The Trinity journal., 1856-08-23
The Fate of the Steamer Pacific.

How soon the whirl of business avoca
tionS that tpre-occupationo ofmind which Prov
idence has kindly intended should be the pan
acea for all griefS, make us forget startling
occurrences and great calamitieS ! 1t is now
six months since the steamship Pacific left
Liverpool, and of her subsequent fate we
shall know nothing until the sea yields up its
secrets. a little while ago the query on ev-
cry lip was, "what has become of the Pa
cihc ~ The Newark 1crcurv well and tru-
ly remarks that the heart of the entire ma
ton throbbed with intense anxiety during
all the weary days when the missing steam
er was expected but did not come-and we
were 10th to surrender the hope that she
would yet drop her anchor in our familiar
waters. But months have slipped away,
and still the steamer is not here, and the
world has forgotten that it ever watched for
her coming with Strainmg eyes. So brief
are all popular eXcitementS so soon are all
great events and all alarms forgotten by the
world. To-day we may stand on tip-toe
with some strange eXciement-o hearts
may beat with the most painful apprchen-
sions-tearS may press their way from every
=
but tomorrow filings pail over all, and we
go upon our way seeking some new adven-
turc-l repaired for some fresh alarm Yet
there are some who still think of the mis-
sing steamer, and Of those she bore with her
along the pathway of the seas In our ac-
quaintance there is one circle at least where
despair has folded its raven wing over the
place where one who sailed in the Pacific
was wont to sit when at home" In Mat
home, the memory of those bitter days of
doubt and uncertainty and the conviction
which came at last that the wandering bark
with its precious freight must have gone
down to the fellowship of earths stranded
nayics, will always remain as wildly and
freshly as in the beginning. And Thought,
like the dove from the ark, will often soar
over the great waters where the Pacific wan
dered, seeking to gather from the wave some
twig that shall tell of the place where she
went down to her slumbcr ON the sauds--
All, what a revelation will that be- when
the ocean shall give up its secrets and the
accumulationS of ages shall be exposed to
the day As the Buffalo Express bcaut-
fully remarks, the pathways traced by the
kcels of commerce. lead over the tombs of
untold wrecks and the shadows of the liy-
ing fall upon the dead, without heed from
the quick above or the forgotten ones be-
meath And ever and anon--iu the bright
sunshine or the dark night, with gentle trade
winds tanning the lazy sails, or laundering
tempests Splinterng the huge spars and hurl-
ing the great irons as toys in their wrath
ever and anon another of the voyagers goes
down to join the great armada there, below,
and while weary ones on shore grow sick
with hoping for her return, lies with her com
radeS Of past ages, awaiting the final hour
And what "A thought it is, that here in the /.
beaten track of daily intercourse between
two continents, no less than in the frozen
seas, where mans voice is rarely heard, and .
the best efforts of mans skill have been baf- .
fled, and the strong barques he built, surrcn-
dered to the mercies Of the wild storm and
the cruel iceberg no less than i'll the bays
of trOpic lands, where overarching palms
make dusk the silent anchorage, the golden
fruits sway in the evening breeze no less
than in the rOck-bound Businesses of the
southern capes, and the emerald harbors of
the coral isles, where silence and solitude,
twin consorts, reigu eyermore supreme-the
solemn navy Of the dead has squadrons ly-
ing moored in the grave, all tranquil now,
but some day to be mustered, and called to
quarters and Inspected