90 THE WHALEMAN ; OB, 



CHAPTER V. 



No Prospect of reaching East Cape. — Painful Conviction. — The 

 Province of Christian Faith. — The Wreck visited. — The Natives. 

 — Hope unexpectedly revived. — Ship in Sight. — Comes near. — 

 Signals from the Land. — No Assistance offered. — Sails down the 

 Coast. — Indescribable State of our Minds. —Card in The Poly- 

 nesian. 



The prospect of reaching East Cape for the 

 present was at length abandoned. A conclusion 

 was arrived at, from the necessity of our condi- 

 tion, which was full of disappointed hope, and 

 which required an unusual degree of patient 

 courage to sustain our minds under the painful 

 conviction that we must, after all, spend the next 

 three quarters of a year, if we should live, in the 

 northern regions. How the mind of man be- 

 comes shaped and adjusted to meet certain con- 

 ditions of his being ! If viewed in the light of 

 unavoidable necessity, we see the force and inde- 

 pendence of mind grappling with adverse cir- 

 cumstances, thus proving its original superiority 

 over all outward disadvantages. It is, however, 

 the province of Christian faith in the providences 

 of an all-wise God, which secures to the mind 



