near you. Ah, my dearest Peter, she is an angel of a woman! It is by her kind care and attention that you are furnished with everything you may have occasion for; and in a most charming letter which my mamma received yesterday, she tells us that she had sent a friend of her own (Mr. Larkham, I suppose), to see you, and assures us that he gave the most favourable account of your looks and health. How exquisitely happy did this account of you make us, and how anxiously shall we wish for a continuance of those blessings to our dear boy. I have not yet had an answer from Mr. Heywood to the letter, in which I requested his permission to go to you; but expect it by the next packet. "If you have received the letters we have already written to you, they will inform you of the situation of our family. Mamma writes next, and we shall, as you desire, forbear to tell you anything it would be desirable to conceal from the world; though, with respect to yourself, my dear excellent brother, as we are all persuaded of your worth and innocence, we have no secret to hide. "Farewell, my best brother, may all good angels guard thee! May that beneficent Being, who has hitherto preserved my brother, watch over him still, is the prayer of "His ever fondly affectionate sister, "Mr P. Heywood to Mrs. Heywood. "H.M.S. 'Hector,' July 12th, 1792. "MY DEAR AND HONOURED MOther, "I have this day, with unspeakable joy, perused your letter and my sister Nessy's of the 29th, for which I had long waited with the most anxious impatience. I am happy to find you have received all my letters, in which I endeavoured to relieve my dear mother's mind as much as possible on my account-thanks be to God they have had that effect! I have written two or three from hence, in which you will find the many marks of kindness and friendship which I have received from Mr. Heywood and my uncle Pasley. I there expressed my desire that none of my relations might come here to see me, as they certainly will not be allowed that privilege, and hope it may have prevented my dearest sister Nessy from proceeding on so long a journey, which I am sure must end in chagrin and disappointment. 'Tis impossible for her to wish more for such an interview than I do, but it cannot be; and how disagreeable would she feel her situation on her arrival, unable to see me, the sole object of a long and tedious journey. Patience, therefore, is requisite for a time. "I have not as yet received the box you were so good as to send me, but it will most likely be here in a day or two. I am sorry, very sorry, to hear that poor little Henry has gone to sea--God help him. He, like me, knew not the troubles he was so soon to encounter-I wish he were safe at home again. I cannot tell you how soon my trial may come on; but we must wait with patience and resignation for the time when I shall be freed from the load of infamy I now bear. I have many questions to ask you, but shall be content with my present knowledge till a more favourable opportunity. My best respects to Dr. Scott and all my other friends; and praying that God may preserve the health of my dearest mother, "I remain, "Your most obedient and dutiful son, PETER HEYWOOD." 66 He wrote at the same time a most affectionate letter to his sister, in which he said :— "Notwithstanding my anxiety to embrace you, nothing, my beloved Nessy, could give me more pain than your arrival here. It is for your own dear sake only, as the disappointment would occasion you a sorrow greater than at present you have any idea of, for you have not experienced the pain of such a restriction. To me, alas! it is quite familiar. I send you two little sketches1 of the manner in which H.M.S. 'Pandora' went down on the 29th August, and the appearance we, who survived, made on the small sandy quay within the reef (about 90 yards long and 60 athwart), in all 99 souls. Here we remained three days, subsisting upon two ounces of bread and a single wine-glass of wine-and-water a day, and no shelter from the meridian (and then vertical) sun. Captain Edwards had tents erected for himself and his people; and we prisoners petitioned him for an old sail which was lying useless, part of the wreck, but, although in the latitude of 11° S., he refused it, and all the shelter we had was to bury ourselves up to the neck in the burning sand, which scorched the skin (we being without clothes) entirely off our bodies, as if we had been dipped in large cauldrons of boiling-water. We were nineteen days in the same miserable situation before we landed at Coupany. From this you may have some faint idea of our wretched condition. I was in the ship in irons, hands and feet, much longer than till the position you now see her in—the poop alone being above water (and that knee-deep),—when Providence assisted me to get out of irons and from her. "With sincere love and duty to my dearest mother, "Ever your most affectionate brother, Miss N. Heywood to Mr. P. Heywood—(Extract.) 66 "Isle of Man, July 22nd, 1792. any of my letters, my "I think I have not yet, in dearest Peter, mentioned one single article of news; indeed I was, and am still, too much interested in one 1 Drawn by himself, and now engraved for this volume. |