Mauritius was but a drawl, from the lightness of the winds. In doubling the Cape we were Jacksoned a week--at the line the same ill-fortune attended us. Now we have lost the northeast trades a week before we ought to. Add to these our other malexperiences, such as men falling from aloft, boats capsized and stoven, a sperm whale’s head lost. And, to crown all, here we are, bound on to the North American coast in the worst month of the year, with an unremunerative voyage. Now, in the name of reason! how any one can expect good luck in the face of this category I cannot understand: as for myself, I cannot.” And, with a gloomy shake of the head, the speaker concluded, folded his arms across his breast, and seemed resigned to the hard fate he had depicted for himself. His manner, however, was such as to convince the most casual observer that his was a spirit to combat manfully whatever further misfortunes might befall us, through accident or any other cause. The whole bearing of the man, in fact, showed a perfect confidence in the ability of himself and his shipmates to resist every tide of evil the great Neptune might send. His enumeration of our ill-successes heretofore made his argument almost unanswerable; but still I essayed to administer some consolation by quoting the old adage, “it is always darkest before day,” and adding that from the fact of our former misadventures we might reasonably look forward for corresponding good ones in the future. Yet I awakened no sympathetic chord in the bosoms of my auditors. My predecessor had something tangible to base his prediction upon: a something, which, through its familiarity to the minds of all, appealed directly to their hearts; and, although I took the other side, I must confess that I myself was almost convinced there was more probability in his than in my theory. I felt, indeed, that our past crosses were sure prestiges of still more to come.