reports made from the blockading ships, and from all other ships, or expeditions, on various and varied duty. The consequence is, that the ward-room mess of the Flag Ship has a larger number of visitors than that of any other vessel of the fleet. Their dinner table is usually favored by the presence of some friend of the mess. This always gives pleasure, for hospitality and cordial feelings among Navy officers of the different ships of the squadron, show themselves in all things, and becomingly, excepting, sometimes, in that false hospitality of drinking brandy together. Thus has the ward-room table of the Cumberland generally been favored by the officers of the different vessels of the Home Squadron. And thus are new acquaintances formed-various subjects discussed, connected with the profession and other subjects, military and civil, governmental and private, as well as the general topics and occurrences, in the fleet and of the day. It is consequently, I believe, a general wish of officers, to be on board the Flag Ship, thus designated, from the circumstance of her being the ship of the Commander-in-chief of the squadron or fleet, and wearing at her main-royal-head THE BROAD PENNANT, which a Commodore is alone entitled to display.

In the service of the United States, Commodores being of the same rank, but entitled to precedence and command according to the dates of their commissions, display, when in company, Broad Pennants designating this precedence, by virtue of the date of their commissions. The BLUE PENNANT takes the precedence of the RED PENNANT, and the Red Pennant ranks the WHITE PENNANT: and sometimes when different squadrons meet, Pennants of all three colors are seen, flying at the main-royal-head of the Flag Ship of each command.

Commodore Perry, who is junior in date of his commission to Commodore Conner, has lately joined our squadron. And although he has not a separate and independent command, he yet is authorized to wear at the main-royal-head of his ship, a Red Pennant. He has displayed this at the mainroyal-head of the Mississippi. There are, therefore, at this moment, October 10th, two Pennants flying in our squadron, the blue and the red.

It has for some time been expected that Commodore Perry will have the command of the Home Squadron, when Commodore Conner shall be relieved from this station. For the present, they are to act in concert, rather, Commodore P. is second in command. There is a glory encircling the name of Perry in the annals of our gallant Navy. Perry of the lakes was the elder brother of the present Commodore Perry; and no victory which has attended on our naval service, has given greater glory than his to our national flag.