Page:A Life of Matthew Fontaine Maury.pdf/34

20 In 1831, just before sailing for the Pacific again, Maury became engaged to his cousin and sweetheart, and he then purchased and gave her a little seal, only to be used in writing to him, bearing for inscription the simple word, "Mizpah", {"The Lord watch between thee and me when we are absent one from the other"}.

Forty years after, when an exile, homeless, and separated from his family, he wrote on the fly-leaf of his Bible, while at sea:—"To mt wife. Dost thou remember Genesis, 31st chap., 49th verse?" and on another leaf—"See 2nd Samuel, 22nd chap., 36th verse: 'Thy gentleness hath made me great, my Nannie.'"