irections to Mr. Ricker in regard
to the duties which would devolve upon him at his death, and intrusted
me with a solemn message to his dearest friends, which I afterwards
faithfully delivered.

On the third day after the fever commenced the BLACK VOMIT set in.
This is generally regarded as a fatal symptom, being almost always the
precursor of death. But the fortitude of the captain never for a
moment forsook him. He was sustained in that dread hour by a guiltless
conscience and a steadfast, deep-rooted, religious principle.

A few hours after this alarming prognostic made its appearance, he died,
while I was bathing his forehead; and a prayer hung upon his lips,
even as the spirit left the earthly tabernacle. He died as became
a Christian; and his features in death were tranquil as those of a
sleeping infant.

His body was soon afterwards brought on deck, where the whole ship's
company were assembled. The funeral rites were simple, but solemn
and impressive; and far away from the friends of his youth, with
no heart-stricken relatives to gather around the coffin, and form a
mournful procession to the grave, and hallow the burial spot with the
tears of affection, the mortal remains of our worthy commander were
launched into the deep. They were committed, not to the silent tomb,
but to that vast burial place, that "God's Acre" of almost illimitable
extent, where deep caves, and recesses invisible to mortal eye, have
served for ages as the last resting place of myriads of human beings,
cut off untimely, without warning note of preparation, from the hopes
and disappointments, the joys and sorrows, of this world; where, without
headstone or monument, inscription or epitaph, to mark the place, with
only the rushing winds to mourn their departure, and the murmuring waves
to chant their requiem,

"After life's fitful fever, they sleep well."

It is remarkable that in no part of the world, in any age, has the sea
been selected as a burial place for the dead. Indeed, the idea of being
drowned at sea, or dying on shipboard to be intombed in the fathomless
ocean, is so abhorrent to many individuals that it is with fear and
trembling they trust themselves on the water. It was a belief of the
ancients, that to insure happiness hereafter, the dead body of a human
being must be covered with earth; otherwise the departed spirit would
never enter the Elysian Fields, but wander restless on the nether banks
of Styx, in full vie