WONDERFUL PROVIDENCE.

Maori Messenger : Te Karere Maori, Volume II, Issue 13, 20 August 1862, Page 19

WONDERFUL PROVIDENCE.

A vessel was lost off the American coast, at some distance from land; the catastrophe occurred in the night. No other ship was in sight, and all hope of deliverance was gone. It happened that a vessel passed shortly afterwards at some distance from them, the Captain of which, with his Chief Oflfeer* was walking the quarter-deck. WWle tfcey conversed, a bird flew directly into the Captain's face. No particular notice was taken of this, until the bird had repealed its singular performance. The Captain contested himself, however, with a tnene passing remark on the circumstance, and having lit his cigar, continued his walk. A few itftiwites afterwards, the little stranger renewed its visit, and then flew away. His attention was *iow thoroughly aroused, and being conviocedi from the repetition of the occurrence, that some mysterious meaning lay beneath it, and that a silent appeal was being made to him, gave orders, with ho cause, that the sbjp should be immediately put about. After sailing on the altered lack for, about twenty minutes, be suddenly found himself .among hundreds or drowning victims, who bad managed to swim after their vessel had gone down. In commenting on this- remarkable event, after the work of deliverance- had been accomplished, he emphatically declared that he was! induced to change the course, of his ship solely by the significant circurnsrahce of the bird's visit, and, above all, by its twofold repetition, and that he was perfectly ignorant at the lime of any vessel being near.— Memorials of 'Sergeant William Marjouram, R.A.