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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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-twenty years afterwards , when iin command of his Majesty ' s ship Montagu , off Gibraltar , an incident occurred which made the thoughts , feelings , and recollections of his youth gush forth in a most beautiful and touching manner . His own language is best , and we give the description ( from a letter ) entire : — Montagu , Gibraltar , Feb . 1 , 1816 .
* An event of rather a singular nature occurred to me two or three days ago , and I confess I have still so much of the savage about me as to have been in no small degree interested by it , I heard accidentally , last Sunday , that there were two poor unfortunate Taheiteans on board the Calypso , who had been kidnapped , and brought away from their island by an English ship about thirteen or fourteen months ago . Thence they went to Lima , and in a Spanish ship were conveyed to Cadiz , where , soon after their arrival last June , they made their escape ,
and got on board the Calypso , where they have remained ever since , unable to make themselves understood , and hopeless of ever revisiting their native country , to which they ardently long to go back ; and God knows , and so do I , that is not to be wondered at . As I thought they would be much more at their ease and comfortable with me , I ordered them to be discharged into the Montagu , and they were brought on board . Never , as long as I live , shall I forget the emotions of these poor creatures , when , on entering the door of my cabin , I welcomed
them m their own way , by exclaiming , — " ' Ma now , wa , Eho , maa ! Yowra t'Eatooa , te harre a mye ! Welcome , my friends ! God save you in coming here !" ' They could scarce believe their ears when I accosted them in a language so dear to them , and which , except by each other , they had not heard pronounced since they were torn from their country . They seemed at the moment electrified . A rush of p ast recollections at once filled their minds , and then , in a tone , and with an expression peculiar . to these people , and strikingly mournful , they sighed out together and in unison : — ' " Attaye , hudv ay ! Attaye huoy to tawa Venooa , my tye ay !
Ita roa ye ne < 5 ay ! Alas ! Alas ! our good country , we shall never see it more ! " 1 took each by the hand , and told them , that if I lived they should be sent home to their country , and assured them , that in the mean time they should remain with me , and that I would be their countryman , their friend and protector . Poor fellows ! they were quite overwhelmed—their tears flowed apace—and they wept the thankfulness they could not express . They looked wistfully at me and at each other . God knows what was passing in their minds , but in a short
tjme they grew calm , and felt comforted ; and they now feel contented and happy . It was a scene which I would not have lost for much more than I ought to say . But there is no describing the state of one ' s mind in . witnessing the sensibilities of another fellow-being , with a conviction , at the same time , that they are true and unaffected . And , good God ! with what ease that is discovered ! What an amazing difference there is between these children of nature and the pupils of art and refinement \ It was a scene worthy of being described by a better pen —a sincere expression of Nature ' s genuine , best feelings , such as we
Untitled Article
f& $ Tagarfa Memoir of Captain Heyzpotrd .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Dec. 2, 1832, page 810, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1826/page/18/
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