Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1845-03-28
From he Knickerbocker. b
A RACE ON THE BAHAMA BANKS.
BY NED BuNTLINE.


branched trees, each leaf, bud, flower aud
bough being formed ofpurplish-golden light,
which like diamonds in clear starlight, gilt
tiers and sparkles in the dark blue of the
night. Fancy your mist-formed chariot to
be gliding along through these tree-tops of
light, like waving breeze; and as il moves
rippingly along, gentle swell precedes it,
breaking buds and howrets from the thin
boughs Look at each little gem Of light
sinking from your touch, and fancy if you
can that you hear a low, sweet music, as Of
many water-drops beating upon thin pearl
shells, while the growing red-branched coral
in its island-makings, crackles a merry cas-
tinet accompaniment Can you paint these
wild fancies upon your minds canvass If
so, you can fully appreciate night-sal on
the Bahama Banks.
Come, and seat yourself with me out up
on our arching bowsprit, and glance over
the gilded prov of my swift-gliding craft out
upon the flashing waters. The sea over
which we are sailing is about six fathoms in
depth, and on the ocean bottom you will
perceive perfect forest of sea-fans, purple
branched, and interlaced with each other !;
meadow of pinken coral, with here and
there interspersed dark, cheslnut-colored
sponge, on which the mermaids seat them
selves when they gather shells, pearls, and
wreck gems, with which to deck their jetty
locks, aud contrast their peerless charms.
Our vessel, built like dolphin, seems to
sit in the arms Of the blue ocean, rs the
dark pupil of a gay woman's azure eye floats
in the soft iris which surrounds it, Aloh,
from the thin peaks Of our bending spars,
our banner floats, looking like reflection
of the azure star-lit sky, tinged with pink
and white above it. Around, the horizon
is measured by our eye-sight, and not even
a speck is there to destroy its curvillnear
grace. Above, beneath, around, all is as
God has made it beautiful !-unpantably
beautiful
Another fancy, reader. Do you see yon-
der stream of slow-moving silvery light, a
few fathoms in advance of our bows 1t
looks like heightened reflection of dim
fre-hame cast upon the drifting current. Ii
! is light which would fash fearfully quick
; and bright, were you or to topple from
our seat down into the cleaning waters. 1t
is shark His rapid motion agitates the
waters, which are filled with phosphoric ami
malcule, causing his wake to look like a
stream Of silvery light. The shark keeps
on, ever near us he is hungry, and waits
for victim
Now look within the spray-gemmed cir
Gle of our bows. Do you see here and
there, like the quick, bright Hastings oil
heat-lightuing' before summer-night'
4 shower, fast-moving rays of brightness
, Behold the hues-how changeable Now
: palish blue, now gold-and-green, and now
pinken as the reflected smiles of sunset
II is the merry dolphin, sporting in ouI
path.
Far out upon our arboard bow, do you
not hear a sound like an arrows rushing
flight through the air. Observe the slender
8 thread of flashing water rising between you
and the blue, thread-like horizon, even as q
! draught ray of the sun, linking sky and sea
! 1t rises like fountain jet, aud then dissolv
! ing into thin smoke-like mist. 1t is the
5 porpoise, gamboling in his awkward way
{ for all things leap with JOY upon the Banks
in bright summers night
: In the fall Of 1880 took my last cruise
upon the Bahama Banks i hope it may
not be the last, for as sick infant yearn:
for its mothers smile, as it longs for her gen
r tie BOOKINGS, as it pines to hear her low
, love-toned voice of kindness, so does my
land-bound heart sicken for the flashing face
= of old Ocean, its lofty heavings, and its wlc
, converse Oh God save me from dying
\ on the land
, have strange, wild, yet think pleas
3 ant theory; one which never before hav,
q uttered, although in many fevered hour a
. sea ! have cherished it as a young love
! cherishes hopes Of future bliss. When
2 sailor dies he is enwrapped in many snow,
: fold, and if he be one of Liberty's sons
. he is entwined in her own star-spangled dra
e perry. Then, with heavy weights he is bal
: lasted deep and well +; Gods holy blessing il
J. invoked, and he is given to the ocean-sepul
, chre. The waters open, bubble for mo
. ment, and with gurgling echo fall ASLEEP
Il again The body sinks far down; down be
: yond the dominion Of sharks, or whales, o
! living things down where the liquid mas
becomes too dense to permit of decay or de
composition too dense for il too sink far
, Their below, and the weight alone is too grea
3 to permit it ever to rise. There, in the blu
o depths of the sea, will it remain envelope,
o in an imperishable shroud, until Gabriel
n trump shall sound the muster-roll for all
: Then, if he died in youths blossom-time
y with the pencilliDgs of beauty in his face
and the lines of grace in his manly form, e
e ven as he died, unaltered, in the FRESHNESS
l. of lie's spring, will he rise from his dec
d blue quiet grave, to meet the counties
crowds who come from their dusty, mould
curtained sepulchres Of earth Yes even a
y he died in youths uncounted hours, or il
e the slowly measured time of age, SO will h