18th. The events of the voyage have lately been harassing and pregnant with danger; three officers have kept reckonings of longitude, and all have proved erroneous; the ship has headed them considerably, and, when we little thought of our danger, has been near wrecked upon one of the dangerous shoals off Nantucket; the grave of {15} many a good vessel. Our escape was providential: during breakfast, the Captain, with seeming presentiment, suddenly went upon deck while the lead was throwing; he made the next cast himself, which he had no sooner done than he let it go--gave the word "'Bout ship"--ran himself to assist, and notwithstanding the great confusion, it was quickly effected;--the steersman called out "What point?"--answer, "Out as you came in," and in twenty minutes we had deepened again as many fathoms! Had this happened during the night, or had the sea been rough, we should, in all human probability, never have been heard of again. It was conjectured, that we had been upon the edge of what is called "Fisher's Rip," and the water when the ship was put about had suddenly shoaled to less than three fathoms. We stood a southerly course until midnight, in order to avoid the breakers which lie out forty miles south from Nantucket; and then tacked again. 19th. More alarms,--yester-evening the Boatswain suddenly called out "shoal-water!" the line was immediately thrown, but the depth proved twenty-five fathoms: at half past nine P. M. one of those storms which are I suppose frequent in this new world, passed over us, and most awfully grand was its transit. At eight P. M. the ship was just put about under a {16} clear serene starlight,--not five minutes had elapsed when we heard great noise and confusion upon deck, and running up saw the sky covered with the tremendous cloud-storm; throwing its black mantle across from E. to W. and dipping its points like wings into the opposite sides of the horizon. The sails were flying in all directions, and the men clueing them up as fast as they could, while the ship was turning round at the mercy of the whirlwind; providentially, the extreme violence of the storm passed above us, and even while we beheld it, the dense vapour seemed to vanish from the sight instantaneously; leaving upon our minds the effect of enchantment. Six o'clock P. M. not yet quit of terrors; another storm, the extreme force of which we have again been spared, has just past over, but its effects continue; it rains violently, and lightens incessantly. _Sunday_, 20th, four A. M. Land at length seen on starboard quarter, which proved to be Long Island: the sun arose and brought with it a day and breezes the most favorable, under which we ranged along the coast of the Island, at about seven miles' distance, having a view of it which imagination made delightful. Various schooners, brigs, and other shipping are in view, working {17} different ways, and our recent alarms are forgotten in the beauty and grandeur of the scene.