THE BLACK PAGE. 
tenants J. II. Ilussell, of the Porpoise, and William Van 
Wyck, of the Hancock, imagined that their mutual 
interests would ho consulted by changing ships, and 
accomplished their wish during the hurry of our de- 
parture; and this pregnant exchange was no sooner 
accomplished than we took the Cooper in tow, and stood 
out to sea on our stormy road to Shaiighae. 
We left the Vincennes and Porpoise at anchor. We 
have never seen the latter since; and, as her imago floats 
by me, enveloped in the dismal and shadowy shroud of 
its unknown fate, it drags with it the names and features 
of lost friends and messmates, endeared to my heart by 
scenes of common peril and long years of brotherly 
association, I close my eyes, and recall those well- 
remembered features; and, as they crowd before me, they 
are changed: oh^hoto changed! The startled imagination 
paints them paled and distorted by the hideous emotions 
of the last struggle, — a struggle in which man, having 
exhausted the vast resoui'ces of his godlike brain in vain 
eftbrts to surmount a danger which is literally insur- 
mountable, folds his arms of useless muscle upon his 
troubled heart and calmly bides his time to die. I close 
ni}^ eyes, and see those fearful shadows crowd around 
me, and the burning tear of powerless pity leaks through 
the unsteady lids and blots the swimming paper. It 
is a brotherly tear, shed over the unknown fate of 
generous hearts, who sank in the fathomless depths of 
the coral sea, or lingered upon the barren rocks of some 
desert island until life faded slowly from their weakened 
grasp. 
Our passage to Shanghae proved even more stormy 
9 
