e; but I did not think they were above one hundred and
seventy or eighty. The number killed, we then imagined,
exceeded one hundred, and as many more wounded; but, some
weeks after, they told us the number missing on the island
was eighty and one hundred and fifteen were wounded, the
greater part dead and dying fast.

This information they gave us at the island of Owyhee, about
fifteen leagues to windward; and we judged it to be true, as
canoes are daily passing from island to island. After our
firing ceased we weighed anchor and stood for the island of
Owyhee.

I have sent this account, as those who are acquainted with
the circumstance think Captain Metcalfe much to blame; and
that should any vessels go to these islands from America
they might be particularly cautious, and not pay too much
attention to the friendship professed for them by these
islanders.

P.S.--They cut off a schooner about six weeks after, which
belonged to Captain Metcalfe, and murdered all the people.

1868--DECORATION DAY--1906.

Among the holidays which are generally observed in the United States, none
excites more reverence in the breast of an American, or more respect in
the mind of a foreigner, than Decoration (or Memorial) Day.

Decoration Day was first celebrated in 1866, by Union soldiers and sailors
in Washington. In the spring of 1868 General John A. Logan,
commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order in
which he named May 30 as a day on which all members of the G.A.R. should
repair to the cemeteries in the towns in which they lived and there spread
flowers on the graves of their dead comrades.

Among the many tributes paid to our dead soldiers none has made a more
profound impression on two generations of American people than the speech
delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863, on the
occasion of the dedication of a part of the famous battle-field as a
soldiers' cemetery. It is here given in full, from a manuscript in
Lincoln's own handwriting.

LINCOLN'S SPEECH AT GETTYSBURG.

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent
a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or
any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a