were much complained of by the country gentlemen. How readily the
sailor might have said to his sailor king, Alter the ship's articles,
let all the crew fare alike as to their free choice in religion,
and there will be no grumbling in your noble ship; every subject
will do his duty. The king offered to release any six, and we may
imagine the sailor's blunt answer, What, six poor Quakers for a
king's ransom!! His Majesty was so pleased as to invite him to come
again, when he introduced another member of the Society of Friends,
Thomas Moore. At this period an amazing number of Friends, men and
women, were in the jails throughout the kingdom, torn from their
families, and suffering most severe privations, under which great
numbers had perished. The application for the release of the
survivors, thus happily commenced, was followed up with zeal and
energy, and crowned with great success. This narrative solves all
those difficulties which rendered that remarkable event extremely
mysterious. The question naturally arises why so debauched and
dissolute a king should prefer such tight-laced Christians to be
the peculiar objects of his mercy. The reason is perfectly obvious,
he owed his life to one of their members, who, however poor as to
this world, possessed those riches of piety which prevented his
taking any personal reward for an act of duty. Shade of the noble
sailor, thy name, Richard Carver, is worthy of all honour! And the
more so, because thy gallant bearing has been studiously concealed
in all the histories of these important transactions. Had he been
a mischief-making Jesuit, like Father Huddleston, his noble deed
would have been trumpeted forth for the admiration of the world in
all ages. His name was left to perish in oblivion, because he was
of a despised sect. It is an honour to Christianity that a labouring
man preferred the duty of saving the life of a human being, and
that of an enemy, to gaining so easily heaps of glittering gold.