mates can judge of; so clear and penetrating are its rays that many fear them as much as the glare of the sun. Though scarcely a day passed without reptiles of all kinds being brought in, and the Cobra de Capello in numbers, the Editor never remembers these pleasures being interrupted by any alarm.'-pp. 451, 452.

·

The climate, however, soon made lamentable ravages in this abode of domestic happinesss; the lion-spirited boy' fell an early victim, and he was followed by Charlotte, and by a younger brother. Of four children only one was preserved by sending her to England. • What a sad and lonely house,' he writes in March, 1822, without nurse and the children-never was there such a change we wander from room to room, solitary and dejected; but God's will be done, and we must be content.' These calamities, added to his own, and Lady Raffles' declining health, determined Sir Stamford to return to England as soon as he could be exonerated from his office, an object which he was unable, however, to get accomplished, until the latter end of the year 1823. Misfortune still did not cease to pursue him. Every body remembers the letter in which he gave that animated and picturesque account of the burning of the ship Fame, in which he and his family had embarked for England.

"Bencoolen, February 4, 1824. "We embarked on the 2d instant in the Fame, and sailed at daylight for England, with a fair wind, and every prospect of a quick and comfortable passage.

"The ship was every thing we could wish; and having closed my charge here much to my satisfaction, it was one of the happiest days of my life. We were, perhaps, too happy; for in the evening came a sad reverse. Sophia had just gone to bed, and I had thrown off half my clothes, when a cry of fire, fire! roused us from our calm content, and in five minutes the whole ship was in flames! I ran to examine whence the flames principally issued, and found that the fire had its origin immediately under our cabin. Down with the boats. Where is Sophia?-Here. The children?--Here. A rope to the side. Lower Lady Raffles. Give her

to me, says one; I'll take her, says the Captain. Throw the gunpowder overboard. It cannot be got at; it is in the magazine, close to the fire. Stand clear of the powder. Skuttle the water-casks. Water! water! Where's Sir Stamford? Come into the boat, Nilson! Nilson, come into the boat. Push off, push off. Stand clear of the after part of the ship.

"All this passed much quicker than I can write it. We pushed off, and as we did so, the flames burst out of our cabin window, and the whole of the after part of the ship was in flames; the masts and sails were now taking fire, we moved to a distance sufficient to avoid the immediate explosion, but the flames were now coming out of the main hatchway; and seeing the rest of the crew, with the Captain, still on board, we pulled back to her under the bows, so as to be more distant from the powder. As we approached, we perceived that the people on board were getting into another boat on the opposite side. She pushed off; we hailed her: have you all on board?-Yes, all, save one. Who is he?-Johnson, sick in his cot. Can we save him?—No, impossible. The flames were issuing

from the hatchway; at this moment the poor fellow, scorched, I imagine, by the flames, roared out most lustily, having run upon the deck. I will go for him, says the Captain. The two boats then came together, and we took out some of the persons from the Captain's boat, which was overladen; he then pulled under the bowsprit of the ship, and picked the poor fellow up. Are you all safe?-Yes, we have got the man; all lives safe. Thank God! Pull off from the ship. Keep your eye on a star, Sir Stamford. There's one scarcely visible.

"We then hauled close to each other, and found the Captain fortunately had a compass; but we had no light, except from the ship. Our distance from Bencoolen we estimated to be about fifty miles, in a southwest direction. There being no landing place to the southward of Bencoolen, our only chance was to regain that port. The Captain then undertook to lead, and we to follow, in a N. N. E. course, as well as we could; no chance, no possibility being left, that we could again approach the ship; for she was now one splendid flame, fore and aft, and aloft, her masts and sails in a blaze, and rocking to and fro, threatening to fall in an instant. There goes her mizen mast; pull away, my boys: there goes the gunpowder. Thank God! thank God!

"You may judge of our situation without further particulars. The alarm was given at about twenty minutes past eight, and in less than ten minutes she was in flames; there was not a soul on board at half-past eight, and in less than ten minutes afterwards she was one grand mass of fire.

6.66

My only apprehension was the want of boats to hold the people, as there was not time to have got out the long-boat, or to make a raft; all we had to rely upon were two small quarter-boats, which fortunately were lowered without accident; and in these two small open boats, without a drop of water, or a grain of food, or a rag of covering, except what we happened at the moment to have on our backs, we embarked on the ocean, thankful to God for his mercies! Poor Sophia, having been taken out of her bed, had nothing on but a wrapper, neither shoes nor stockings; the children were just as taken out of bed, whence one had been snatched after the flames had attacked it; in short, there was not time for any one to think of more than two things. Can the ship be saved?-No! Let us save ourselves, then. All else was swallowed up in one grand ruin.

"To make the best of our misfortune, we availed ourselves of the light from the ship to steer a tolerably good course for the shore. She continued to burn till about midnight, when the saltpetre, which she had on board, took fire, and sent up one of the most splendid and brilliant flames that ever was seen, illuminating the horizon in every direction, to an extent of not less than fifty miles, and casting that kind of blue light over us, which is of all others most horrible. She burnt and continued to flame in this style for about an hour or two, when we lost sight of the object in a cloud of smoke.

"Neither Nilson nor Mr. Bell, our medical friend who had accompanied us, had saved their coats; but the tail of mine, with a pocket handkerchief, served to keep Sophia's feet warm, and we made breeches for the children with our neckcloths. Rain now came on, but fortunately it was not of long continuance, and we got dry again. The night became serene and star-light; we were now certain of our course, and the men

behaved manfully; they rowed incessantly, and with good heart and spirit, and never did poor mortals look out more for daylight and for land than we did; not that our sufferings or grounds of complaint were any thing to what have befallen others, but from Sophia's delicate health, as well as my own, and the stormy nature of our coast, I felt perfectly convinced we were unable to undergo starvation and exposure to sun and weather many days; and aware of the rapidity of the currents, I feared we might fall to the southward of the port.

At daylight we recognized the coast and Rat Island, which gave us great spirits; and though we found ourselves much to the southward of the port, we considered ourselves almost at home. Sophia had gone through the night better than could have been expected, and we continued to pull on with all our strength. About eight or nine, we saw a ship standing to us from the Roads; they had seen the flames on shore, and sent out vessels to our relief. And here certainly came a minister of Providence, in the character of a minister of the Gospel, for the first person I recognized was one of our missionaries. They gave us a bucket of water, and we took the captain on board as a pilot. The wind, however, was adverse, and we could not reach the shore, and took to the ship, where we got some refreshment and shelter from the sun. By this time, Sophia was quite exhausted, fainting continually. About two o'clock we landed safe and sound, and no words of mine can do justice to the expressions of feeling, sympathy, and kindness, with which we were hailed by every one. If any proof had been wanting that my administration had been satisfactory here, we had it unequivocally from all; there was not a dry eye, and as we drove back to our former home, loud was the cry of God be praised.'

use.

"But enough; and I will only add that we are now greatly recovered, in good spirits, and busy at work getting ready-made clothes for present We went to bed at three in the afternoon, and I did not awake till six this morning. Sophia had nearly as sound a sleep, and, with the exception of a bruise or two, and a little pain in the bones from fatigue, we have nothing to complain of.

"The loss I have to regret, beyond all, is my papers and drawings; all my notes and observations, with memoirs and collections, sufficient for a full and ample history, not only of Sumatra, but of Borneo, and almost every other island of note in these seas; my intended account of the establishment of Singapore; the history of my own administration; eastern grammars, dictionaries, and vocabularies; and last, not least, a grand map of Sumatra, on which I had been employed since my arrival here, and on which, for the last six months, I had bestowed almost my whole undivided attention. This, however, was not all; all my collections in natural history; all my splendid collection of drawings, upwards of two thousand in number; with all the valuable notes and papers of my friends, Arnold and Jack; and, to conclude, I will merely notice that there was scarce an unknown animal, bird, beast, or fish, or an interesting plant, which we had not on board; a living tapir, a new species of tiger, splendid pheasants, &c. domesticated for the voyage. We were, in short, in this respect, a perfect Noah's ark.

"All, all has perished; but, thank God, our lives have been spared, and we do not repine.

"Our plan is to get another ship as soon as possible, and, I think, you may still expect us in July. There is a chance of a ship, called the Lady Flora, touching here on her way home, and there is a small ship in the Roads which may be converted into a packet and take us home, as I have a captain and crew at command.

"Make your minds easy about us, even if we should be later than you expected. No news will be good news."'-pp. 566-569.

The fire, it appears, originated in the store room, immediately under the apartments occupied by Sir Stamford and his family, and was occasioned by the disgraceful carelessness of the steward going with a naked light to draw off brandy from a cask, which took fire. The loss of all his books, manuscripts, drawings, correspondence, records, and other documents, which he suffered on this occasion, has necessarily deprived his widow of many valuable materials. Among them were a map on a large scale of Sumatra, detailed accounts of Borneo, Celebes, Java, the Moluccas, and Singapore. In natural history, the loss to science was still greater. The choice of all his collections were on board that ill-fated vessel, including upwards of two thousand drawings taken from life, executed in a very superior style, under his own eye. 'A loss like this,' he observes, with his usual feeling of resignation, can never be replaced, but I bow to it without repining,' After a short interval spent at Bencoolen, he was again at sea with his family on board the Mariner, and it is delightful to observe the philosophical temper with which, under the pressure of so many calamities, he disciplines his mind to study.

"20th April.—I this day commenced to apply to study, and devoted the early part of the morning to Euclid, and the remainder to the arrangement of my papers, &c. As far as circumstances admit, I propose to divide my time and application as follows, during the voyage; appropriating eight hours in each day to study, reading or writing, and with an intention of making up one day for any loss of time on another.

HOURS.

"Breakfast being fixed at nine, and dinner at four, I appropriate before breakfast, from seven to nine

"Between breakfast and dinner, from ten to one, and from two to four

"In the evening, from eight to nine

Hours

2

5 1

8

"Before breakfast. One hour mathematics or logic. One hour Latin, Greek, or Hebrew.

"After breakfast, from ten to eleven. In committing to paper, and arranging and reviewing what I studied before breakfast.

"From eleven to one. Writing an account of my administration in

the East.

"From two to four. General reading, and reading out to Sophia. "In the evening for one hour. Reading a play of Shakespeare's or other entertaining productions.

By this arrangement, I have in the morning, by rising at six, one hour for exercise before breakfast, and half an hour for the same after breakfast. One hour from one to two for tiffin and exercise, and after dining from five to seven, three hours for exercise or relaxation in the cool of the evening. As the servants are always behind hand in furnishing the meals, I may freely trust to their affording me time for dressing by such delays, which will only eventually break in on the proposed three hours' relaxation for the evening, a portion of which may well be spared; or half an hour may be added to the day by going to bed at half-past nine or ten, instead of nine as proposed. My object in making this memorandum is, that I may hold the rule as inviolable as I can, and by frequently recurring to it, revive my sleeping energies, should I at any time be inclined to indolence. I should not, however, omit to add, that all reading and study on a Sunday is to be confined to the Bible and religious subjects. The Greek and Hebrew, however, as connected, may, nevertheless, form a part of the study of that day." pp. 576, 577.

6.66

The Mariner arrived safely in England in August, 1824. Lady Raffles had the happiness to find her only remaining child restored to perfect health at Cheltenham, whence they removed to London. Her husband's days were, however, already numbered. He enjoyed but short intervals of health, which he devoted chiefly to the establishment of the Zoological Society, until the 5th of July, when he died suddenly, at an age when men in general find their constitution most hardy. But his had been already undermined.

The period of two years which Sir Stamford had now spent in England, had rapidly passed away; for who takes note of the days of happiness? It was his often-expressed hope that he had experienced sufficient trial to purify his soul; and it is humbly trusted that the many and heavy afflictions with which he was visited, were sanctified by the grace of God, and were made instrumental, through faith in a Saviour, to prepare him for the world where sorrow and sighing are no more.

• The few letters which have been introduced in the last pages, are sufficient to prove that the death-blow had been struck-the silver chord was broken at the wheel. His sense of enjoyment, indeed, was as keen as ever, his spirit as gay, his heart as warm, his imagination still brighter, though his hopes in this world were less. He was contented with the happiness of the present moment, and only prayed for its continuance. That his prayer was not granted is his everlasting gain; yet even here, and after so many trials and privations, he enjoyed no common pleasures; the delight of being united to friends from whom he had been so long separated; the charms of society; the interests of literature and science; the general improvement of man; and, above all, the nearer charities of domestic life, all combined to engage and occupy his mind. His heart was full of enjoyment; and in the retirement for which he had so long sighed, and surrounded by all the ties which it had pleased God to spare to him, he indulged his happy spirit. In the midst of all these best of worldly treasures, in the bosom of his family, that spirit which had won its way through a greatly chequered course, was suddenly summoned to the throne of God, on the day previous to the completion of his forty-fifth year, the 5th of July, 1826.