William Henry Giles Kingston

“ The next moment Humphry was left alone. He sat wondering why he had been thus treated. Hadow could certainly not have intended to injure him; at the same time, he could not help fearing that the crew contemplated some dreadful act of mutiny, and that Hadow had contrived to get him up there to keep him out of harm’s way. Nothing could he see but the tall mast above his head tapering towards the dark sky, and the yard and ropes immediately below him. All on deck seemed quiet, no voices reached his ear. ”

“ Though Lance could not help despising the folly of poor Emery, he felt real compassion for him as he continued to talk this sort of nonsense.
“Now, Emery,” he said, “we have been schoolfellows, and you will excuse me for speaking freely to you. Would it not be wiser to accept the position in which you are placed, to work on steadily to gain a good name among those with whom you are associated, instead of aping the manners and customs of people who enjoy wealth and undoubtedly belong to a higher social grade than you do. ”

“ Yet he was sorry to leave Hadow among them, for he had observed, he thought, the signs of something better in him than in his companions, rough and ignorant as he was.
As day dawned the island appeared ahead, rising out of the blue water with black rocks piled one upon another, and some hills of considerable elevation. Humphry observed also a deep sandy bay between the rocks, but an encircling coral reef intervened, over which, even on that calm morning, the sea broke in masses of foam. ”

“ Spurring on his horse, he galloped forward, followed by Martin.
“Don’t fire, father!” cried Martin, “it is a human being.”
Martin was right. They soon discovered that the object they had seen was an old bushwoman, although, but for the scanty clothing which covered her wretchedly thin and diminutive body, she might have been mistaken for some wild animal. She seemed dreadfully frightened, as if expecting instant death. Martin by speaking to the old woman somewhat reassured her. ”

“ He is a God of mercy: He is a God of love; though He hates sin, He loves the sinner, and that love caused Him to form the glorious plan by which His justice and mercy can both be satisfied—by which sinful and rebellious man can become reconciled and fit to inhabit a pure heaven, in which nothing vile and undefiled can enter. That plan I would now with swelling heart unfold to you. That gospel plan which God sent down His well-beloved Son, not only to declare to sinful man, but to carry out. ”

“ It may be considered necessary, as a warning to others, to punish you severely,” answered Lance. “But, my dear Emery, I am very sure that our Father in heaven, whom you have far more grievously offended, will, if you come to Him in His own appointed way, through faith in the Great Sacrifice, with sincere repentance, not only abundantly pardon you, but will inflict no punishment, because the punishment justly your due has been already borne by the Just and Holy One when He died on the Cross for sinners.” ”

“ I expected only to meet gentlemen in a first-class carriage. I would punish them for robbing me if I could catch them—that I would, and they would deserve it! And now to have you, Lance, whom I looked upon as a friend, ferret me out and assist to hand me over to prison, and for what you can tell to the contrary, to the hangman’s noose, if the matter is proved against me. I wish that I was dead, that I do. If I had a pistol, I’d shoot myself, and get the affair settled at once! ”

“ I wish you would just try what the captain or mates would say to you if you were to bother them.”
Humphry put his little Testament into his pocket, determining that his messmate should not get hold of it. Still, much as he valued the book as a gift from his old friend, he looked upon it, as many other people do, as a book to be reverenced, and to be read in times of sickness or trouble; but he had little notion of the value of an open Bible, to be studied with prayer every day in the week, to serve as a light to his feet and a lamp to his path, and to guide him in the everyday affairs of life. ”

“ But, my dear Hugh, agreeing that life is short, I argue that for that very reason we should employ it in a way to prepare ourselves for the event which must occur at its termination. Its very brevity proves to me that it is only a portion, and a very small one, of our existence, and that it is given us to prepare for another and a holier state of existence. ”

“ Mary and Arthur were among the most attentive of those assembled round the preacher.
Much more he said. Another hymn was raised, a prayer offered.
Mary had sat with her eyes on the ground. She looked up, and saw Harry Acton by her side.
“I rejoice that you have been here,” he said. “I will, with your leave, accompany you home.”
Mary said, “Pray do.”
“It is humbling to our human pride to be called on to acknowledge that we are outcast and rebellious sinners,” he remarked, “but it is a truth all must be convinced of before they can understand the value of God’s plan of salvation.” ”

“ The trader shouted to the driver. Again and again he made his huge whip crack, as he struck his team in succession, but without effect; nothing would induce the poor animals to hasten their steps.
“I am much inclined to ride forward, and try and find out the wells myself,” said Mr Vincent to his son. “I am not quite sure that our guide is not playing us false. If I thought so, I would shoot him through the head. It is wiser to trust to one’s own sagacity than to a treacherous guide.”
“O father! do not use violence,” exclaimed Martin. ”

“ Arthur, animated by love for his brother’s soul, continued thus to plead with him, for he dreaded lest he might die in the attempt to move him. He would have pleaded, however, in the same way with any other sufferer, for he knew the value of human souls.
At length several of the people assembled round him, and charitably offered to convey the injured man to a cottage at some little distance from the beach.
“Let me be taken there,” whispered Gilbert; “there is another I should wish to see, to ask her forgiveness for all the pain and sorrow I have caused her, but do not leave me.” ”

“ Arthur, leaving his darling books, hastened out after Gilbert. Mary hoped he might find him, and prevent him committing the act of disobedience he threatened. She loved all her brothers, and the two elder treated her with tenderness and respect. She was a kind-hearted, good-tempered, and intelligent girl, in every way worthy of their love, and possessed of a considerable amount of beauty. She came next to Hugh in age, but she and Arthur were more generally companions, as they agreed in most of their tastes. ”

“ Mr Dulman exerted himself to the utmost to make the party go off well, and poor Mrs Dulman did her best, though she always felt overwhelmed with the responsibilities of the new position in which she was placed, and awed by the great people. Emery, though not a bad-looking young man, felt too much abashed to appear to advantage, in spite of his off-hand manner among his ordinary associates; and though he made many efforts to do the polite to his father’s guests, he as often failed from awkwardness, and would have felt much happier smoking his pipe and drinking beer with old Sass. ”

“ Martin at length had the infinite satisfaction of finding that his father now listened with deep attention to God’s Word when he read it.
“My dear boy,” he said one day, “I now know myself to be a rebel to God, and grievously to have sinned against His pure and holy laws; and I earnestly desire to accept the gracious offer of mercy which He holds out through the atoning blood of Christ, according to His plan of salvation, which you have so clearly explained to me. ”

“ The crew, too, had for some time exhibited a discontented and mutinous spirit, which Captain Deason, from his bad temper, was ill fitted to quell. While he vexed and insulted the officers, they bullied and tyrannised over the men. The crew, though often quarrelling among themselves, were united in the common hatred to their superiors, till that little floating world became a perfect pandemonium.
Among those who paced her deck, anxiously looking out for a breeze, was Humphry Gurton, a fine lad of fifteen, who had joined the Wolf as a midshipman. ”

“ Martin did not say that no English ships were likely to be in the interior of Africa, nor that probably he was the only Englishman within many hundred miles of him, but he replied cautiously that he had come on an embassy of peace, and that he could not suppose the chief would refuse him the simple request he had to make.
“My countrymen,” he added, “are, as I have said, powerful, and lovers of peace, and yet when they are compelled to go to war they never reduce to slavery those they conquer, but wish them to be as free as they are themselves. ”

“ Christ Himself announced it when He said, ‘God so loved the world, that He sent His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.’ Yes, God could not pass over sin; but in His infinite grace and mercy He allowed His only-begotten Son, all pure and holy and obedient, to be punished instead of unholy and rebellious man. He might have sent an angel, but then man would have given to that angel the love and reverence and obedience which is due to Himself alone. ”

“ The loftier sails were taken in, and the top-sails were being closely reefed, when another blast, more furious than the former, struck the ship, and two poor fellows were hurled from the lee-yard-arm into the foaming waters. There was a cry from the crew, and several rushed to lower a boat—Humphry among them.
“Hold fast!” cried the captain; “let the fellows drown; you will only lose your lives if you attempt to save them.” ”

“ He had frequent conversations with Kibo on the subject.
Martin went to the chief, who again expressed his gratitude to him for rescuing his son.
“Yes,” said Martin, “I, it is true, redeemed him from slavery, but that was only the slavery which binds the body; you wish to bring back his soul into slavery, which is ten thousand times worse than that from which I saved him. If he remains with you, and follows your customs, he will be Satan’s slave. ”

“ Yet we should be influenced by a higher motive than that, not by fear alone, but by love and gratitude to Him who has given us life and health, and all the blessings we enjoy, and the promise of everlasting happiness if we will accept the offer He so graciously makes us, and become reconciled to Him, through faith in the great sacrifice—His Son offered upon the cross for us, His rebellious and disobedient creatures. ”

“ I also promised your father to defend the waggon and his property with my life, and if I pursue the enemy I shall leave that defenceless.”
“I will sacrifice the waggon and all its contents rather than allow Kibo to be carried away into slavery,” exclaimed Martin.
“I know your friendship for my son, but it would be useless,” said Kanenge. “If the enemy were to see a party outnumbering them approaching, they would put their captives to death and take to flight. I am better acquainted with the ways of my country than you are. ”

“ One of the poor lads being unable to rise, his companions in misfortune were kicking and pinching him to make him get up, with the exception of one, who was endeavouring to protect him from their cruelty. In that one, though deprived of his English clothes and naked like the rest, Martin recognised his friend Kibo. He was so engaged in his generous efforts to protect the sufferer that he did not at first observe Martin approaching. Kibo, at length seeing Martin, uttering a cry of joy, endeavoured to spring forward, but his chain quickly checked him. ”

“ You will be far more respected, even by them, if you are known to be looked up to by those of your own station in life. I speak from experience: I am treated with kindness and attention, not only by all the clerks in the office, and their friends whom I occasionally meet, but by the head clerk himself, not because I am the son of a naval officer, but simply because I work hard, and try to do whatever work is given me as well as possible. ”

“ Humphry thanked the captain for his offer, which he gladly accepted. Ned looked very grave.
“I am much obliged to you, sir,” he said, “and though I shall be sorry to part from Mr Gurton, I am very sure that I had better stay where I am till God thinks fit to call me from this world. I have lived too long among savages, and worse than savages, to go back again and live with civilised people. If Mr Gurton will leave me his Testament, which he has taught me to read, and his gun and harpoons, it’s all I ask.”
“No, my friend,” observed Mr Evans, “man is not made to live alone. ”

“ Mary gave no opinion, but she did not object to his accompanying them. Mr Maitland, after hearing Arthur’s report, invited Mr Acton in to tea, and seemed favourably impressed with him. He only thought him rather grave, and was surprised that a young man accustomed to country life should not take any interest in races or sporting, and had even declined to join the hunt.
“Life is too short for idle amusement,” Harry observed to Mary one day. “I have abundance of exercise in attending to my farm, and I feel that I am responsible to God for the proper employment of my time.” ”

“ She had shown him from the Bible that all men are by nature sinful, and incapable, by anything they can do, of making themselves fit to enter a pure and holy heaven, however respectable or excellent they may be in the sight of their fellow-men, and that the only way the best of human beings can come to God is by imitating the publican in the parable, and acknowledging themselves worthless, outcast sinners, and seeking to be reconciled to Him according to the one way He has appointed—through a living faith in the all-atoning sacrifice of His dear Son. ”

“ Pray seek for grace to realise the great fact that we are by nature and conduct rebels, vile and foul—that if trusting to our own strength, we are in the power of our great enemy Satan, who is always trying to lead us astray—and that we have no claim whatever to God’s love and protection while here on earth, or to enjoy the happiness of heaven when we leave this world—that there is but one state of existence for which, if we die in rebellion, we can be fitted, that is, to associate for ever with the fallen angels justly cast out from His glorious presence. ”

“ The sufferer’s life was ebbing fast, and in a few minutes he ceased to breathe. Most of those killed were old men and old women, not considered worth carrying off as slaves; or, sadder still, several infants, who, incapable of enduring the fatigues of the journey, had been torn from their mother’s arms and dashed lifeless on the ground. ”