responded to his
affection. She was then twenty-two years of age, tall and fair,
with dark hazel eyes, like her English mother, and possessed of such
indomitable spirit and courage that her father often laughingly declared
it was she, and not he, who really managed the business which he
controlled.

And she really did much to help him; she knew his weak, vacillating, and
speculative nature would long since have left them penniless had he
not yielded to her advice and protests on many occasions, Generous
and extravagantly hospitable, he spent his money lavishly, and had
squandered two or three fortunes in wild business ventures in the Indian
Seas instead of saving one. Latterly, however, he had been more careful,
and when Corwell had made his acquaintance he had two vessels--a
barque and a brig--both of which were very profitably engaged in the
Manila-China trade, and he was now sanguine or mending his broken
fortunes.

Isolated as were father and daughter from the advantages of constant
intercourse with European society, the duty of educating the girl was
a task of love to her remaining parent, who, before he entered "John
Company's" service, had travelled much in Europe. Yet, devoted as he was
to her, and looking forward with some dread to the coming loneliness of
life which would be his when she married, he cheerfully gave his consent
to her union with John Cornell, for whom he had conceived a strong
liking, and who, he knew, would make her a good husband.

They were married at Batavia, to which port they were accompanied by Mr.
Leighton, who, during the voyage, had pressed Corwell to leave his then
employment and join him in a venture which had occupied his mind for the
past year. This was to despatch either the barque or brig, laden with
trade goods, to the Society Islands in the South Pacific, to barter for
coconut oil and pearl shell.

Leighton was certain that there was a fortune awaiting the man who
entered upon the venture, and his arguments so convinced the young man
that he consented.

On arrival at Batavia they found there the officers and crew of a
shipwrecked English vessel, and one of the former eagerly took Corwell's
place as chief mate, his captain offering no objection. A few weeks
after Mr. Leighton hired the _Ceres_ to take himself, his daughter, and
her husband back to Ternate, eager to begin the work of fitting out one
of his vessels for the voyage that was to bring them fortune. He, it was