nknown shore. I ordered the men to provide each for
himself in the best possible manner, and forget the ship, as it was
an impossibility to save her. We struck: a sea laid me upon the
rocks senseless; and the next would have carried me back to a watery
grave, had not one of the sailors dragged me further up the rocks.
There were only four of us alive; and when morning came, we found
that we were on a small uninhabited island, with nothing to eat but
the wild fruit common to that portion of the earth; and there we
remained sixty days before we could make ourselves known to any
ship. We were at length taken to Canton; and there I had to beg, for
my money was at the bottom of the sea, and I had not taken the
precaution to have it insured. It was nearly a year before I had an
opportunity of coming home; and then I, _a captain_, was obliged to
ship as a common sailor. It was two years from the time I left
America that I landed in Boston. I was walking in a hurried manner
up one of its streets, when I met my brother-in-law. He could not
speak nor move, but he grasped my hand, and tears gushed from his
eyes. 'Is my wife alive?' I asked. He said nothing. Then I wished
that I had perished with my ship, for I thought my wife was dead;
but he very soon said, 'She is alive.' Then it was my turn to cry
for joy. He clung to me and said, 'Your funeral sermon has been
preached, for we have thought you dead for a long time.' He said
that my wife was living in our little cottage in the interior of the
state. It was then three o'clock in the afternoon, and I took a
train of cars that would carry me within twenty-five miles of my
wife. Upon leaving the cars I hired a boy, though it was night, to
drive me home. It was about two o'clock in the morning when that
sweet little cottage of mine appeared in sight. It was a warm
moonlight night, and I remember how like a heaven it looked to me. I
got out of the carriage and went to the window of the room where the
servant girl slept, and gently knocked. She opened the window and
asked, 'Who is there?' 'Sarah, do you not know me?' said I. She
screamed with fright, for she thought me a ghost; but I told her to
unfasten the door and let me in, for I wished to see my wife. She
let me in and gave me a light, and I went up stairs to my wife's
room. She lay sleeping quietly. Upon her bosom lay her child, whom I
had never seen. She was as beautiful as when I left her; but I could
see a mournful expression