338 



FRUITLESS EXPOSTULATIONS. [1829 



endure any privation — let my fare be that of the meanest creature on 

 board, and I shall be happy, if I can see you in health and safety. 

 Should misfortune be your lot, I would console you ; and I would a 

 thousand times rather share a watery grave with you, than to survive 

 alone, deprived of my only friend and protector against the wrongs 

 and insults of an unfeeling world." 



I then represented to her, in strong colours, the force of objections 

 from another quarter. It was to be admitted that my owners and 

 employers v/ere the best and most benevolent of men. But, as a 

 general principle, merchants would never willingly consent for a ship- 

 master in their employ to be accompanied, on a long voyage, by his 

 wife. Some would object to it on the mean avaricious apprehensions 

 of the lady's food abstracting some fifty dollars from the net profits of 

 the voyage ; others were fearful that the husband would neglect his 

 nautical duties, by attending more to the comforts of his wife than 

 to the interests of his owners. To all these, and a thousand argu- 

 ments of equal cogency, she had ready and plausible replies. 



" As regards the cost of food," she replied, "your owners shall not 

 suffer a cent. Water costs nothing, bread we can buy ourselves ; I 

 want no better fare, if I can only be with you, if I can only see you 

 once in twenty-four hours, and know that you are not sick ; or if sick, 

 that I can have the privilege of nursing you, and administering to 

 your wants. And how little must they know you, Benjamin, who 

 could for a moment suspect that you could neglect your duty on my 

 account. The Antarctic would be doubly safe with me on board ; for 

 your care and watchfulness over her safety would be tenfold increased 

 for my sake. You would know that your wife and the vessel must 

 swim or sink together." 



I will not fatigue the reader with all the arguments urged and 

 refuted on both sides ; but will merely state that my principal objec- 

 tion, next to anxiety for her comfort and safety, was the fear of 

 slanderous tongues, which might injure my professional character as a 

 ship-master, by representing me as studying my own comfort and 

 pleasure, instead of the pecuniary advantages of those who intrusted 

 me with the vessel. I knew that I had enemies who would seize 

 upon the slightest pretext to lessen me in the estimation of merchants, 

 as a man of business. To this she replied, that while conscious of 

 doing my duty to God and man, the shafts of envy could never harm 

 me. I then appealed to female timidity, and endeavoured to alarm 

 her terrors by picturing the dangers of the sea in the most frightful 

 colours. I represented the chance of being shipwrecked on an island of 

 savages, who would massacre the survivors with perhaps the exception 

 of herself, reserved for a still more horrid fate ; the hazard of foun- 

 dering at sea, in a gale of wind, and the crew compelled to save them- 

 selves in an open boat, in the midst of the ocean ; together with many 

 Other dangers of a like nature. 



In this opposition to the fondest wish of her heart, I was ably sup- 

 ported by her parents, brothers, sisters, and friends ; also by my uncles 

 Captains Thomas and Denasen Wood, with their wives and daughters, 

 my sisters, and many respectable friends and acquaintances, who all 



