to all important particulars, as
of authority; it is by a person high in the India House, and contains
the deposition of the surviving officers concerning the loss of the
ship. The pamphlet, I am told, is most unfeelingly written: I have only
seen an extract from it, containing Gilpin's deposition, the fourth
mate. From this, it appears that every thing was done that could be
done, under the circumstances, for the safety of the lives and the ship.
My poor brother was standing on the hen-coop (which is placed upon the
poop, and is the most commanding situation in the vessel) when she went
down, and he was thence washed overboard by a large sea, which sank the
ship. He was seen struggling with the waves some time afterwards, having
laid hold, it is said, of a rope. He was an excellent swimmer; but what
could it avail in such a sea, encumbered with his clothes, and exhausted
in body, as he must have been!

For myself, I feel that there is something cut out of my life which
cannot be restored. I never thought of him but with hope and delight: we
looked forward to the time, not distant, as we thought, when he would
settle near us, when the task of his life would be over, and he would
have nothing to do but reap his reward. By that time, I hoped also that
the chief part of my labours would be executed, and that I should be
able to show him that he had not placed a false confidence in me. I
never wrote a line without a thought of its giving him pleasure: my
writings, printed and manuscript, were his delight, and one of the chief
solaces of his long voyages. But let me stop: I will not be cast down;
were it only for his sake, I will not be dejected. I have much yet to
do, and pray God to give me strength and power: his part of the
agreement between us is brought to an end, mine continues; and I hope
when I shall be able to think of him with a calmer mind, that the
remembrance of him dead will even animate me more than the joy which I
had in him living. I wish you would procure the pamphlet I have
mentioned; you may know the right one, by its having a motto from
Shakspeare, from Clarence's dream. I wish you to see it, that you may
read G.'s statement, and be enabled, if the affair should ever be
mentioned in your hearing, to correct the errors which they must have
fallen into who have taken their ideas from the newspaper accounts. I
have dwelt long, too long I fear, upon this subject, but I could not
write to you upon any thing