With this decision he felt that he had abundant cause for dissatisfaction. But trusting to the repeated (though unofficial) assurances of President De Peyster, of pecuniary remuneration, he refrained from manifesting it, and, having submitted to the decision of the arbitrators, he left the city for his home, not doubting that the promised remuneration would be awarded him.

A month passed, however, without a line from the office of the National Insurance Company, and so a second month, when he could no longer doubt that no further action on their part was intended. Indignant at such treatment, and mortified at being thus duped, he determined, at least, to give expression to the feelings excited by their conduct.

Accordingly, under date of Lancaster, December 22, 1820, he addressed a letter to the president of the National Insurance Company, in which he referred to his communication of the 5th of October previous, enumerating the unusual services he had rendered the company, in the recovery and successful employment of the Beaver, and further remarked that, if he had condescended to make invidious comparisons, he could have proved that what they considered to be an extra commission bore no proportion to the extra earnings of the Beaver over every other vessel then on the Peruvian coast, and this less from a concurrence of favorable circumstances than from his superior management.

He reminded him of his promise of remuneration, and of its being repeated at a subsequent interview; which promise he was now forced to believe was made with the express design of throwing him off his guard, in or

MEANNESS OF THE UNDERWRITERS.

223

der the better to deceive him; and that the success attending it had been doubtless gratifying to all who shared the two and a half per cent. thus saved to the company. The letter closed with the remark that,

"Had I conducted your business with as little regard to the observance of the rule of 'doing unto others as we would that they should do unto us' as has been observed in this instance towards me, the result of the Beaver's voyage would have been very different from what it is."

To this letter he never received a reply.

It is only proper to add the following extract from my father's narrative:

"It would be doing injustice to the venerable and respectable president of the company not to acknowledge that, although of necessity he was the person to be officially addressed, I believe him to have been incapable of a mean or dishonorable act, and that when he made the promise alluded to he sincerely believed the directors would confirm it, as he knew they ought. Two of the directors expressed to me their disapproval of the curtailment of my commission, and a third said to me that he felt shame at being one of an association capable of such dishonorable conduct. But there was one individual among the directors whose great wealth gave him a preponderating influence in the affairs of the office. The greater deference paid to his opinions was very perceptible, and it is probable that the president, taking it for granted that a handsome compensation could not honorably be withheld, had the temerity to assure me of it before consulting with him, and thus caused the defeat of his intention."

More than sixty years have passed since the occurrence of the above transactions, and all the parties to it have long since departed from their earthly labors.

At this distance of time there can be no impropriety in giving the names of the individuals referred to.

The influential director by whom the president was overruled was the Honorable Philip Hone, and the one who expressed his sense of shame at the action of the company was Gardner Howland, Esq.

As an interesting episode, and as exhibiting a phase of my father's character of which there is no hint in his narrative, I may here appropriately introduce an extract from one of his letters to my mother, written from New York under date of December 21, 1821, just one year after the time of the occurrences just narrated.

Mr. Astor had then returned from Europe, and my father's business was with him, but, as will be seen, he postponed the interview in order to attend the ordination of the first Unitarian minister in New York, an event the importance of which (whether for good or evil) in the minds of the religious world at that day few now living can recall, and no one can estimate by any criterion now in existence.

"NEW YORK, December 21, 1821. “I wrote you a hasty line on the morning of my arrival here, and then mentioned to you that it was the day on which Mr. Ware was to be ordained, but doubted whether I should attend. As the day was rainy, however, I concluded the house would not be crowded; there was no immediate necessity of seeing Mr. Astor, and the ordination of the first Unitarian minister in New York might prove an epoch in the history of the Church, the retrospect of which (when error and bigotry shall be abolished by the light of reason and truth, of which this may be considered the dawn) will be viewed with great satisfaction and complacency, particularly by those who have maintained it in spite of popular clamor. These considerations determined me to attend the ordination, where I was exceedingly gratified in witnessing the most solemn, sublime, and affecting services, such as were strikingly calculated to contrast the nothingness and

ORDINATION OF MR. WARE.

225

imbecility of earthly pursuits with those profoundly grand and sublime ones which have God and Eternity for their object. The house, though small, was not more than two thirds filled. This was partly owing to the weather, but probably more to the apprehension of being contaminated. Alas! they are ignorant of what they have lost. The services were opened by an anthem on a well-toned organ, accompanied by a select choir, which was very good. The introductory prayer by Mr. Taylor was succeeded by a hymn from the society's collection. The sermon by Dr. Ware, from Acts xxviii. 22, was everything that would be expected from that distinguished scholar, evincing a depth of erudition, a profundity of thought, an independence of mind, and a consciousness of being guided alone by truth and reason, that carried persuasion and conviction along with it. Having progressed nearly through his sermon, he then addressed his son (the candidate) in a style so solemn and pathetic as exceedingly to affect the audience, and closed with recommending him to his people. The ordaining prayer by Dr. Harris was very well, followed by a hymn said to have been composed by Mr. Pierpoint. The charge by Dr. Bancroft was very good, but its excellence was diminished by bad delivery. The right hand of fellowship by the brother of the candidate was excellent, and not less affecting than the address from the father; indeed, the speaker himself was so far overcome that he proceeded with difficulty, and the audience sympathized with him. A concluding prayer by Mr. Pierpoint, and a hymn to the tune of 'Old Hundred' (in which I heartily joined) closed the interesting services. This event has, as yet, been noticed by no other paper in the city than the Evening Post."

10*

CHAPTER XIV.

1821-1860.

Failure to Secure the Proceeds of his Adventures.- Pursuit of Arizmendi to Hamburg and subsequently to Madrid. — Mr. Shaler Appointed Consul at Havana.- My Father Goes with him as Vice-Consul.-Death of Mr. Shaler.-Obtains an Office in Boston Custom-House. - Takes up his Residence with me, and Dies in my House at the Age of Eighty-seven.

THE Voyage just narrated, in the Beaver, was the last of a series of voyages to most parts of the habitable globe, during a period of twenty-four years, in various kinds of craft, from the boat of twenty-five tons to the Indiaman of a thousand tons, and, as will have been seen, on the most laborious and hazardous enterprises.

A remarkable fact, which is well worthy of notice, is that during that long period, some portion of which was passed in the most sickly climates of the globe, my father never lost but three men of his crew-two by fever, after leaving Batavia, and one by a fall from the masthead. Although he was repeatedly at sea for five months on a single passage, he was never under the necessity of putting his men on allowance of provisions or water; and to this circumstance, combined with guarding them from unnecessary fatigue and exposure, he was probably indebted for the happiness of escaping, not only that terrible scourge to seamen on long voyages, the scurvy, but almost all other kinds of sickness.