ADDRESS. 53 



from him are dated September 17, 1831, at Oahu, since when it 

 was reported that he had been at Wallis's Island, and had left on a 

 cruise about the middle of February, 1832. It was known that 

 Captain Kelly intended to visit the Feejee Islands, and thence to 

 shape his course southward, through the numerous groups lying in 

 the direction of New Holland. Since that time no news have 

 been received from him, and there can be no doubt that his vessel 

 has either been wrecked, or taken possession of by the natives. 

 In either case, the crew, or a portion of them, may be at this 

 moment alive, and anxiously awaiting the arrival of some vessel to 

 restore them to their country and friends. I saw at Nantucket, in 

 October last, the wife of Captain Kelly, disconsolate and worn 

 down by grief, with a young and helpless family around her. 

 She can only offer her prayers that our government will despatch 

 vessels to seek for her unfortunate husband and his hapless crew. 



While I remained at Nantucket, I learned from a widowed 

 mother that she had a son on the Feejee Islands. He had been 

 cast away among them nine years ago, and had been for a long 

 time given up by her as lost, when a short time since she received 

 intelligence from him which he contrived to send by a whale ship 

 that passed near the island he inhabited. 



The loss of the ship Mentor, of New Bedford, is fresh in the 

 recollections of all, since the distressing details have been copied 

 into the columns of every newspaper in the Union. The vessel 

 struck upon a ledge of rocks near the Pelew Islands, not laid 

 down on any chart, and, after losing an officer and eleven of her 

 crew among the breakers, the captain and remainder succeeded in 

 reaching the islands, when they were made prisoners by the 

 natives. Of their detention there, and subsequently at Lord 

 North's Island, the barbarous treatment received from the natives 

 of the latter place, the death of some, escape of others, as well as 

 the condition of those left as hostages in the hands of the Pelew 

 chiefs, present a thrilling picture of the vicissitudes to which the 



