vessel. From the state of their provisions, it was found convenient that five of their number should return and stay at the other island, as there were not provisions sufficient for the subsistence of all at the island where the house was built. This party, therefore, having received a proportionate share of the household utensils, namely, one kettle and the bottom of an old one, which was used as a frying-pan, they set off. Those who remained, in order that they might apply the timber used in constructing the old house to the building of their vessel, set to work to build a new habitation, which they formed chiefly of stones and turf. This house appears to have been an improvement on the first, inasmuch as it had the luxury of three chimneys, which, however, either would not draw, or were insufficient, as the inmates were obliged to cut a hole in the gable end to let out the smoke. At this time they used the elephant's bones, with blubber, as fuel, the fumes from which were by no means agreeable. Having finished this they shifted their things into it, and tore down the first, and cleared the place where it stood for the purpose of building the vessel on it. They laid the keel, made from the topmast of the wreck, to erect a vessel whose keel should be twenty-nine feet, and built like a lugger, and of about four feet and a half high. It was calculated that she would be about twelve tons burden. They worked at it with assiduity, animated by the hope of delivering themselves. Their history of their various expedients to supply the place of regular tools and materials, though unintelligible to the general reader, would be highly interesting to nautical men. At the end of five months they had completed her with her seal-skin sails, and they set off to the other island to fetch the other five men that they might assist in the launch. Nearly two years had now rolled over since they were first wrecked-a time which, as marked by their privations and anxieties, appeared as long almost as their lives. The five men who were on the first island were dispersed about in search of food, and the larger party were obliged to go in pursuit of them. On the next day after their arrival a gale sprung up, and their boat was driven about seventy yards from where she was made fast, and her stern knocked to pieces. They occupied themselves in attempting to repair the disaster, which threw them into great dismay. The day was fine, when an old man who was out on a mountainous point trying to descry their comrades, came running down in great haste, and presented himself before them in a bewildered state. He gesticulated without being able to speak a word, when the Captain, not conceiving the cause, said "What's the matter with you, you foolish fellow ?" At last he recovered so far from the effects of his joy as to be able to tell them he had seen a vessel standing in towards the shore. This none of them would believe, and all said it must be a bird sitting on the water, an object which had often deceived their hopes. The man, howVOL. VII.

34

ever, was convinced that he was not mistaken, and asked who would go with him to see the vessel, when one offered to go with him and ascertain the fact; and a tinder-box was given to them that they might, if it were true, make a fire to show those on board that there were human beings on the island. To their indescribable joy, these two men on getting to the place where she was first discovered, saw a schooner standing along shore, and from the carcase of a sea-elephant just killed, and other traces, perceived that the crew must have been on shore. They then sought for and killed one of those animals, and with its blubber they soon made a fire on the promontory that evidently caught the attention of the schooner, as a boat was seen to proceed from her towards the shore. The men ran down eagerly to meet her, but when the boat got near the shore the crew evidently hesitated on seeing the two men, whose appearance must have been of a dubious nature. They were naked, with the exception of their ruff brown fur jackets, as they had thrown off their skin trowsers, which were exceedingly thick and heavy, for the convenience of running. They, however, hailed the crew in a manner which proved them to be civilized beings, and they were taken on board. The vessel turned out to be an American schooner, which had come for the purpose of sealing and trading in those seas. The Captain received them kindly and gave them shirts and trowsers. It was sunset when they were taken on board, and the next day the Captain and the remaining party were fetched. They proceeded in search of the other party, who descried the vessel with a degree of joy equal to that of the first man who saw it, and on the boat approaching the shore, hailed it with three cheers, which was returned by their comrades on board. Those on shore were so overjoyed that they did not wait for her coming to shore, but rushed into the water to haul her up. They were all taken on board. They assisted the schooner in loading, and after taking all their things on board, she sailed for the Isle of France, her destination. On the way, however, the mate of the smack had a disagreement with the American Captain and was voluntarily put on shore on the island of St. Paul, where there are plenty of wild pigs, and provisions, such as the mariners had of late been used to, and which is in the track of the vessels trading in the direction of the Isle of France. All the mariners, excepting two, named VEALE and PETHERBRIDGE and their Captain, prefered going on shore with their mate, and waiting there for some of the trading vessels that should touch there. Not the least apprehension was felt by themselves or the others that they would be able to meet with a passage, and the Captain and the two men, VEALE and PETHERBRIDG were landed at the Isle of France, where a subscription was raised for them, and they were treated with great humanity by the Governor. The two men, VEALE and PETHERBRIDGE returned home in the Lord Exmouth, Captain

EVANS, which is now in the East India Dock. They arrived in a destitute condition, and applied to the British and Foreign Bible Society for relief, and on Monday last the Rev. G. Č. SMITH Of Penzance, under whose care they now remain, introduced the case to the notice of the Lord Mayor, who, however, could do nothing for them, and a subscription has been set on foot in their behalf.-Mr. FABIAN, the Secretary of the Society, and other gentlemen, have made inquiries into their case, which has been fully corroborated, and an excellent character has been brought with them by Captain EVANS. This is perhaps the only instance since the days of SELKIRK, the original ROBINSON CRUSOE, of a number of men having been wrecked, and lived for a length of time on a desert island. Their health was in general good, excepting now and then, when from the extremely oily nature of their food their bowels were disordered. found a dose of salt water an effectual remedy.

Miscellaneous.

They then

GENERAL CONFERENCE OF 1824.

May 1st, 1824, the FOURTH DELEGATED GENERAL CONFERENCE OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, Convened in the city of Baltimore: present, Bishops M'KENDREE, GEORGE and ROBERTS, and one hundred and twenty-nine Delegates :-from the New-York Annual Conference, sixteen-New-England do. fourteen-Genesee do. fourteen (two absent) Ohio do. thirteenKentucky do. eight (three absent)-Missouri do. five-Tennessee do. nine-Mississippi do. three-South-Carolina do. elevenVirginia do. nine-Baltimore do. fourteen-Philadelphia do. thirThe duties of the Chair, in consequence of the indisposition of Bishop M'KENDREE, devolved principally upon Bishops. GEORGE and ROBERTS.

teen.

Notwithstanding the conflicting opinions on some points of our ecclesiastical polity, which were entertained by the several delegates, and the diversity of views and sentiments in relation to the expediency of certain measures, which must necessarily prevail among so large a body of men, collected as they were from the different sections of our widely extended continent, in which local views and prejudices must exert considerable influence; much of Christian feeling was evinced in the various discussions, and the important transactions of the Conference were conducted with order and decorum; and we humbly trust, that the labours of this Conference will be rendered a blessing to the Church, by harmonizing the body, and giving an enlargement of the work of God among us.

3

The few alterations made in some of the regulations of the Discipline, may be known by an inspection of a revised edition of it, shortly to be published. Two additional Bishops, the Rev. MESSRS. JOSHUA SOULE and ELIJAH HEDDING, were elected and consecrated.

Among other things which tended to make this Conference interesting, was the presence of the REV. RICHARD REECE, late President of the Wesleyan Methodist Conference, and a representative from that to this Conference, and his companion, the REV. JOHN HANNAH; both of whom have endeared themselves to their American brethren, by the urbanity of their manners, the truly Christian spirit which they evinced on all occasions, as well as by the gravity and dignity of their ministerial deportment. May they long live to enjoy the fruit of their labours of love among us, and continue to adorn that ministry with which they are more immediately connected.

This interchange of delegates from one Conference to the other, so happily begun in 1820, after a partial suspension of a direct intercourse by the pastoral visits of the late DR. COKE, is hailed as the commencement of a more intimate and permanent union between the two bodies of Methodists, and as being productive of the happiest results to both, not only in keeping up that reciprocal attachment which has hitherto characterized them, but in giving a more vigorous, as well as united and diffusive, spread to those doctrines of Christ by which they have ever been distinguished. This is anticipated, not only from the deputation itself, but more especially from the spirit and manner in which it is conducted. May success attend our elder brethren on the other side of the Atlantic, in all their efforts to spread the Redeemer's glory, and may we, on this side, be permitted to imitate their noble and godlike example, in extending the truth "from pole to pole," until, by our Missionary enterprizes, we may meet on some favoured spot between the eastern and western continents, and witness the complete triumph of redeeming love around the terraqueous globe!

On the introduction of MESSRS. REECE and HANNAH into the Conference, MR. REECE presented the following communica

tion:

To the General Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church assembled at Baltimore, in the United States of America.

DEAR BRETHREN,

The time has arrived which calls us, in pursuance of a resolution unanimously passed in the Conference of 1820, held in Liverpool, to commission a deputation from our body, to attend your ensuing General Conference, to convey to you the sentiments of our fraternal regard, and affectionate attachment, and to recip

rocate that kind and friendly office, which, on your part, was performed by the visit of one of your esteemed ministers, the REV. JOHN EMORY.

The increased interest in your spiritual welfare, which the establishment of this mode of direct and official communication between the two great bodies of Methodists has naturally excited in us, and, reciprocally, we believe, in you, is to us the first proof of its beneficial tendency, and a cheering indication of its future advantages. For why should the ocean entirely sever the branches of the same family, or distance of place, and distinct scenes of labour, wholly prevent that interchange of the sympathies of a special spiritual relationship which cannot but be felt by those who, under GoD, owe their origin to the labours of the same Apostolic man;-bear testimony to the same great truths before the world, and whose efforts to spread the savour of the knowledge of CHRIST, on our part through the British Empire, and on yours through the population of those rising States, which have derived their language, their science, and their protestantism from the same common source,-ALMIGHTY GOD has deigned so abundantly to bless?

We received with heartfelt joy the messenger of your churches, the REV. JOHN EMORY, bearing the grateful news of the progress of the work of GoD in your societies, and were refreshed by the expressions of your charity. We now commit the same charge to the faithful and beloved brethren whom we have appointed to salute you in the LORD, that nothing may be wanting on our part, to strengthen the bond of brotherly love, and to call forth mutual and united prayers for each others welfare by, a mutual knowledge of each others state.

We are on the point of closing the sittings of the present Conference, in which the perfect harmony of the brethren assembled has afforded matter for the most devout and grateful acknowledgements to GOD; both as it is the indication and the result of that entire affection and unity which exists among our societies throughout the United Kingdom. Through the mercy of GoD, we have rest on every side, the discipline we received from our venerable founder is still enforced with unabated zeal, and under a conviction of its agreement with the word of God cheerfully observed; the value of those apostolic doctrines which distinguish us in the old and new world was never, we believe, more powerfully felt among us, and never were they with greater fidelity exhibited in our public ministry; and, as a crowning blessing, numbers are yearly added to us and to the LORD, and the light and influence of the gospel is yearly extending, by the divine blessing upon the labours of the brethren, into the still dark and uncultivated parts of our beloved country. "Not unto us O LORD, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake."