DIARY OF CAPTAIN LAMSON 165 



ing our cargo and had got clear for sea, 

 when the captain came on board and told 

 me that the vessel must be got underway, 

 and that he felt quite unwell, and the mate 

 Mr. John Stone was taken unwell the same 

 morning ; they both had a high fever. I pro- 

 ceeded to sea as ordered, Captain Rea fre- 

 quently on deck, till I doubled Cape Ti- 

 beron on the next day. The third day out, 

 Captain Rea was struck with death at the 

 table eating his dinner. He was put in his 

 bed and died in about an hour in a violent 

 delirium. We were but five of us, myself 

 one of the youngest, and part of us not in 

 good spirits. Our situation was rather dis- 

 tressing. At five P. M. we had the corpse 

 prepared for interment. Mr. Stone, the 

 mate, who I had endeavored to reconcile, 

 and who was very weak, then consented to 

 attend the burial, while I read several chap- 

 ters appropriate to the interment of a per- 

 son, in the absence of a church book. We 

 had no sooner committed the poor captain 

 to the deep, than Mr. Stone fell away in a 



