Captain Mugford | Page 6

the wreck as it lay, well preserved and firmly
held in the rocks above ordinary high-tide. He proposed, at some future
time, to make use of it as a sort of storehouse, or perhaps dwelling for
labourers. A shipwreck! a real wreck! and on our cape! stranded on the
very shore of our Robinson Crusoe-like paradise! Just imagine our
excitement.
The particulars of the wreck were as follows:--A brig of 300 tons
burden, on a voyage from South America to the Thames, having lost
her reckoning in consequence of several days' heavy gale and thick
weather, suddenly made the light on the Lizard, and as quickly lost it
again in the fog which surrounded her. The captain, mistaking the light
he had seen for some other well-known beacon, set his course
accordingly. That was near nine o'clock in the evening. The wind and
tide helped him on the course steered, and a little after midnight the
misguided brig struck on a rock three-quarters of a mile south-west of
our point of land. The wind had then increased to a gale, and was
gathering new strength with every moment. In less than an hour the
thumping and grating of the vessel's keel ceased, and then the captain
knew that the rising tide had set him off the rock; but, alas! his good
brig was leaking badly, and the fierce wind was driving her--whither
the captain knew not; and in five minutes more, by the force of the
wind and suction of the shore current, she was thrown high up on a
rocky projection of our cape. One sailor was washed overboard by the
breakers as she passed through them, and was dashed to death,
probably in an instant, by the fierce waves. The next day, when the

storm had abated, the body was found far above where the brig lay
fastened immovably in the vice-like fissure of enormous rocks. Twenty
sovereigns, which perhaps the poor fellow had saved to bring home to
his old mother, were found in a belt around his waist.
The damaged cargo was removed, and the wreck sold at auction, my
father being the purchaser.
There was an old church situated on the summit of a neighbouring
point of land, and to its now seldom used churchyard the body of the
poor sailor was conveyed. His grave was one of the first points of
interest to us when our visit to the cape commenced; and many a time
that season did I sit and watch the brown headstone topping the
bleakest part of the sea-bluff, and as the great voice of the sea, dashing
and foaming on the stony beach beneath, sang in its eternal melancholy
grandeur, I fancied long, long histories of what might have been that
sailor's life; and I wondered sadly if the poor mother knew where her
son's grave was, and whether she would ever come to look at it. On the
stone was written:--
HARRY BREESE LIES HERE, NEAR WHERE A CRUEL
SHIPWRECK CAST HIM, MARCH 23RD, 1814: AGED 24 YEARS,
2 MONTHS, AND 17 DAYS. REST IN PEACE, POOR BODY; THY
SHIPMATE, SOUL, HAS GONE ALOFT, WHERE THY DEAR
CAPTAIN, JESUS, IS.
By the 7th May everything was prepared for our departure. On the next
morning early we were to start in the stage-coach, and, what had lately
added to our brilliant anticipations, Harry and Alfred Higginson, two of
our most intimate friends, were to go with us--to be with us all the
summer, join our studies and our fun. But we were to separate from our
father and mother, and from our dear sister Aggie and the little
Charley--from all those dear ones from whom we had never been
parted for a day and night before. We were to leave for half a year. All
this, covered at first by the hopes and fancies we had built, and by the
noise and activity of preparation, appeared then, when everything was
packed, and we, the evening before the journey, drew our chairs about
the tea-table. The prospect of such a magnificent time as we expected

to have on the cape lost some of its brilliancy. Indeed, I positively
regretted that we were to go. We boys were as hushed as frightened
mice.
After tea, Drake and I got very close to our mother on the sofa, but
Walter lounged nervously about, trying to appear, I think, as if such an
affair--a parting for six months--were nothing to such a big fellow as he.
Aggie came and held my hand. When our father had taken his usual
seat, he and our mother commenced to give us careful instructions how
we were to regulate our time and conduct during our separation from
them; we were directed about our lessons, clothes, language, and play;
to be