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Enchantress is said to be the most valuable that has come out for some time, and Captain Roxburgh is the principal owner of the ship. The following is a list of the passengers saved :

Cabin: Mr. and Mrs. Buller, Mrs. Yates, Mr. Bogle, Mr. Anstey, Miss Dixon, Miss Smith, Madame Rous, Mrs. and Miss Rens, Mr. M. Auther, Mr. Lightfoot, surgeon, Captain Roxburgh, and Mr. Toby, chief officer.Steerage: Mr. and Mrs. Burns, with three sons and one daughter, Mr. Edward, and the cabin steward and three boys.

"Of the fate of the crew and one steerage passenger not a shadow of a doubt can be entertained,"

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THE SAILOR'S LAST SHILLING.

MR. EDITOR,-You are well acquainted with the wise and benevolent arrangement of the Merchant Seamen's Bible Society, with regard to the supplying of sailors leaving England with copies of the Holy Scriptures. Mr. Petley, Lieutenant R. N. the Society's devoted Agent at Gravesend, is well known to you, and deservedly esteemed, and his statement respecting the readiness with which seamen purchase the Holy Scriptures from him, will therefore be received with more interest.

Mr. Petley endeavours to visit every ship leaving the port of London, during its stay at Gravesend, and his visitations, therefore, are almost daily, a journal of which cannot fail to be instructive. Yesterday (Nov. 4) I was conversing with him on the subject of his success, and I was greatly impressed with some of his statements concerning sailors. Cases of a most interesting character he related; and, among the rest, two particularly that had occurred that morning, deserve a record in your PILOT, as furnishing important instruction.

Mr. P. stated, that on board one ship a sailor, delighted at the idea of possessing a copy of the Word of God before he again left England, cheerfully parted with his last shilling for a New Testament, thus offered to him from the Merchant Seamen's Bible Society. He seemed to look upon it as indeed a treasure to carry with him to remote regions of the globe.

Another also, who had reserved his last shilling, which

he had kept at the bottom of his chest, gladly engaged to purchase a Testament on the same terms. After a considerable search, however, he could not find his shilling, and manifested, therefore, no small measure of disappointment. Happily, however, he obtained the loan of a shilling from an officer, and thus gained the desired treasure of the Word of God.

Were the last shillings of sailors ever so well laid out? Surely not, except in the purchase of the same record of eternal life; and every pious reader will not suppress the rising prayer, that the Holy Spirit may bless the reading of the New Testament to every sailor, leading him to salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

A SAILOR'S Friend. ·

MISSIONARIES THE GENEROUS FRIENDS OF

SAILORS.

MISSION A TARIES to the heathen have trials of an extraordinary kind, even when they are most generously supported by their Christian friends at home. Besides their peculiar disadvantages in being exiles from their native homes, and subjected to numerous privations, they are not unfrequently calumniated, and even by their own countrymen.

Calumnies against these devoted servants of Christ have frequently been made by ungodly officers of ships, sometimes by those of the Royal Navy: but they have been refuted in a manner which has materially served the cause of Christianity. Recently some slanderous statements and reflections have been made and published relating to the Missionaries at Tahiti and Tongataboo, professedly in an "Extract from his Majesty's ship Hyacinth." These accusations have been answered by the Rev. J. Williams, of the London Missionary Society, now in England; and from his reply we have pleasure in giving the following extracts, which cannot but afford delight.

Mr. Williams says, "Some of us have been there 20, others 30, and some nearly 40 years, labouring and suffering for the welfare of the inhabitants-directing them in their perplexities, relieving them in their distresses, and instructing them in their best interests; and, although many of my brother Missionaries have very large families, they have not a single shilling belonging to them, or an

inch of land they can call their own. proof of disinterestedness be given?

Can a greater

"The writer of this Extract' speaks of the effects of Temperance Societies. I am happy to say they have been most beneficial; and I do sincerely hope, that the degrader of the human species, that destroyer of human happiness — ardent spirits - will never again be introduced among that people. The writer proceeds to say, 'that if any person is found drinking liquor, whether drunk or sober, he is brought before the missionary, and fined forty dollars, which is divided between the queen and the missionary.' This is false. ¶ never knew of a missionary sitting in judgment. Missionaries invariably give their advice when it is requested, and occasionally act as interpreters when the offending party is European. It is common for sailors to think that they have unbounded licence among such a people as the South Sea Islanders; and, when taken into custody, are so refractory and desperate, that the natives take them to the missionary to be remonstrated with, rather than use harsh measures with them. The sailors, too, are generally well acquainted with the missionary character. They frequently request to be taken to a missionary; and then beg of him to intercede, and get them liberated. If the missionary does interfere, it is invariably with kindness. On the charge of dividing the forty dollars with the queen, I merely observe, that I have spent the prime of my life among this people: I have taught them mechanic arts, given them every information in my power of a judicial character, and poured, year after year, religious knowledge into their minds, and have never received from them fee or reward for the one or for the other; nor have I ever heard that any one of my brother-missionaries did, although occasionally they have brought us presents of fowls, young pigs, &c., for attentions shown and medicine administered in times of sickness.

"What has been said by the surgeon of the Chanticleer, in reference to the missionaries of Southern Africa, is equally applicable to the missionaries of the Southern Ocean. I refer to some passages in a Narrative of a Voyage to the Southern Atlantic Ocean, performed in his Majesty's Sloop Chanticleer, under the command of the late Captain Henry Foster, F. R. S., &c. By order of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty. From the Private

Journal of W. H. B. Webster, Surgeon of the Sloop. Published by Bentley, 1834." Mr. Williams gives a long extract, from which we take the following:

"By the exertions of the despised missionaries, new fields of discovery have been opened to the philosopher. They have penetrated into regions which other travellers never reached, and have explored parts before unknown. They have presented man under circumstances the most peculiar and interesting in which he can be contemplated. They have added new facts to his natural history, and new features to his physical character. They have added fresh languages to the list of those already known. They have opened new places of refuge for our fleets, and new channels for our commerce; and they have multiplied the friends of their country. Apart from Christianity, the labours of these men must be interesting to the philosopher, the politician, and the philologist; and to hold such men up to scorn, is no less a violation of good taste than of proper feeling and principle. By them the kraal of the Hottentot has been supplanted by the well-built village; and the missionaries at Theophilus, an inland establishment, have instructed the natives in the Christian faith, and have pretty well succeeded in making a useful class of labourers and citizens. They have collected the dispersed wanderers, and have procured land for them, and have taught them to cultivate it. Surely there is a conquest over the human mind that conciliates all it subdues, and improves all it conciliates."

Mr. Webster states, "A French ship was wrecked, while we were at the Cape, on the coast of Caffraria. Five only of her crew reached the shore, and they were moreover plundered and ill-treated by the savages; in fact, they were made slaves. A missionary in the interior, hearing of the event, immediately hastened to their succour: he succeeded in liberating them from the natives, and took them under his protection. He gave them every assistance in his power; and passed them across the desert from one missionary's house to another in safety, till at length they reached Cape Town. And this was a journey of a thousand miles across a barren desert country, in the midst of rude and lawless tribes: but these tribes paid more respect to the voice of the missionary than they probably would to the sword. Here was a triumph! Το succour the distressed, to relieve the afflicted, and to turn

the unruly wills and affections of sinful men to 'the wisdom of the just,' is the missionaries' grateful task. Their houses in this colony are as beacons in the desert, and watch-towers for the shipwrecked mariner; the asylums of the distressed, and the abodes of peace. These holy men are the first to extend and the last to withdraw the boon of charity, and the right-hand of fellowship."

PARTICULARS OF THE WRECK OF THE NEVA. In our last number we gave a brief notice of the wreck of the Neva; but the following particulars having been sent by a friend interested in the fate of some on board, addressed to Rev. J. Upton when preparing to improve the sudden death of a waterman, they are inserted with a view to represent the claims of Sailors.-EDITOR.

"At your request I will endeavour to give you a few particulars of the loss of the ship Neva, bound to New Holland, with 150 female convicts, 55 children, 9 free emigrants, and a crew of 27 men and boys; in all, 240 souls.

"I shall not soon forget the feelings of the parent of the chief officer upon the receipt of his letter relating the melancholy catastrophe, not so much on her son's account as for the number of souls launched into eternity in the twinkling of an eye: at the same time her prayer to God was for the salvation of her son.

"The Neva left England in January this year; and on May 13th they expected to see land, which was made at two o'clock the next morning. Two hours afterwards, breakers were suddenly discovered right a-head; and, horrible to relate, she immediately struck twice, and bilged. One boat was lowered: the captain, surgeon, and several others, got in her; when she immediately swamped, and all were drowned, except the captain and mate, who regained the ship, and launched the long-boat. Care was taken that too many should not get in; but, awful to relate, this boat shared a similar fate, and all were precipitated into the sea. The captain and mate were again saved, and succeeded in regaining the ship, when she went to pieces. At this moment, Mr. B. writes, the scene was most awful, and wholly indescribable: the wreck and rigging were covered with the crew, and females scream

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