Words can convey no idea of the wildness that reigned in the countenance of almost every person as the night approached; and many, terrified with the apprehensions of a nightly shipwreck, began to lament that the cable had not been at once cut, so as to have let the vessel go on shore whilst day-light remained: this indeed had been proposed a few hours after the vessel began to strike; but it was over-ruled by the captain, who very properly refused to adopt a measure tending to the immediate and certain destruction of his vessel, whilst a possibility remained that she might escape. Till nine o’clock at night the vessel kept striking every minute, during which time we were kept in a state of the most dreadful suspence about our fate; but then happily the wind shifted one or two points in our favour, which occasioned the vessel to roll instead of striking. At midnight the gale grew somewhat more moderate; and at three in the morning it was so far abated, that the men were enabled to haul on the anchor, and in a short time to bring the vessel once more into deep water, and out of all danger. Great was the joy, as may well be imagined, which this circumstance diffused amongst the passengers; and well pleased was each one, after the fatigue and anxiety of the preceding day, to think he might securely lay himself down to rest. The next morning the sun arose in all his majesty from behind one of the distant islands. The azure sky was unobscured by a single cloud, the air felt serenely mild, and the birds, as if equally delighted with man that the storm was over, sweetly warbled forth their songs in the adjacent woods; in short, had it not been for the disordered condition in which we saw our vessel, and every thing belonging to us, the perils we had gone through would have appeared like a dream. [Sidenote: DAMAGE DONE THE SHIP.] The first object of examination was the rudder. The tiller was broken to atoms; and the sailors who went over the stern reported, that of the four gudgeons or hooks on which the rudder was suspended, only one was left entire, and that one was much bent. On being unshipped, the bottom of it was found to be so much shivered that it actually resembled the end of a broom. The keel, there was every reason to suppose, was in the same shattered condition; nevertheless the vessel, to the great astonishment of every person on board, did not make much water. Had she been half as crazy as the King’s vessel in which we went up the lake, nothing could have saved her from destruction.