The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-08-22

you, SIR" When the fight was over and
the British captain had surrendered his
sword the captain said "Where is Mr..
| Nolan? Send Mr.. Nolan here" And there
| on the quarter deck he complimented
Nolan and said: you shall be named in
dispatches, sir" Nolan had not worn a
sword of course, since his courtmartial
but the captain took OF his own sword
and made the exile buckle it on.
When the captain returned to the Unit
| ed States with his ship, Nolan, of course,
was not with him, having been trans
ferred to some vessel going around the
! Cape of Good Hope. But the captain went
to Washington and moved heaven and
earth to get Nolan pardoned. 1t was of
no use-the navy department even dis
claimed any knowledge of such man as
! Philip Nolan. The fact of Nolan's i'm
prisonment seemed from that time to
carry itself on because there was nobody
to stop it without new orders. The orig
inal orders stood and as they continued
the instructions for every captain to
| transfer Nolan to an outward bound ship
| when he, the said captain, was homeward
| bound, poor Nolan went sailing for years
and years over all the seas that wash
the land. He must have been everywhere
! and have known, in formal way, more
officers of the navy than any other man.
! Once he told young officer to whom
he had taken liking that few men lived
! so methodical life as he did. He said
that it did not do for man to read all
the time and that he read just five hours
a day Then" said he, II keep my note
! books, writing in them at such and such
| hours, what l have learned by reading.
| Then have my scrapbook" These scrap
| books Of Nolan's were curious affairs.
He had six or eight different subjects of
which one was called Natural History
and one odds and Ends Nolan ac-
ouired a liking for natural history. The
men used to bring him fishes and birds
| of strange form and nature and
even the centipedes and cockroaches of
J the ship afforded him study and diversion.
/ The habits of the common house fly he
| studied with care and diligence. 1t was
his diversion, he said.
Until he became very old Philip used to
! go aloft frequently. Perhaps from some
elevated mast ne hoped some day to catch
a glimpse of his native land. But no
such felicity was ever his. He was never
| ILL., but if any other man was i'll he was
the kindest nurse in the world.
| Once when the American fleet went
| down to the Guinea coast to try to stop
the slave trade, Nolan was on board one
of the ships. A slave schooner was cap
! tured and the officer who took her sent
back for man who could speak Portu-
| guese, as that was about the only Euro
| pean language which the black captives
understood. Nolan volunteered, and was
| sent off to the SLAYER. Vaughn, the Of
| ficer who had captured her, was standing
| on the deck, surrounded by horde Of
| excited negroes. "Tell them,'' said he to
| Nolan "that they are free" Nolan trans
| lated They were Kroomen, who had
worked for the Portuguese on the coast
| of Fernando Pc, and understood. But
| they were not satisfied They wanted to
know where they were to be taken. Tell
| them l will take them to Cape Palmas"
said Vaughn. Now Palmas was as far
| from home to them as was New Orleans
| or Cuba. "Ah, non Palmas!'' they cried
take us to our own country to our own
| houses our own pickaninnies
Nolan began to choke and when one tall
negro stood forth and said that he had
not heard from his native land and from
his family for six months, and that all
he wanted was to be taken to his own
country, poor Philip grew gray as he
struggled through the Interpretation.
Vaughn had an almost equal agony of
sympathy. yes, yes, yes cried he, tell