ss inattention.

With very little experience of mankind, he imagined that these hardened
beings could be brought to repent by terror, and his discourses were full
of denunciations of the wrath of God. He was told that, if he threatened
them thus, they would not come to hear him, and his reply was an
uncompromising sermon on the text, "The wicked shall be turned into hell,
and all the people that forget God." The bravery of the thing, and the
spirit of truth and love that pervaded all he said on this solemn verse,
was not lost upon all: some of the cadets were moved to tears, and an
impression was made upon several persons. Indeed, there was much that
should have induced serious thought, for, after having touched at Madeira
and the Azores, it was made known that the 59th was to be disembarked at
the Cape, to assist in the struggle then going on between the English and
Dutch. Moreover, there was much sickness on board, and the captain
himself, who had been always bitterly opposed to Mr. Martyn, anxiously
called for him to attend upon his death-bed.

The 59th were landed in Table Bay just in time to take part in Sir David
Baird's victory. Martyn went on shore the next day to do his best for
the wounded; but they were mostly in hospital, and, being Dutch, he could
do little for them. He found congenial spirits among the Dutch clergy in
Cape Town, and spent a happy month there, but the latter part of his
voyage was not more satisfactory than the first. The educated portion of
the passengers continued to set their faces against him, treating him
with increased contempt, and even turning into ridicule the farewell
sermon, in which he took an affectionate leave of all who had sailed with
him.

It may be that his manner was ill-judged, but it is a fearful thing to
find that it was possible for so many Christian people to have been in
daily contact with as true a saint as ever lived, and yet make him their
mock! Perhaps some of his words, and far more his example, may have
borne fruit in after years, such as he never knew of.

The whole voyage had lasted nearly ten months before entering the
Hooghly. While ascending the stream, the lassitude produced by the
climate was so great that Martyn's spirits sank under it: he thought he
should "lead an idle, worthless life to no purpose. Exertion seemed like
death; indeed, absolutely impossible." Yet at the least he could write,
"Even if I should never see a native converted