* * * * *

“UNDER THE CLOUD AND THROUGH THE SEA.”

  So moved they, when false Pharaoh’s legion pressed,
  Chariots and horsemen following furiously,—­
  Sons of old Israel, at their God’s behest,
  Under the cloud and through the swelling sea.

  So passed they, fearless, where the parted wave,
  With cloven crest uprearing from the sand,—­
  A solemn aisle before,—­behind, a grave,—­
  Rolled to the beckoning of Jehovah’s hand.

  So led He them, in desert marches grand,
  By toils sublime, with test of long delay,
  On, to the borders of that Promised Land
  Wherein their heritage of glory lay.

  And Jordan raged along his rocky bed,
  And Amorite spears flashed keen and fearfully: 
  Still the same pathway must their footsteps tread,—­
  Under the cloud and through the threatening sea.

  God works no otherwise.  No mighty birth
  But comes by throes of mortal agony;
  No man-child among nations of the earth
  But findeth baptism in a stormy sea.

  Sons of the Saints who faced their Jordan-flood
  In fierce Atlantic’s unretreating wave,—­
  Who by the Red Sea of their glorious blood
  Reached to the Freedom that your blood shall save!

  O Countrymen!  God’s day is not yet done! 
  He leaveth not His people utterly! 
  Count it a covenant, that He leads us on
  Beneath the Cloud and through the crimson Sea!

JOURNAL OF A PRIVATEERSMAN.

The following journal was written by the Captain’s Quartermaster on board the Sloop Revenge, of Newport, Rhode Island, on a cruise against the Spaniards in the year 1741.  Rhode Island was famous at that time for the number and the success of her privateers.  There was but little objection felt to the profession of privateering.  Franklin had not yet roused by his effective protest the moral sentiment of the civilized world against it.  The privateers that were fitted out in those days were intended for service against foreign enemies; they were not manned by rebels, with design to ruin their loyal fellow-citizens.  England and Spain were at war, and the West Indian seas were white with the sails of national fleets and private armed vessels.  Privateering afforded a vent for the active and restless spirits of the colonies; it was not without some creditable associations; and the life of a privateersman was full of the charms of novelty, adventure, and risk.  This journal shows something of its character.

A journal of all the transactions on board the sloop REVENGE, Benj’n Norton Com’r by God’s grace and under his protection, bound on a cruising voyage against the Spaniards.  Begun June the 5th, 1741.

Friday, 5th. This day, at 4 A.M., the Cap’t went from Taylor’s wharf on board his sloop, which lay off of Connanicut, & at 6 o’clock Cap’t John Freebody [the chief owner] came off in the pinnace with several hands.  We directly weighed anchor with 40 hands, officers included, bound to New York to get more hands, a Doctor, and some more provisions and other stores we stood in need of.  The wind coming contrary, was obliged to put back.  Came to an anchor again under Connanicut at 8 P.M.