The National tribune., 1883-03-15


had the English1pan's sword, in the midst of
the state and ceremony of the quarter deck, he
said:
"Where is Mr.. NolanP Ask Mr.. Nolan to
come here" ri
And when Nolan came, the captain said:
Mr. Nolan, we are all very grateful to you
to-day; you are one of rs to-day; you will be
named in the dispatches"
| And then the old man took off his own sword
of ceremony, and gave it to Nolan. and made
him put it on. The man told me this who saw
| it. Nolan cried like baby, and well he might.
! He had not worn a sword since that Internal
day at Fort Adams. But always afterwards,
on occasions of ceremony, he wore that quaint
old French sword of the Commodore's
The captain did mention him in the des-
patches. 1t was always said he asked that he
might be pardoned. He wrote a special letter
! to the Secretary of War. But nothing ever
came of it. AS l said, that was about the time
| when they began to ignore the whole trans
action at Washington, and when Nolan's i'm
| prisonment began to carry itself on because
there was nobody to stop it without any new
| orders from home.
| have heard it said that he was with Porter
| when he took possession of the Nukahiwa
Islands. Not this Porter, you know, but old
| Porter, his father, Essex Porter,-that is, the
old Essex Porter, not this Essex. As an artil-
|
| Nolan knew more about Notifications, en-
brasures, ravelins stockades and all that, than
| any of them did and he worked with right
| good will in fixing that battery all right. /
| have always thought it was pity Porter did
| not leave him in command there with Gamble.
| That would have settled all the question about
| his punishment. We should have kept the
| islands, and at this moment we should have
one station in the Pacific Ocean. Our French
friends, too, when they wanted this little water
| g-pace, would have found it was preOccu
pied. But Madison and the Virginians, of
course, flung all that away.
| All that was nearly fifty years ago. If Nolan
was thirty then, he must have been near eighty
when he died. He looked sixty when he was
| forty. But he never seemed to me to change
hair afterwards. AS | imagine his life from
what have seen and heard of it, he must have
been in every sea, and yet almost never on
| land. He must have known, in formal way,
more officers in our service thar any man
living knows. He told me once, with grave
smiie that no man in the world lived so
methodical a life as he. "You know the boys
say | am the Iron Mask, and you know how
| busy he was" He said it did not do for any
one to try to read all the time, more than to do
anything else all the time; but that he read
just five hours day. "Then," he said, 81
keep my notebooks, writing in them at such
and such hours. from what | have been read
| ing; and include in these my scrap-b books"
| These were very curious indeed He had six
| or eight, of different subjects. There was one
of History, one of Natural Science, one which
he called "Odds and Ends" But they were
not merely books of extracts from newspapers.
| They had bits of plants and ribbons, shells
! tied on, and carved scraps of bone and wood,
which he had taught the men to cut for him,
and they were beautifully illustrated. He
| drew admirably. He had some of the funniest
drawings there, and some of the most pathetic,
| that | have ever seen in my life. l wonder
who will have Nolan's scrap-books.
! Well, he said his reading and his notes were
| his profession, and that they took five hours
| and two hours respectively of each day.
| "Then," said he, "every man should have
diversion as well as profession. My Natural
| History is my diversion" That took two hours
a day more. The men used to bring him birds
and fish, but on a long cruise he had to satisfy
himself with centipede5 and cockroaches and
such small game. He was the only naturalist
| / ever met who knew anything about the
habits of the house-fy and the mosquito. All
those people can tell you whether they are
Lepidoptera or SteptOpotera; but as for telling
| how you can get rid of them, or how they get
away from you when you strike them-why,
Linnaus knew as little of that as John Foy the
idiot did. These nine hours made Nolan's reg
ular daily occupation" The rest of the time
he talked or walked. Till he grew very old, he
went aloft great deal. He always kept up
| his exercise; and | never heard that he was i'll.
! If any other man was i'll, he was the kindest
nurse in the world; and he knew more than
| half of the surgeons do. Then, If anybody
was sick or died, or if the captain wanted him
| to on any other occasion, he was always ready
! to read prayers. / have remarked that he
read beautifully.
My own acquaintance with Philip Nolan
| began SIX or eight years after the war, on my
| first voyage after l was appointed midship-
man. 1t was in the first days after our Slave
| Trade treaty, while the Reigning House, which
was still the House of Virginia, had still sort
| of sentimentalism about the suppression of the
| horrors of the Middle Passage, and something
was sometimes done that way. We were in the
| South Atlantic on that business From the
| time joined, believe thought Nolan was
sort of lay chaplain,--a chaplain with blue
| coat i never asked about him. Everything
! in the ship was strange to me. / knew it was
| green to ask questions, and | suppose | thought
! there was 'Plain-B Buttons" on every ship.
! We had him to dine in our mess once a week,
and the caution was given that on that day
nothing was to be said about home. But if they
| had told us not to say anything about the planet
! Mars or the Book of Deuteronomy, [ should
not have asked why; there were a great many
! things which seemed to me to have as little
reason. / first came to understand anything
about a. the man without a country" one day
when we overhauled dirty little schooner
which had slaves on board. An officer was
| sent to take charge of her, and after few
minutes, he sent back his boat to ask that some
one might be sent him who could speak POrtu-
| guese. We were all looking over the rail when
the message came and we all wished we could
| interpret when the captain asked who spoke
! Portuguese. But none of the officers did and
| just as the captain was sending forward to ask
| if any of the people could, Nolan stepped out
and said he should be glad to interpret if the
| captain wished, as he understood the language
| The captain thanked him, fitted out another
boat with him, and in this boat it was my luck
| to 90,
When we got there, 1t was such a scene as
you seldom see, and never want to. Nastiness
| beyond account, and chaos run loose in the
midst of the naStiness. There were not a great
many of the negroes; but by way of making
what there were understand that they were
| free, Vaughan had had their handouts and
ankle-cuffs knocked Off and, for convenience
sake, was putting them upon the rascals of the
| schooner's crew. The negroes were, most of
| them, out of the hold, and swarming all around
| the dirty deck, with a central throng sur
rounding Vaughan and addressing him in
! every dialect and patois Of dialect, from the
| Zulu click up to the Partisan of BeIedeljeered.
As we came on deck, Vaughan looked down
| from hogshead, on which he had mounted in
| desperation, and said,-
"For Gods love- is there anybody who can
make these wretches understand something?
| The men gave them rum, and that did not
| quiet them. l knocked that big fellow down