el, defended her with signal ability and courage, and
kept the pirates off for forty minutes, until the vessel gained the
protection of the fort. John Bromfield, a passenger on board, took
command of a gun, and seconded the endeavors of the captain with such
coolness and promptitude as to contribute essentially to the protection
of the vessel.

In retirement he lived a quiet life in Boston, unmarried, fond of books,
and practicing unusual frugality for a person in liberal circumstances.
He had a singular abhorrence of luxury, waste, and ostentation. He often
said that the cause of more than half the bankruptcies was spending too
much money. Nothing could induce him to accept personal service. He was
one of those men who wait upon themselves, light their own fire, reduce
their wants to the necessaries of civilized life, and all with a view to
a more perfect independence. He would take trouble to oblige others,
but could not bear to put any one else to trouble. This love of
independence was carried to excess by him, and was a cause of sorrow to
his relations and friends.

He was a man of maxims, and one of them was:--

"The good must merit God's peculiar care,
And none but God can tell us who they are."

Another of his favorite couplets was Pope's:--

"Reason's whole pleasure, all the joys of sense,
Lie in three words: health, peace, and competence."

He used to quote Burns's stanza about the desirableness of wealth:--

"Not to hide it in a hedge,
Nor for a train attendant;
But for the glorious privilege
Of being independent."

He was utterly opposed to the way in which business was then
conducted--hazardous enterprises undertaken upon borrowed capital. The
excessive credit formerly given was the frequent theme of his
reprobation.

How changed the country, even in the short space of sixty years! In 1825
he made a journey from Boston to New Orleans, and his letters show
curious glimpses of life and travel as they then were. Leaving Boston at
four o'clock on a Friday morning, he reached New York at ten o'clock on
Saturday morning, and he speaks of this performance with astonishment.
Boston to New York in thirty hours! He was in New York November 4, 1825,
when the opening of the Erie Canal was celebrated. He did not care much
for the procession.

"There was, however," he adds, "an interesting exhibition of steamboats,
probably greater than could be found at any other place in