HISTORICAL SKETCHES. 211 



tlieir common ancestor. As it would be impossible to 

 give in this work a full account of this family gathering, 

 the reader is respectfully referred to the files of the 

 Nantucket Journal and Inquirer and Mirror. 



It is to be hoped that the example thus set by the 

 Coffins will be imitated by the Macys, Folgers, Star- 

 bucks, Husseys, Gardners, Swains, Barnards, Green- 

 leafs, and Pikes; and after the family reunions have 

 been held, let Nantucket bestir herself and have a 

 grand reunion of all her sons and daughters, which will 

 bring from Cipango and Cathay, from the Orient and 

 the Occident, from u Greenland's icy mountains and 

 India's coral strand," aye, and from the antipodes, 

 every one who, by birthright or any other right, ever 

 claimed this sea-girt isle as his home. 



From the first settlement of the island to the pres- 

 ent, its people have had terrible odds to contend with. 

 First came the troubles, trials, hardships, and also dis- 

 agreements with the Indians, and among themselves, 

 always incident to a new colony in this country. Then 

 came the long, dreary years of the Revolution, bringing 

 suffering to the people and disaster to their great in- 

 dustry; then the war of 1812, with similar experiences; 

 then, in quick succession, the fire of 1836, the finan- 

 cial panic of 1837, the great fires of 1838 and 1846, the 

 "California fever" of 1849, and lastly the great Re- 

 bellion, in which she shared with the whole country in 

 the suffering and the honor. With all this and through 

 all this, the islanders have had Nature herself to con- 

 tend with and overcome ; the immense sand bar lying 

 at the mouth of the harbor, which Nature forgot to 

 remove when she tore away part of the island's hills 



