1832.] 
DEATH OF MR. OLIVER. 
329 
effect, the ravages and fatal consequences of the disease. One 
seaman expired at half past nine o'clock that morning, and was 
consigned to a watery grave at half past five the same afternoon, 
with all appropriate ceremonies. Had the frigate, during this 
period, been in the midst of a "dead sea," she could scarcely 
have remained more sluggishly on the water. All the elasticity 
of the air seemed to be gone, and every one suffered from the 
extreme lassitude produced by the heat ; and the sick were par- 
ticularly affected by it. 
, The scene was soon changed ; for in the early part of the night 
clouds began to gather and thicken; and before midnight, the 
elements above and around seemed on fire ; so terrific a thunder- 
storm had not been witnessed during the whole cruise. The air 
was overcharged with electricity ; and flash after flash poured 
forth, illuminating the whole ocean for miles around, while the 
rain fell in torrents — and this continued, with but little intermis- 
sion, until morning. 
" Loud, and more loud, the rolling peals enlarge, 
And blue on deck their blazing sides discharge, 
Now in a deluge bursts the living flame, 
And dread concussion rends the ethereal frame ; 
The skies asunder torn, a deluge pour. 
Amid the electric blaze, and thunder's roar." — Falconer; 
It was a night long to be remembered ! Not that the frigate 
had encountered a typhoon, or run upon rocks or shoals, but that 
the grim messenger, death, had been among her inmates ! At 
about nine o'clock in the evening, the commodore's private sec- 
retary, a man much respected and beloved by all who knew him, 
N. K. G. Oliver, Esq., breathed his last ! — far from his home — 
his wife — his children — and all that he held dear ! For a long 
time before leaving the United States his health had been dehcate, 
and the hope of improving it was the principal inducement which 
caused him to abandon his domestic enjoyments for a voyage round 
the world. Consumption, that insidious foe of human hopes and 
pleasing anticipations, had been wearing and frittering away his 
constitution. His strong and highly-cultivated mind refused to 
participate in the weakness of his body, but retained its vigour 
and cheerfulness until the last moment of his existence. 
Among the loose papers of the deceased was found a scrap, on 
