66 VISITS TO MADAGASCAE. chap. hi. 



minister, with his wife and family, were soon removed to the 

 hospitable home of Mr. and Mrs. Kelsey. Some of their 

 companions were invited to the habitations of other residents 

 in Port Louis, and the rest remained at the quarantine. 



At a public meeting which the passengers held a few days 

 afterwards, to express their sense of the generous conduct of 

 the officers and crew of the American ship, and to provide 

 some suitable memorial to be presented to Captain Ludlow, 

 I was surprised to meet a gentleman whom I had known in 

 England, and whom I had last met at a bridal party under 

 very different circumstances from those which now brought 

 us together. On a subsequent visit from this gentleman, I 

 learned that one of the passengers, a young man with whose 

 relations I was acquainted in England, had been so crippled 

 by the wreck as to be unable to move, and had lain one whole 

 night upon the rocks, where the surf washed over him. His 

 companions were too weak to carry him ; the sailors of his own 

 ship had left him to die ; but Captain Ludlow had sent four 

 strong seamen to bring him over to the landing-place, de- 

 claring he would not leave the coast while a soul remained 

 on the island. This yoimg man, I was informed, was in the 

 hospital. I lost no time in visiting him there, and he was 

 greatly delighted to meet with some one who knew his family 

 and friends. 



The noble conduct of Captain Ludlow secured for him the 

 esteem and gratitude of the entire community. The governor 

 acknowledged his gallant and disinterested efforts on behalf of 

 British subjects, and the Chamber of Commerce publicly did the 

 same in the most handsome and appropriate manner, accom- 

 panying the expression of their admiration of his generous 

 and humane behaviour, and that of his officers and crew, 

 with the present of a piece of plate, of the value of 120^., 

 to be procured in London, as a memorial of their deep sense 

 of his heroic conduct and distinsruished worth. 



