32 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY - 



Under orders to join the brig Consort at New York and 

 continue the surveying of Southern harbors, Maury 

 left his father's home in Tennessee by stage coach to 

 join his ship. He went by the northern route, and near 

 Somerset, Ohio, on a rainy night about one o'clock in 

 the morning, an embankment gave way and the coach 

 was upset. Maury, having given his seat inside to a 

 woman with a baby in arms, was riding on the seat with 

 the coachman, and was the only person seriously injured. 

 There were twelve other passengers; Maury, the thir- 

 teenth, had his right knee-joint transversely dislocated 

 and the thigh-bone longitudinally fractured. 



His recovery from the injury was slow and painful. 

 The leg was improperly set, and at a time when the use 

 of anesthetics was unknown it had to be reset with great 

 pain to the unfortunate officer. During the three 

 months of his confinement at the Hotel Phoenix in 

 Somerset he managed to keep up his spirits in spite of 

 the suffering and loneliness, and to break the tedium of 

 the dull days he commenced the study of French without 

 the aid of either grammar or dictionary. At last, in 

 January, 1840, he thought himself strong enough to 

 proceed to New York; but it was in the midst of winter 

 and he had to be driven in a sleigh over the Alleghany 

 Mountains. This occasioned considerable delay, and 

 when he at length arrived at his destination he found that 

 his ship had already sailed. He then made his way to 

 his home in Viriginia to recuperate his health and 

 strength under the apprehension that his injury might 

 be so serious as to incapacitate him for further active 

 service in the navy. 



During the long weeks in Ohio he had been greatly 

 troubled with these fears and had considered gravely 



