Frank was the life of the family in the drawing-room, and Tom interested
and astonished the inmates of the kitchen with the accounts he gave them
of his own adventures and his young officer's exploits and gallant
deeds. It is possible that some of his companions might have preferred
hearing him sing a rollicking sea song, and seeing him dance a hornpipe,
as most seamen are represented as doing on all possible occasions; but
they soon found out that such was not Tom Holman's way. He could talk,
though, and laugh, and be very merry at times, and never seemed unhappy;
and Mary Jones, Mrs Morgan's old nurse, declared that he was the
pleasantest, and nicest, and quietest, ay, and more than that, the best
young man she had seen for many a day. Not that he was very young, for
he was certainly over forty. Tom Holman was more than pleasant--he was
an earnest, Christian seaman. Happily there are many such now-a-days,
both in the Royal Navy and in the merchant service--men who are not
ashamed of the Cross of Christ. Tom and Mrs Jones soon became fast
friends, and it was through her that the way in which he and Frank first
became intimate was known to Mrs Morgan and the rest of the family.
"You see, Mrs Jones," said Tom, as he sat with her in the housekeeper's
room, "I was pretty well a castaway, without friends, without home,
without any one to care for me, or show me the right course to sail on.
I had got hold of some books, all about the rights of man, sneering at
religion, and everything that was right, and noble, and holy; and in my
ignorance I thought it all very fine, and had become a perfect infidel.
All that sort of books writ by the devil's devices have brought
countless beings to destruction--of body as well as of soul. Our ship
was on the coast of Africa, employed in looking after slavers, to try
and put a stop to the slave trade. I entered warmly into the work, for
I thought that it was a cruel shame that men, because they had white
skins, more power, and maybe, more sense, should be allowed to carry off
their fellow-men and hold them in bondage. I was appointed as coxswain
of the boat commanded by Mr Morgan. Often we used to be sent away in
her for days together from the ship, to lie in wait for slavers. The
officers on such occasions used to allow us to talk pretty freely to one
another and to express our minds. One day I said something which showed
Mr Morgan what was in my mind--how dark and ignorant it was. He
questioned me further, and found that I was an infidel, that I had no
belief in God or in goodness, and that I was unhappy. Some officers
would have cared nothing for this, or just abused me, called me a fool,
and let me alone; others, who called themselves religious, would have
cast me off as a reprobate. But Mr Morgan, whom I always thought only
a good-natured, merry young gentleman, did neither; but he stuck to me
like a friend. Day after day, and night after night, he talked to me,
and reasoned with me, and read to me out of the blessed Gospel, for he
never was without the Book of Life in all our expedition. [See Note 1.]
Whenever he could get me alone he pleaded earnestly with me, as a
friend, nay, as affectionately as a brother. In spite of myself, he
made me listen to him, and I learned to love and respect him, even when
I thought myself far wiser than he was. He persevered. I began to see
how vile I was, how unlike a pure and holy God; and then he showed me
the only way by which I could become fit to dwell with God. It seemed
so plain, so simple, so beautiful, so unlike any idea man could
conceive, that I, as it were, sprang to it, just as a drowning man
springs to a rock, and clutching it, lifts himself up clear of the
tangled weeds which are dragging him to destruction. From that moment I
became a changed man, and gained a peace and happiness of which I knew
nothing before."
"Dr Morgan's regards, and he hopes you'll step into the dining-room,
Mr Holman," said the parlour-maid, opening the door.
Tom was soon seated among the family circle, his manner showing that he
was perfectly at his ease without the slightest show of presumption.
"Tom, they want to hear about our adventures, and I've told them that I
must have you present to confirm my account, lest they should suppose I
am romancing," said Frank, as Tom entered.
"They wouldn't think that, Mr Morgan," answered Tom. "But, however,
I'll take the helm for a spell if you get out of your right course."
"I don't doubt you, old shipmate," said Frank. "But before I get under
weigh with my yarn I want you to give them a few pages out of your log
before you and I sailed together."
Tom guessed what this request meant. "Well, sir, if your honourable
father and mother and you wish it, I'll tell you all I know about
myself. For what I know to the contrary, I was born at sea. My first
recollections were of a fearful storm on the ocean. We were tossing
about in a boat. One of them, whom I for a long time afterwards thought
was my father, had charge of me. He was a kind-hearted man, and looked
after me most carefully. He went by the name of Jack Johnson, but
sailors often change their names, especially if they have deserted, or
have done anything for which they think that they may be punished. He
always called me Tom, and I didn't know that I had any other name till
he told me that my name was Holman, that he had known my father, who was
a very respectable man, who, with my mother, and many other people, had
been lost at sea. He said that he had saved me, and that we, with a few
others, were the only people who had escaped from the wreck. We had
been picked up by a ship outward bound round the Horn. Two of the men
died, the rest entered on board the whaler, and as the captain could not
well pitch me overboard he was obliged to take me; for indeed Jack, who
was the best seaman of the lot, refused to do duty unless I was put on
the ship's books for rations. It was a rough school for a child, but I
throve in it, and learned many things, though some of them I had better
not have learned. The captain seemed a stern and morose man, and for
many months he took no notice of me; but one day as I was trying to
climb up the rattlins of the lower shrouds I fell to the deck. He ran
to me, lifted me up, and carrying me to his cabin, placed me on his own
bed, and with an anxious countenance examined me all over to find where
I was hurt. He rubbed my temples and hands, and Jack, who followed him
into the cabin, said he looked quite pleased when I came to again. I
was some weeks recovering, and he watched over me all the time with as
much care as if I had been his own child.
"`Ah! the man's heart is in the right place, and I'd sooner sail with
him than with many another softer-spoken gentleman I've fallen in with,'
remarked Jack one day after I had recovered.
"We heard from one of the crew, who had before sailed with the captain,
that he had a little son of his own killed from falling on deck, and
this it was which made him take to me."
"Yes, God has implanted right and good feelings in the bosoms of all His
creatures," observed the Doctor. "But when they are neglected, and sin
is allowed to get the better of them, they are destroyed. None of our
hearts are in their right place, as the saying is. They are all by
nature prone to ill. The same man who was doing you the kindness might
in other ways have been grievously offending God."
"Ay, sir, it might have been; but it would not become me to find fault
with one who had rendered me so great a service," said Tom. "After I
was well, he used to have me into his cabin every day to teach me to
read and write, and the little learning I ever had I gained from him.
We had been out four years, and the ship had at last got a full cargo,
and was on the point of returning home, when we fell in with another
ship belonging to the same owners. The captain of her had died, and the
first mate had been washed overboard, and so the supercargo invited our
captain to take charge of her. As he had no wife nor children living at
home, this he consented to do, and thus it happened that I remained out
in the Pacific another four years. Tom for my sake went with him to the
other ship. We were nearly full.
"`One more fish, and then hurrah for old England, lads,' sung out the
captain, as three sperm whales were seen spouting from the mast-head.
"All the boats were immediately lowered. Jack was in the captain's
boat. Away they pulled from the ship in chase. Those sperm whales are
sometimes dangerous creatures to hunt. We saw that the captain's boat
was fast, that is to say, he had struck the whale. Away went the boat,
towed at a great rate. Suddenly she stopped--the whale rose. The
captain pulled in to strike another harpoon into her. The monster
reared her powerful tail and struck the boat a blow which split her
clean in two. We had not a boat left to go to our shipmates'
assistance; the other boats were far away in other directions. The wind
was light, but we were able to lay up towards the spot where the
accident had occurred. We could at length see the wreck of the boat and
two men clinging to her. I hoped that one might be Jack and the other
the captain; for they were, I may well say, the only two people I cared
for in the world, or who cared for me. Eagerly I looked out. `It's Jem
Rawlins and Peter Garvin,' I heard some one say. My heart sank within
me. Jem and Peter were got on board. They were, of all the crew, those
I had the least reason to like. They told us that the poor captain had
got the line entangled round his leg, and had been drawn down when the
whale sounded, and that Jack had been killed by a blow from her tail.
It seemed wonderful that they themselves should have escaped,
considering the fury with which the whale attacked the boat. Thus was
the last link broken which, as it were, connected me with my lost
relations, and I might say that I had not a friend in the world. All I
knew about myself was that Jack had saved me from the wreck of a ship
called the `Dove,' which, with my name, `Tom Holman,' he had tattooed on
my arm. He had also put into a tin case the belt I had on and one or
two other little articles, which tin case was in his chest. It was
unanimously agreed on board that I should be his heir, so I succeeded to
the chest, the chief article of value in which was the tin case. I took
it out, and have ever since preserved it carefully, though with little
hope of finding it of use. I had become very fond of reading, and had
read all the books in the captain's cabin. There were not many of them,
and there was not one which had religion in it, and I am very certain
that there was not a Bible on board. I only knew that there was such a
book from the captain, who had read it at home, and I heard him only a
few days before his death regretting that he had not got one. I believe
our ship was not worse than others, and to the best of my belief not one
of the South Sea whalers we fell in with had a Bible on board. The
crews, as a rule, were lawless reprobates, and the masters petty
tyrants, who cared nothing for the men, provided they would work to get
their ships full. We sailed for England by the way of Cape Horn. I
wished to go there because I wished to see what sort of a country it
was, and to enjoy the amusements of which I heard the men talking. We
had a prosperous passage till we were in the latitude of the Falkland
Islands, when we were caught in a heavy gale, and after knocking about
for some time in thick weather, when no observation could be obtained,
we found ourselves with breakers under our lee, and a rocky shore
beyond. The masts were cut away and anchors let go, but to no purpose;
the ship parting from her anchors was driven on the rocks. Nearly half
the crew were washed away, and the rest of us succeeded in gaining the
shore, soon after which the ship went to pieces, and all the cargo which
we had toiled so hard to collect was returned to the sea from whence it
was obtained. Very few provisions came on shore, but there was a fair
supply of canvas and plenty of ropes. We at once therefore put up a
tent for ourselves, and placed all our more valuable possessions under
cover. With some spars which came on shore we formed a lofty flagstaff,
on which we hoisted a flag, in the hope that it might be seen by some
passing vessel. There were springs of good water near the shore, and as
long as our provisions lasted we got on pretty well, but when they began
to fail the men looked at each other and asked, `What next?'
"`Oh, some ship must be passing soon, and will take us off,' cried out
two or three, who were unwilling to be placed on reduced rations.
"`But suppose no ship does pass, lads, what will you do? I have to tell
you that, with the greatest economy, our provisions will not last
another ten days,' said the first mate, who was now captain. `It is
barren and sandy here, but maybe, if we push our way across the island,
we may find a richer country, and some animals on which we may live.'
"Some agreed to the mate's proposal, others determined to remain on the
sea-shore. I accompanied the mate. The provisions were equally
divided, and those who remained said they would try and catch some fish,
in case theirs ran short.
"`Try and catch them at once, then,' said the mate; `don't wait till you
are starving.'
"In our party was a man who had been in South America, and could use the
lasso with dexterity. He and another man fitted two lines for the
purpose, in the hope of finding some wild animals. The rest laughed at
them, declaring that in an island where there was not a tree to be seen,
and only some long tufts of grass, it was not likely that we should find
anything but snakes and lizards. We had made good some ten miles or so,
when we came upon a scene of desolation such as I have seldom elsewhere
met with. Far as the eye could reach the surface of the ground was one
black mass of cinders. The men looked at each other.
"`Little prospect of finding any animals hereabouts,' observed one of
the men.
"`Not so sure of that,' said the mate, kicking up the ashes with his
foot. Under them appeared some blades of green grass just springing up.
"`To my mind the fire has run across the island at this part, which
seems to be somewhat narrow, for from the top of that rock I climbed I
could make out the sea on either hand; and thus, you understand, it may
have driven the animals, if there are any, over to the other parts
beyond, where I hope we may find them.'
"`But how is it that the animals didn't run our way?' asked one of the
men.
"`Because the country where we have been is barren and sandy, and they
have gone to the opposite side, which is very different. To the best of
my belief we shall find herds of wild cattle feeding on the other side
if we bravely push on. Here goes, who'll follow?'
"Saying this, the mate walked on quickly into the sea of cinders. I ran
after him, and the rest followed. The mate supposed that the fire had
occurred only a short time before we reached the island, and had been
put out by the storm which had driven us on shore, or rather by the rain
which accompanied it. We had to sleep that night in the middle of the
cinders, without a drop of water to drink. Some of the men grumbled,
but the mate told them that they ought to be thankful, because there was
no chance of our being burned, which there might be if we were sleeping
in the long grass.
"`Ah, lads, every situation has its advantages, if we will but look for
them,' he remarked; and I have often since thought of that saying of
his.
"On we went, the mate leading, the men often unwilling to proceed till
he uttered a few words of encouragement. At last the sun's rays,
bursting out from between the clouds, fell on some green grass which
clothed the side of a hill before us. It was a welcome sight; and still
more welcome was the sight of a herd of cattle which appeared before us
as we got clear of the burnt district. It was important not to frighten
them. We advanced carefully, the two men with lassoes leading, hiding
ourselves among rocks and bushes, and keeping to leeward of the herd.
To our great satisfaction, the animals as they fed moved on towards us.
Suddenly the men with the lassoes threw them round the neck of a cow,
the nearest animal to us. We sprang forward, laying hold of the ends,
one party hauling one way, one the other. In spite of all her violent
struggles, we had her fast, and one of the men, rushing in, hamstrung
her, and she was in our power. This capture raised our spirits, for we
felt sure that we should never want food on the island, as we might
catch the oxen in pitfalls if not with lassoes. The mate was asked how
he came to suppose that there were cattle on the island.
"`Just because a shipmate, in whose word I could trust, told me he had
seen them,' was the answer. `What better reason for believing a thing
would you require?'
"We camped where we were, and the South American showed us how to cut up
the heifer and to dry the meat in the sun, so that we had as much pure
meat as each of us could carry. As our companions had enough food for
some days longer, the mate wished to see more of the island before
returning. We saw several large herds of cattle, which fed on the long
grass covering the face of the country, which was generally undulating.
We were several days away, and as we caught sight of the flagstaff, we
thought of the pleasure the supply of meat we had brought would afford
our companions. We saw the tents, but no one came to meet us. We
shouted, but there was no shout in return. We feared that they might be
ill, or even dead. We reached the tent, but no one was within; we
looked about, we could find no one. The mate was looking seaward. He
pointed to the offing, where, sinking below the horizon, the white sail
of a ship was seen. It was more than probable that our shipmates had
gone in her, but whether with their own will or carried off by force we
could not conjecture. Some of the men were very angry, but the mate
observed that was wrong. Our shipmates, probably, could not help
themselves. They might have supposed we should not return, and, if they
had gone with their own will, might have been unable to leave any
message for us. The mate was a truly charitable man, for he was anxious
to put the best construction on the conduct of our shipmates. There,
however, we were left, with a diminished party, with the possibility
that another ship might not approach the coast for many months to come.
The summer was drawing to a close. It had been somewhat damp and cold,
and we expected that the winter would be proportionally severe.
"`We may get off, but we may possibly have to stay; and if we are wise,
lads, we shall prepare for the worst,' said the mate; and telling the
men what would be wanted, forthwith began the work he advised.
"We were to build a couple of huts, to cut and dry turf for fuel, and to
kill some cattle and prepare the flesh; to hunt for vegetables or herbs,
which might keep off scurvy, and to do various other things.
"`Example is better than precept, Tom, as you will find,' observed the
mate to me. `I never tell men to do what I am not ready to do myself.
That's the reason they obey me so willingly.'
"I've ever since remembered the mate's words, and told them to Mr
Morgan; and I am sure he never orders men to do what he is not ready to
try and do himself if necessary. It was fortunate for all that the
mate's advice was followed. Some comfortable huts were got up, and a
store of provisions and fuel collected before the winter began. It set
in with unusual seventy, and I believe that we should all have perished
from cold, and damp, and snow, had we not been prepared, though I do not
remember that the frost was hard at any time.
"Some of the men abused their companions for going away without them.
"`Let be,' said the mate; `all's for the best. We don't know where they
are now, but we do know that we are not badly off, with a house,
clothing, food, and firing. These islands are not so much out of the
way, but what we are certain to get off some day or other, and in the
meantime we have no cause to complain. Let us rather be thankful, and
rejoice that we are so well off.'
"I remembered those words of the mate afterwards. It is now my belief
that the mate was a God-fearing man, but religion had been so unpopular
among those with whom he had sailed, that he was afraid of declaring his
opinions, and just went and hid his light under a bushel. What a world
of good he might have done us all if he had spoken out manfully! As it
was, all that precious time was lost. The mate did speak to me
occasionally, but timidly, and I did not understand him. How should I?
It was not till long afterwards, as Mr Morgan knows, that I became
acquainted with Christianity. Before that I was as a heathen; I knew
nothing of Christ, nothing of God. The winter passed away, the spring
returned, and the summer drew on, and not a sail had been seen. All
hands became anxious to get off, and from early dawn till nightfall the
flag was kept flying, and one or more of the party were on the lookout
from Flagstaff Hill. At length a sail hove in sight. Nearer and nearer
she came. `Would our flag be seen?' was now the question. The wind was
off the shore, she tacked, she was beating up towards us. From her
white canvas and the length of her yards she was pronounced to be a
man-of-war corvette, and her ensign showed us that she was English.
Some of the men declared that they would rather live the rest of their
days on the island than go on board a man-of-war; but the mate told them
that they were very foolish, and that if they did their duty they would
be better treated than on board most merchantmen. I shared their fears,
for I had heard all sorts of stones about the treatment of men on board
men-of-war, which I have since found to be absurdly false. The end was
that we all stood ready to receive the boat when she reached the beach.
A lieutenant with a midshipman came in her. They were very much
surprised to hear that we had been a whole year on shore, observing that
we must have saved a good supply of provisions from the wreck. When the
mate told them of the wild cattle, and that we could catch some, they
begged us to do so, saying that the purser would purchase the meat from
us for the ship's company. They accordingly returned on board, but soon
came back with the butcher, and by the next day we had six or eight fine
animals ready for them. The officer kindly gave us permission to carry
off any of our property which could be stowed away on board. From the
considerate treatment the men received, they all volunteered into the
service, and I was rated as a ship's boy, and from that day to this have
belonged to the Royal Navy of England. The mate was promised promotion
if he would join.
"`At all events I do not wish to eat the bread of idleness,' was his
answer. `I'll do duty in any station to which I am appointed.'
"The corvette was bound round the Horn, so back again into the Pacific I
went. We touched at many places in Chili and Peru, and then stood to
the west to visit some of the many islands in those seas. I had been
about a year on board when one day an object was seen from the
mast-head, which was made out to be a boat.
"There was one man sitting up in her, but three others lay dead under
the thwarts. The man was brought on board more dead than alive, and had
it not been for the watchful care of our surgeon he could not have long
survived. At first he was nothing but skin and bone, with sunken eyes
and hollow cheeks, but when he got some flesh on him I recognised him as
one of my shipmates who had deserted us on the Falkland Islands. He had
not, it seemed, discovered any of us, and of course in two years I was
so grown that he did not know me. So one day, sitting by him, I asked
him how it was he came into the plight in which we found him. He told
me many circumstances of which I was cognisant, and how the ship was
wrecked on the Falklands, and how part of the people had gone off into
the interior, and deserted those who wisely remained on the sea-shore.
`Never mind, they must have got their deserts, and perished,' he added;
and then he told me a ship appearing the day after we left, they had all
gone on board. They soon found that the crew had been guilty of some
foul deed; the captain and mate had been killed, with some others, and
the rest had determined to turn pirates. My shipmate was asked if he
would do so. They swore if he did not that he must die. To save his
life, he with the rest consented to join them. I will not repeat the
account he gave of all the crimes which he and his companions had
committed. He said that he had protested against them, and excused
himself. From bad they went on to worse, and frequently quarrelling,
murdered each other. The end was that this ship was cast away on a
reef, one boat only escaping, and of the people in her, after she had
been nearly a month drifting over the ocean, he alone survived. We who
had been left alone on the Falklands had reason to be thankful that we
had not gone off in the pirate ship. Had we done so, who among us could
have said that we should have escaped the terrible fate which overtook
our shipmates? From the time I learned the Lord's Prayer, there is no
part I have repeated more earnestly than `Lead us not into temptation.'
My poor shipmate never completely recovered from the hardships to which
he had been exposed; his mind, too, was always haunted with the dreadful
scenes he had witnessed, and he often told me that he never could show
his face in England, lest he should be recognised by those he had
wronged. He died the day before we made the coast of England. The ship
was paid off, but I found the naval service so much to my taste, and
there was so little on shore to attract me, that I the next day joined
another fitting out for the Indian station. After this, I visited in
one ship or another most parts of the world. But I think, Doctor
Morgan, you and your lady and the young gentlefolks will be getting
tired, so I'll put off an account of my adventures till another evening.
One thing I must say now, though. I looked upon it as a blessed day on
which I joined the `Rover,' where I met Mister Morgan, and yet there was
a day which I have reason to call still more blessed, when we were off
the coast of Africa."
"Well, well, Tom. Don't talk of that now," said Frank. "I just did
what every Christian man should do. I put the truth before you, and you
believed it. I did not put myself to any inconvenience even to serve
Tom, while he risked his life to save mine. That was after the `Rover'
had come home and been paid off, and we belonged to the `Kestrel,' and
were sent out to the Pacific. I had an idea before we went there that
we were to find at all times calm seas and sunshine. I soon discovered
my mistake. We were caught in a terrific gale when in the neighbourhood
of coral islands and reefs. I had gone aloft to shorten sail, when the
ship gave an unexpected lurch, and I was sent clean overboard. I felt
that I must be lost, for the ship was driving away from me, and darkness
was not far off, when I saw that some one had thrown a grating into the
sea, and immediately afterwards a man leaped in after it. He was
swimming towards me. There seemed a prospect of my being saved. Still,
how the man who had thus nobly risked his life for my sake, and I could
ever regain the ship, I could not tell. I struck out with all my
strength to support myself, and prayed heartily. I soon recognised Tom
Holman's voice, cheering me up. He clutched me by the collar, and aided
by him I gained the grating. Two or three spars had been thrown in
after it, and, getting hold of them we formed a raft which supported us
both. By the time we were seated on it the ship was far away, and it
seemed impossible that in the dangerous neighbourhood in which I knew
that we were, the captain would venture to return on the mere chance of
finding us, should we indeed be alive. Our prospect outwardly was
gloomy indeed, though we kept up hope. I was sorry when I thought that
we should be lost; that Tom had, as I fancied, thrown away his life for
my sake. However, we will not talk of that now. We were drifting, that
was certain, and might drift on shore, or we might be driven against a
reef, when we must be lost. It was now night, though there was light
enough to distinguish the dark white-crested seas rising up around us,
and the inky sky overhead. Still we knew that there was the Eye of Love
looking down on us through that inky sky, and that though the rest of
the world was shut out from us, we were not shut out from Him, without
whose knowledge not a sparrow falls to the ground. I say this to you,
dear father and mother, because I wish to show my brothers and sisters
the effect of your teaching. I wished to live, but I was prepared to
die. The water was warm, and as we had had supper just before I fell
overboard we were not hungry, so that our physical sufferings were as
yet not great. Hour after hour passed by; the raft drove on before the
wind and sea. We supposed that it must be near dawn, for it seemed as
if we had been two whole nights on the raft, when we both heard the
sound of breakers. Our fate would soon thus be decided. As far as we
were able, we gazed around when we reached the summit of a sea. There
were the breakers; we could see the white foam flying up like a vast
waterspout against the leaden sky. We were passing it though, not
driving against it. A current was sweeping us on. The dawn broke. As
the light increased our eyes fell on a grove of cocoa-nut trees, rising
it seemed directly out of the water. The current was driving us near
them. We sat up and eagerly watched the shore; we had of ourselves no
means of forcing on the raft a point towards it, or in any degree faster
than we were going. Had we been driven directly towards it, on the
weather side, which, in our eagerness, we might have wished, we should
probably have been dashed to pieces; but the current took us round to
the lee side, and finally drifted us into a little bay where we safely
got on shore. You already know how we lived luxuriously on cocoa-nuts
and shell-fish, and about the clear fountain which rushed up out of the
rock in the centre of our island, and how our ship came back after some
weeks to water at that very fountain, and found us safe and well; and so
I will bring my yarn to an end."
"We cannot be too thankful that you were preserved, my dear boy, when we
hear of the terrific dangers to which you and your brave friend were
exposed," exclaimed Dr Morgan. "I will not now speak of our debt to
him, never properly to be repaid, but I would point out to you all, my
children (what struck me as Frank was speaking), how like the way in
which he and Tom were preserved, is that in which God deals with His
people who put their trust in Him. We are in an ocean of troubles, with
darkness around us. We dimly discern breakers rising up on one side,
breakers ahead. We can do nothing to help ourselves, except pray on and
trust in Him. We see at length a haven of safety before us. Our
eagerness gets the better of our faith, but the current of His mercy
drifts round and away from what is really a peril, and we are carried on
into calm waters, and find shelter and rest from danger and trouble."
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Note 1. The author has a dear friend, a naval officer, who was, as is
here described, the instrument of bringing some of his shipmates to a
knowledge and acceptance of the truth; one especially, from being an
infidel, became a faithful follower of Christ. His bones lie sepulchred
under the eternal snows of the Arctic pole. How consolatory to believe,
that amid the fearful sufferings that gallant band was called on to
endure, he, with many others--it may be all--were supported by faith and
hope to the last. We say all, for we cannot say what influence he and
other Christian men may have exerted over their companions during the
long, long years they passed in those Arctic regions ere they perished.