346 DEATH OF GEERY. [1829 



a painful trial for me to lose his friendship and services at this afflict- 

 ing period. God's will be done. 



A little before eleven o'clock at night, as I had just been success- 

 fully employed in relieving Mr. Hunt from a fainting fit, I was called 

 to Mr. Geery, who for some time had been lying very low, but always 

 patient, calm, and resigned. As I approached him, he reached out a 

 hand to me, now much enfeebled by disease, but which had ever been 

 nerved in the cause of justice, and open in that of humanity. 



" My dear friend," said he, " I am going — and going happy, and 

 perfectly resigned to the will of God : I shall one day meet you 

 in heaven, together with my father and mother, and others who 

 love me." 



The moment I took his cold clammy hand, I was convinced that he 

 was struck with death ; the blood being settled under his nails, and 

 there being little or no perceptible motion in his pulse. I immediately 

 applied the warm vinegar bath, but he told me that it would be of no 

 use, because God wanted him in the other world. I asked him if he 

 was ready and willing to die. He replied that it would be the happiest 

 moment of his brief existence ; for he longed to leave this world, and 

 be with our blessed Saviour. "The angels," said he, "are now 

 hovering over the vessel, waiting for my departing spirit, to take it to 

 the God that gave it." I cannot recollect all he uttered on the sub- 

 ject of his approaching dissolution ; but it was such language as im- 

 pressed me with a full conviction of the sincerity of his piety and 

 religious faith. 



He retained the full exercise of his intellectual faculties to the 

 last moment ; and requested me to assure his parents, brothers, sisters, 

 and friends that he knew Jesus had prepared a place for him in heaven, 

 where he hoped to meet them all in His own good time. He then 

 gave me his hand again, saying he had but a minute or two longer to 

 stay ; but his dying prayer was that the Lord would bless me, because 

 I was a friend to seamen, and had shown kindness to him and all his 

 shipmates during their sickness. " I come, Lord Jesus !" were the 

 last words that he spoke ; when he straightened out his lower limbs, 

 folded his arms across his breast, closed his mouth and eyes, and 

 thus decently composed himself to his final sleep, with a placid smile 

 on his countenance, and without a struggle. 



Thus died, in the very morning of life, as amiable a youth as ever 

 guided the helm or trimmed the sails of a vessel. Quick, penetrating, 

 intelligent, and wise for his years — brave and collected in danger — 

 gentle, affable, kind, and affectionate, under all circumstances. The 

 precepts of Christianity having been early instilled into his tender 

 mind by pious parents and teachers, he looked to Heaven with grati- 

 tude for the blessings he had enjoyed, and with hope for others in per- 

 spective. He died " the death of the righteous, and his last end was 

 indeed like his." He departed this life on the 2d day of November, 

 1829, at eleven, P. M., in lat. 20° 30' S., long. 21° 47' W. The heat 

 of the weather rendered it necessary to bury him soon ; we therefore 

 the next morning, at eleven, A. M., committed his body to the deep 

 with the usual solemnities practised on such occasions. 



