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earned when combating the enemies of their country,-far more worthy foes than the piratical traders in human flesh whom it is now their lot to harass and pursue. From amongst the many gallant actions performed in the execution of this service one or two may well be selected to illustrate our subject. Commodore Crawford's defence of the Netuno, a captured slaver, has already been given; and I will now proceed to narrate Captain Ramsay's spirited capture of a powerful slave vessel on the 22nd April 1831. The Black Joke brig was at anchor at Fernando Po, where her commander, Lieutenant William Ramsay, learned from the master of a colonial vessel that he had just left in the Old Calabar River a large armed Spanish slave-brig, which he described as the finest slaver that had been on the coast for some years. She carried one large pivot and four broadside guns, and had a complement of more than seventy picked men; his informant further stated that he had frequently met her officers on shore, and that they made no secret of their intention of fighting, if necessary, laughing at the idea of being taken by the Black Joke, of whose force (one long pivot gun and one carronade, with a complement of forty-four officers and men) they were well acquainted, and entertained no apprehension of the two gun-brigs on the station, which were notorious for their bad sailing.

Immediately on receiving this intelligence, Lieutenant Ramsay proceeded to Old Calabar and commenced a strict blockade, anchoring the Black Joke every night at the entrance of the river, and weighing before daylight and running out with the land breeze far enough not to be seen from the shore. This plan had been followed for a few days, when on the morning of the 25th April, a large brig was seen from the mast-head under all sail standing out of the river. The Black Joke's topsails were immediately lowered, so that the stranger came within sight from her deck before he himself could discern his expectant antagonist. He then altered his course so as to cross the Black Joke's bow, and pass between Fernando Po and the main land. All sail was now made in chase, and every requisite preparation for a severe contest, in doing which a spirit was evinced both by officers and men that left but little doubt as to the result, whatever might be the stranger's superiority of force. The slaver sailed so well that it was 9 P.M. before the Black Joke could get within range, indeed, if she had not been becalmed it is very doubtful whether she would not have effected her escape. A shot, however, was now fired ahead of her as a signal to bring to, which she immediately returned with three of her broadside guns, and the wind then fell so light that both vessels had recourse to their sweeps, maintaining a running fight until some time past mid

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night. At about 1.30 A.M. of the 26th, the Black Joke was so near that it became evident a close action must ensue, upon which the Spaniard hauled up his lower sails, and with his sweeps so managed his vessel as to keep up a determined firealmost every shot telling upon the spars, rigging, and sails of the Black Joke. Lieutenant Ramsay, in consideration of the heavier weight of his adversary, and actuated by a desire to spare as much as possible the lives of the wretched slaves, resolved upon boarding, and a light air fortunately favoured his intentions. Meanwhile the men were ordered to lie down and shelter themselves from the enemy's fire. Two steady men were appointed to lash the vessels together, the two guns were loaded with grape, and then ordered to fire directly the word "Board" was given. All being prepared, the Black Joke ran alongside the Spaniard, the preconcerted order was given, the guns fired, and Lieutenant Ramsay, with the mate and ten men, simultaneously leaped on board; but from the force with which the two vessels met, they separated again before the rest of the boarders could follow. The position of the little band on the hostile deck, opposed to more than seventy antagonists, was extremely critical, when Mr. Hinde, a midshipman not fifteen years of age, who was the only officer left on board the Black Joke, with extraordinary presence of mind, ordered all hands to the sweeps, pulled alongside, got the vessels lashed, and then boarded, leaving only one or two wounded men behind in their own vessel. With this reinforcement the combat was speedily decided: those who continued to offer resistance were cut down, and the rest ran below and begged for quarter.

The prize proved to be a brig of three hundred tons, one of the most beautiful vessels ever seen afloat, mounting five eighteenpounders, with a complement of seventy-seven officers and men, of whom fifteen were killed or drowned, four desperately wounded, and several others severely and slightly. The Black Joke lost only one man killed, and Lieutenant Ramsay, Mr. Bosanquet, the mate, and five men, were wounded. Over the sufferings of the unfortunate four hundred and ninety-six slaves on board we will draw a veil : suffice it to say that from the necessity of confining them below during the chase and subsequent action twenty-six were suffocated, and of the remainder, one hundred and seven were found in a deplorable state from their confinement and want of air, and of them sixty died after they were landed at Fernando Po.

Lieutenant Ramsay and Mr. Bosanquet, the mate, were promoted for this service in the following August.-GIFFARD.

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THE most interesting of all the Greeks are the mariners, because their pursuits and their social condition are so nearly the same as those of their famous ancestors; you will say that the occupations of commerce must have smoothed down the salience of their minds; and this would be so perhaps if their mercantile affairs were conducted according to the fixed business-like routine of Europeans; but the ventures of the Greeks are surrounded by such a multitude of imagined dangers (and, from the absence of regular marts in which the true value of merchandize can be ascertained, are so entirely speculative), and besides, are conducted in a manner so wholly determined upon by the wayward fancies and wishes of the crew, that they belong to enterprise rather than to industry, and are very far indeed from tending to deaden any freshness of character. The vessels in which war and piracy were carried on during the years of the Greek Revolution, became merchantmen at the end of the war,-but the tactics of the Greeks, as naval warriors, were so exceedingly cautious, and their habits as commercial mariners are so wild, that the change has been more slight than you may imagine. The first care of Greeks, when they undertake a shipping enterprise, is to procure for their vessel the protection of some European power; this is easily managed by a little intriguing with the dragoman' of one of the embassies of Constantinople, and the craft soon glories in the ensign of Russia, or the dazzling Tricolour, or the Union Jack; thus, to the great delight of their crew, she enters upon the ocean world with a flaring lie at her peak, but the appearance of the vessel does no discredit to the borrowed flag; she is frail, indeed, but is gracefully built and smartly rigged; she always carries guns, and, in short, gives good promise of mischief and speed. The privileges attached to the vessel and her crew, by virtue of her borrowed flag, are so great as to imply a liberty wider even than that which is often enjoyed in our more strictly civilized countries, so that there is no good ground for saying that the development of the true character belonging to Greek mariners is prevented by the dominion of the Ottoman ; these men are free too from the power of the great capitalist-a power more withering than despotism itself to the enterprises of humble adventurers. The capital employed is supplied by those whose labour is to render it productive; the crew receive no wages, but

have all a share in the venture, and in general, I believe, they are the owners of the whole freight; they choose a captain with whom they trust just power enough to keep the vessel on her course in fine weather, but not quite enough for a gale of wind; they also elect a cook and a mate; the cook whom we had on board was particularly careful about the ship's reckoning; and when, under the influence of the keen sea-breezes, we grew fondly expectant of an instant dinner, the great author of pilafs would be standing on deck with an ancient quadrant in his hands, calmly affecting to take an observation. But then, to make up for this, the captain would be exercising a controlling influence over the soup, so that all in the end went well. Our mate was a Hydriot, a native of that island rock which grows nothing but mariners and mariners' wives. His character seemed to be exactly that which is generally attributed to the Hydriot race: he was fierce and gloomy, and lonely in his ways. One of his principal duties seemed to be that of acting as counter-captain, or leader of the opposition, denouncing the first symptoms of tyranny, and protecting even the cabin-boy from oppression ;— besides this, when things went on smoothly, he would begin to prognosticate evil, in order that his more light-hearted comrades might not be puffed up with the seeming good fortune of the moment. It seemed to me that the personal freedom of these sailors, who own no superiors except those of their own choice, is as like as may be to that of their seafaring ancestors. And even

in their mode of navigation they have admitted no such an entire change as you would suppose probable; it is true that they have so far availed themselves of modern discoveries as to look to the compass instead of the stars, and that they have superseded the immortal gods of their forefathers by St. Nicholas' in his glasscase, but they are not yet so confident either in their needle or their saint as to love an open sea, and they still hug their shores as fondly as the Argonauts of old. Indeed, they have a most unsailor-like love for the land, and I really believe that in a gale of wind they would rather have a rock-bound coast on their lee, than no coast at all. According to the notions of an English seaman, this kind of navigation would soon bring the vessel on which it might be practised to an evil end. The Greek, however, is unaccountably successful in escaping the consequences of being "jammed in," as it is called, upon a lee shore. These seamen, like their forefathers, rely upon no winds, unless they are right astern, or on the quarter; they rarely go on a wind if it blows at all fresh, and if the adverse breeze approaches to a gale, they at once fumigate St. Nicholas and put up the helm. The consequence of course is, that under the ever-varying winds of the

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Egean, they are blown about in the most whimsical manner. used to think that Ulysses, with his ten years' voyage, had taken his time in making Ithaca; but my experience in Greek navigation soon made me understand that he had had, in point of fact, a pretty good "average passage." Such are now the mariners of the Ægean; free, equal amongst themselves, navigating the seas of their forefathers with the same heroic and yet childlike spirit of venture, the same half-trustful reliance upon heavenly aid, they are the liveliest images of true old Greeks that time and the new religions have spared to us.- Eöthen.'

1. Dragoman, pl. dragomans, an interpreter. The term is in general use in the Levant, and in Arabia, Persia, &c.

2. Ottoman designates something that pertains to the Turks or to their government; as, the Ottoman power or empire. The word originated in Othman or Osman, the name of a sultan who assumed the government about the year 1300.

3. Hydra, an island of the Grecian Archipelago, off the coast of Argolis from which it is six miles distant. It is a mere rock, so utterly barren as to contribute nothing whatever to the maintenance of its inhabitants, nor in all probability would it ever have been peopled, unless its insular situation and the excellence of its harbour had pointed it out as a safe place of refuge from the oppressions of the Turks, and a favourable situation for commercial pursuits. The Hydriots, most of whom are Albanians, and not true Greeks, were, during their prosperity, which commenced in the beginning of the French war, the boldest seamen of all Greece, and acquired large sums by privateering. During the war of independence they earned for themselves

the character of being the most efficient and intrepid sailors in the Greek navy, and their bravery contributed in no smali degree to the successful issue of that contest.

4. The article an seems quite superfluous, but it stands so in the original.

5. St. Nicholas is the great patron of Greek sailors; a small picture of him, enclosed in a glass case, is hung up like a barometer at one end of the cabin.

6. The Argonauts were those who sailed under Jason in the ship Argo to Colchis in quest of the golden fleece of Phryxus. The original facts on which this mythological story is founded cannot now be recalled; but it is generally supposed to represent the result of some bold commercial expedition that overstepped the previous discoveries of its age, or more probably still, the series of enterprises by which "Greek maritime knowledge was extended to the furthest shores of the Euxine." The expedition is said to have taken place 79 years before the taking of Troy, that is, 1263 B.C.

7. The new religions here referred to are the Christian and the Mahometan.

THE SEA.

THE sea, the sea, the open sea,
The blue, the fresh, the ever free:
Without a mark, without a bound,

It runneth the earth's wide regions round:
It plays with the clouds, it mocks the skies,
Or like a cradled creature lies.

I'm on the sea, I'm on the sea,

I am where I would ever be,

With the blue above and the blue below,

And silence whereso'er I go.

If a storm should come and awake the deep,
What matter? I shall ride and sleep.

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