222 WHALING 



the Isthmus of Panama, he found waiting for him the letter that 

 told him that his father was dead. 



He returned to his native state, and there spent the active 

 years of a notable life. But to his last days, he retained 

 his keen, youthful interest in the lands and seas whither he 

 had gone as a boy whaler; and as long as he lived, he remembered 

 every word of Macaulay's "Lays of Ancient Rome," which he 

 had committed to memory during the tropical nights, when he 

 was standing his trick at the wheel of the old whaleship Lancer, 



