ls the story in the most naive and
delightful manner, and the reader's heart warms to the little woman. But
I must not diverge from the subject.

"I am," she says, "the daughter of Captain John Wood, of New York, who
died at New Orleans on the 14th of November, 1811. He was then master
of the ship _Indian Hunter_.... He died when I was so young that if I
pleased myself with thinking that I remember him, I could not have been
a judge of his virtues; but it has been a source of happiness to me that
he is spoken of by his contemporaries as a man of good sense and great
integrity."

When fifteen years of age Miss Wood met her cousin, Captain Morrell,
a young man who had gained a reputation for seamanship, and as a
navigator. They were mutually attracted to each other, and in a few
months were married. Then he sailed away on a two years' voyage,
returned, and again set out, this time to the little known South Seas.
Absent a year--during which time a son was born to him--he was so
pleased with the financial results of the voyage that he determined on
a second; and his wife insisted on accompanying him, though he pleaded
with her to remain, and told her of the dangers and terrors of a long
voyage in unknown seas, the islands of which were peopled by ferocious
and treacherous cannibals. But she was not to be deterred from sharing
her husband's perils, and with an aching heart took farewell of her
infant son, whom she left in care of her mother, and on 2nd September,
1829, the _Antarctic_ sailed from New York. The cruise was to last two
years, and the object of it was to seek for new sealing grounds in the
Southern Ocean, and then go northward to the Pacific Islands and
barter with the natives for sandal-wood, _beche-de-mer_ pearls, and
pearl-shell.

The crew of the brigantine were picked men, and all of them gave Morrell
a written pledge to abstain from drinking spirits of any kind during the
entire voyage. Morrell, though a strict disciplinarian, seems to have
had their respect and even affection throughout, and that he was a man
of iron resolution and dauntless courage the book gives ample testimony.

After some months' sealing at the Auckland Islands, and visiting New
Zealand, where the Morrells were entertained by the missionary, John
Williams, the brigantine made a highly successful cruise among the
islands of the South Pacific, and then Morrell went to Manila to dispose
of his valuable cargo. This he did to great adva