FAREWELL 59 



more being in sight of my native land, and on the 

 threshold, as it were, of the happy home I had left, 

 a feeling of regret, of depression, crept over my spirits, as 

 I felt and contemplated the farewell I had just taken of 

 my considerate friend. 



There was something about the man that attracted and 

 commanded my respect and veneration, if not my love, 

 independently of the interest that one awful occurrence 

 in his early life shed round his name, the distinction he 

 had already gained in the service, or the reputation with 

 which his superior scientific endowments had stamped 

 him as an ornament to his profession. Something also 

 told me that with such an excellent specimen of humanity 

 and myself there could be no compare — that our 

 destinies henceforth Avould lay -wide apart — that my 

 malady, which had been gaining ground, would ever 

 prevent me following in the track of so distinguished 

 a leader, and that I must solace myself with reflecting on 

 my good fortune in having been thrown in the path 

 of so eminent a man. 



With the scene of that farewell deeply impressed on 

 my heart, I fell asleep, as night came on, on the deck of 

 the pilot-boat — and, reader, it has never been effaced. 

 It was many months — I may say two years or more — 

 before I again fell in with my friend, and repaid him 

 what he called the triflino- obliojation he had laid me 

 under, when he took occasion to express his extreme 

 sorrow at my having left the service. 



He continued his brilliant career in the Navy till long 

 after the revolutionary war, stimulating by his exam|)le 

 the exertions of others, to take up, cultivate, and extend 



