The Sumter banner. [volume] (Sumterville, S.C.) 1846-1855, 1854-05-24
A Beautiful Story,

The most beautiful and effecting in.
cident know, associated with a ship.
wreck, is the following: The Gros.
venoE an East Indiaman, homeward
bound, goes ashore on the coast of
Cafiraria. tits resolved that the off.
GERS, passengers and crew, in number
one hundred and thirty-fve souls, shall
endeavor to penetrate on foot across
track!ess deserts. infested BY wild
beasts and savages, to the Dutch set.
Elements at the Cape Of Good Hope;
with this forlorn object before them,
they finally seperate in two parties
never more to meet on earth.
There is a solitary little child among
the passengers-a little boy of seven
years old, who has no relation there;
and when the first party is moving
away, he cries after some member Of
it who has been kind to him. The
crying ofa child might be supposed to
be little thing to men in such great
extremity, but if touches them, and he
is INN edlate!y taken into the detach.
!nenss, from which time forth, this
child is sublimely made sacred
charge; he is pushed on little raft
across broad rivers by the swimming
-ailors; they carry him by turns
through the deep sand and long grass,
he patiently walking at all other
times;) they share with him such pu.
trid fish as they find to eat; they lie
down and wait for him when the rough
carpenter, who becomes his especial
friend, lags behind. Beset by lions
a'Id tigers, by ~aSnses, by ffrsssa ar,d
hunger, by death i'll crowd ofghastly
shapes, they neveT-C Father Of ali
mankind thy name be blessed for i'll
forget this child. The captain stops
exhausted, and his faithful coxswaln
goes back and is seen to sit down by
his side, ai:ti. neither of inc two shall
be any more beheld until the great
last day; but, as the rest go on for their
lives. they take the child with them.
The carpenter dies of poisonous ber-
rles eaten in sta vation, and the stew.
ard, succeeding - the command of
the party, succeeds to the sacred
guardianship of the child.
God knows all he does for the poor
baby; how he cheerfully carries him
in his arms when he himself is weak
and i'll: how ho feeds him when him.
self is griped with want, how he folds
his ragged jacket round him, lays his
little worn face with woman's ten.
derness upon his snnburnt breast,
soothes him in his sulierings, sings to
him rs he limps along, unmindlul of
his own parched and bleeding feet
Dividing Tor a few days from the rest,
they dig grave in the land and bury
their good friend the cooper-these
two companions alone in the wilder
ness-and then the time comes when
both are i'll, and beg their wretched
partners in despair, reduced and few
in number now, to wait by them one
day. They wait by them one day,
they wait by them two days. On the
morning of the third they move very
softly about, Ill making their prepare.
tions for the resumption of their iourn
ey; for the child is sleeping by the
tire, and it is agreed with one consent,
that he shall not be disturbed until the
last moment. The moment c.mes,
the fire is dying-and the child is
dead.
Ills faithful friend the steward lin
gers but little while behind him.
Ills grief is great, he staggers on for
few days, lies down in the desert
and dies. But he shall be reunited in
his immortal spirit-who can doubt
it2-with the child, where he and the
poor carpenter shall be raised up with
tho words, lnasmuch as you have
done it unto the least of these, ye have
done it unto me-"