THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



331 



Burnell Poole 



A SHORT CUT TO THE STAGES 



What's the use of climbing a hawser all the way up and over the side when you can climb in 



by the anchor-chain route? 



from France for their religion. They 

 found congenial homes in Virginia, ar- 

 riving in 1 7 14. Jean de la Fontaine, a 

 man of parts, holding high position in 

 France, became a convert to Huguenot 

 preaching. He was hated because of his 

 holy zeal, and his son tells us he was 

 foully murdered, and piously exclaims in 

 his biography: 



"O, my children, let us never forget 

 that the blood of martyrs flows in our 

 veins, and may God, of His infinite mercy, 

 grant that the remembrance of it may en- 

 liven our faith, so that we may prove not 

 unworthy scions of so noble a stock." 

 That prayer was answered in Maury's 

 life. His pious father read the 'Scrip- 

 tures to his children daily, and Maury's 

 memory was so perfect that all his life 

 he was able to quote from the Bible and 

 give chapter and verse as if the Word 

 were before him. 



As a young naval officer, writing to his 

 brother, Maury said : "Learn your duties, 

 Dick, from the Bible. There you have 



them laid down in example, law, and pre- 

 cept." May we not learn the secret of 

 his greatness in such ancestry and such 

 pious training which burgeoned into such 

 wise counsel ! 



And may we not in this day of appeals 

 to economy and conservation learn from 

 Maury, who, on an income of $19 a 

 month, supported himself and regularly 

 sent one-half of his navy pay to his sis- 

 ter? And may not lovers find in him a 

 kindred spirit when they recall that, 

 when he became engaged, Maury gave 

 his affianced a little seal to be used in 

 writing to him, bearing for the inscrip- 

 tion the simple word "Mizpah" ("The 

 Lord watch between thee and me when 

 we are absent one from the other"). 



Upon Maury's first long voyage, his 

 ship visited the Island of Nukahiva, one 

 of the Marquesas group, where he nar- 

 rowly escaped becoming the crown prince. 

 Just before the last war between the 

 United States and England, Maury's 

 brother, John, and six men had been put 



