EXPP:RIENCES of an exiled family 375 



tizatiou, and Peter suffered greatly from this cause, 

 returned to England in 1719 for a visit. 



He 



Annual 

 Family 

 Reunion 



VII 



After the Fontaines emigrated to Virginia, they were 

 in the habit of meeting annually, to hold a solemn re- 

 ligious thanksgiving, in commemoration of their remark- 

 able preservation when attacked by French privateers in 

 the south of Ireland. A sermon preached by Rev. Peter 

 Fontaine, on one of these occasions, is i^reserved, bearing 

 date of 1st June, 1723, text, Eom. 15 : 5, 6. His three 

 points are : Firstly, The duty here enjoined, that is, to 

 glorify God. Secondly, The manner of performing it, 

 that is, with one mind and one mouth. And Thirdly, 

 Put you in mind of your high obligations to comply with 

 this duty, not only because of the signal deliverance 

 which we are met to celebrate, but by reason of that 

 infinite niunber which God hath vouchsafed to favour us 

 with at other times, no less worthy of oiu- remembrance 

 and thanks. 



A distinguished son of this famous family was Matthew 

 Fontaine Maury, "The Pathfinder of the Seas." He 

 was born in Spottsylvania County in 1806. He became a 

 midshipman in the navy at nineteen, but his career as an 

 active officer was cut short by an accident which lamed 

 him for life. After that he devoted himself to study, and 

 his contributions to useful knowledge have been excelled 

 by those of no man of his time. He was the founder of 

 the modern science of hydrography. His great work, 

 ''The Physical Geography of the Sea," published in 

 1856, made him at once world famous ; it was the pio- 

 neer venture in a new field, and though new facts have 

 been and will be added to our store of knowledge of ocean 

 winds and currents, it will always be remembered that 

 Maury " blazed the trail." He was the first to plot out 

 the path of the Gulf Stream ; he originated the system of Deep sea 

 deep sea sounding ; he was the first to suggest the laying ^°""'*"* 



Matthew 

 Fontaine 

 Maury 



Founder of 

 Hydrography 



