20 The Life and Writings of 



tune that I will, I am sure, be pardoned for expressing 

 thus strongly my belief in the. truth of the story of 

 shipwreck. It appears to me that the incident is ex 

 tremely important in weighing certain facts of his after 

 life. 



It was midnight of the second of November, 1815, in 

 a dense fog, on Race Rock, off Fisher s Island, at the 

 eastern end of Long Island Sound, that the good ship, 

 which had brought Rafinesque and his possessions across 

 the Atlantic in safety, went down. Striking on the 

 rocks, her keel was entirely torn away, and when a swell 

 landed her beyond the rocks she rapidly filled and sank. 

 Down with her went the results of years of toil and of 

 labor, both mercantile and scientific. To quote the lan 

 guage of the sufferer: 



&quot; I had lost everything, my fortune, my share of the cargo, my 

 collections and labours for 20 years past, my books, my manu 

 scripts, my drawings, even my clothes ... all that I possessed 

 except some scattered funds and the Insurance ordered in Kngland 

 for one third of the value of my goods.&quot;* 



I can imagine the condition of this man under these 

 circumstances. I can see him walking the streets of 

 New London &quot;in a state of utter despair&quot;. Here, in 

 this misfortune, and resulting from it, began that mental 



*Vidc &quot;A Life of Travels&quot;, etc., pp. 48, 49. 



