past history of the South Seas--at least we
thought so--and had never heard of this affair at the Sir Charles Hardy
Group. But we were entirely mistaken in our assumptions.

In the month of April in the year 1906, after a lapse of more than five
and twenty years, the mystery that enshrouded the tragedy of Nisan
was revealed to me by my coming across, in a French town, a small,
time-stained and faded volume of 230 pages, and published by J. and J.
Harper of New York in 1833, and entitled _Narrative of a Voyage to the
Ethiopie and South Atlantic Ocean, Indian Ocean, Chinese Sea, North
and South Pacific Ocean in the years_ 1829, 1830, 1831, by Abby Jane
Morrell, who accompanied her husband, Captain Benjamin Morrell, Junior,
of the schooner _Antarctic_.

Now to her story,

SECOND PART

Opening the faded little volume, the reader sees a wood-engraving of the
authoress, a remarkably handsome young woman of about twenty years of
age, dressed in the quaint fashion of those days. As a matter of fact
she was only four and twenty when her book was published. In a brief
preface she tells us that her object in writing a book was not for the
purpose of exciting interest in her own experiences of a remarkable
voyage, but in the hope that it would arouse philanthropic endeavour to
ameliorate the condition of American seamen. Throughout the volume there
is a vein of deep, yet unobtrusive piety, and the reader is struck with
her self-effacement, her courage, her reverent admiration for her young
sailor husband, and her pride in his gallant ship and sturdy crew of
native-born American seamen. In the _Antarctic_ the young couple sailed
many seas, and visited many lands, and everywhere they seem to have been
the recipients of unbounded hospitality and attention, especially from
their own country people, and English merchants, and naval and military
men. It is very evident--even if only judging from her picture--that she
was a very charming young lady of the utmost vivacity; and in addition
to this, she was an accomplished linguist, and otherwise highly
educated. Her beauty, indeed, caused her many tears, owing to the
"wicked and persistent attentions" of the American consul at Manila.
This gentleman appears to have set himself to work to make Mrs. Morrell
a widow, until at last--her husband being away at sea--she had to be
guarded from his persistent advances by some of the English and American
families resident in Manila. She tel