out his handkerchief to wipe his eyes. Then he came out pretty sudden, and must have dropped it in his surprise. I've always believed in Jonah since then." One afternoon, when ninety-eight days out, we sighted Java Head, the south-western point of Java, and at sunset were just fifteen miles west of it. This seemed almost like arrival at our destination. It is a great relief to the navigator, after months of steering by the stars, to find his reckoning proved correct by seeing the dry land appear, just where his calculations lead him to look for it. It thrills his mind to think that he has been enabled to find his way through pathless wastes, over half the circumference of the globe, to a little head-land in the eastern seas. He feels a reverence for the noble science whose deductions have led to this result, and also usually indulges in some self-complacent emotions at his own successful application of its rules. Having bearings of the land he now knows where he is by sight, and gladly leaves his life of faith. He finds, however, that this element of security is offset by a vast increase of danger. In proximity to the land are rocks and shoals, and around them sweep ever varying currents. Dark nights and storms envelope and assail him, and hours of anxiety are passed, such as are wholly unknown in the deep sea sailing. This night I was destined to experience the hazards of coast navigation and to recognize the preserving hand of God in preventing our shipwreck. Knowing my position so exactly, I felt emboldened to attempt to work into the Straits of Sunda in the night. In the evening a fresh breeze sprang up ahead varying from E.S.E. to E.N.E., accompanied by heavy rain-squalls. The night was very dark and I remained on deck the whole time, except for the few moments occasionally required for marking the supposed position on the chart and planning the movements of the vessel. We made several tacks and at three o'clock in the morning, when I supposed we were well into the Straits, after a rain-squall had passed, the clouds broke away, revealing the old moon just getting out of bed from behind a high hill directly ahead, towards which we were hastening at a rate of speed which would have cast us upon its shores in another quarter of an hour. The bark was immediately hove to, while I tried unsuccessfully to verify my position. Daylight revealed that we had been about running into Java Head, the current having set us back S.W. by S. 32 miles in twelve hours. So here we were, instead of being in the Strait, still at its entrance, not having secured any gain from all the night's work, the insidious current having robbed us of the fruits of our toil. I had been fretting all the night because the wind would not haul and allow us to steer in a certain direction. I was thrilled and instructed by noticing on the chart that, if I had been permitted to take the course I desired, we should have certainly been wrecked on the dangerous reef extending