452 
VISITS TO MADAGASCAR. 
CHAP. XVI. 
years had passed away since I had left those islands, and it 
was an unexpected satisfaction to my own mind to find that 
the Christian sentiments embodied in a simple hymn, which 
had been prepared chiefly with a view to implanting seeds of 
truth in the minds of the young, had afforded consolation and 
support to the mind of a native of those islands in the lonely 
solitude of a distant ocean, amidst the perils of shipwreck, 
and the prospect of death; and I mention this circumstance 
for the encouragement of other labourers in the cause of 
humanity and religion, that they may cast their bread upon 
the waters, and labour on, in the assurance that no sincere 
effort will he altogether in vain, though its results should 
never he known. 
The ship from which these two men were saved was the 
“ Henry Crappo 99 from Dartmouth, Massachusetts, a whaler, 
full, and homeward bound. Many particulars of their peril 
were afterwards related to us by the captain. While drifting 
on their raft they had been pursued by two sharks. One 
attempted to seize them, hut by drawing up their legs from 
the water as well as they were able, and chopping at their 
assailant with a small hatchet found in the fragment of the 
boat of which their raft was constructed, they succeeded in 
driving him away. They had been two days and two nights 
in the sea, and the only refreshment they had had was a small 
lime or lemon which the captain found in his pocket, and 
cutting it in half divided with his companion, and a piece of a 
pumpkin from their own ship, which floated past on the 
following day. 
Soon after this incident we reached the Cape of Hood Hope, 
where our rescued mariners left us to proceed to America. 
Sailing from this port we touched at St. Helena and the 
Island of Ascension, and by the care of a watchful and 
gracious Providence reached England in safety on the 20th of 
March, 1857. 
