This view of the subject was immediately endorsed by all hands, and a corresponding buoyancy pervaded all; but as landmark after landmark was passed, and still Montauk was not to be seen, we gave up all hopes of seeing New Bedford that night, and were fearful that that much wished for occasion might not occur for a fortnight or more; as these southerly winds are not persistent, and no one knows how soon they may leave him and be followed by a north-easter, which, at this season of the year, lasts for weeks, and forbids all entrance into our destined harbor. But just at nightfall, one, who had voluntarily perched himself on the loftiest look-out on the fore royal mast, sung out, “Light ho!” and we soon found that at last we had sighted the veritable Montauk Point and light-house. This was cheering; but no pilot was to be seen, and our only resort was to shorten sail, heave the ship to, and hang on as closely as possible to the windward, so as to have no difficulty in beating up at the approach of daylight. To this end we clewed up and furled our light sails, reefed and furled the courses, clewed down and close-reefed the topsails--and bitter work we had of it. The weather, although not intensely cold to one accustomed to it, to our tropical sensibilities was frigid; and as, during the day, we had been enveloped by fog, our canvas was damp and heavy, and not to be handled in a moment; so that it was a task of time, patience, exposure, and danger, to reduce the old ship’s canvas to a spread commensurate to the violence of the gale which now blew from west-north-west. In reviewing my whole stock of sea experience, comprising over three years of actual life upon the broad bosoms of four out of the five oceans of the globe, I can call to memory no time at which I felt more depressed than during the continuance of this night; not so much from the heaviness of the gale, for I had weathered scores that were much heavier; not from the short, breaking, combing sea, which, from being on soundings and in shallow water, made it but a plaything in the heavy gust, and rendered it trebly unpleasant, breaking upon and against the ship, keeping her continually wet and uncomfortable; but this too was a matter of course to me--I had had my jacket wet a hundred, ay, a thousand times, with the salted spray of old ocean; nor was it from a sense of danger from any or all of these combinations; but the wind gradually, yet steadily, hauling to the northward, occasioned a dead weight; its remaining in its present quarter, west-north-west, being our only hope of getting in; and to be lying here within a few miles, almost in sight, of home, without power to pursue our voyage thither, was a probation by no means gratifying. I strove to shake off the feeling, calling to my aid all the resources of manhood; but in vain. I then attempted to gain some consolation from the old gray-headed seaman, who had for years