Page:Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes.djvu/37

Rh pitably received by Mr Wm. Rawle, one of my father's oldest friends, and his family who had procured lodgings for us directly opposite his home in 3rd Street where we were soon comfortable fixed.

I can well recollect the kindness of that family. Mrs. Rawle was a Chew and had been a great beauty. They had a large family and a hospitable mansion. Mrs Rawle, finding I had the chills, took me in charge and daily gave me a dose of Peruvian bark in powder rolled up in a light paste wafer; it was detestable to take but she managed to get me to take it, nauseating as it was. I did everything to avoid it but she prevailed and broke up the chills. There were two children of my own age, Frank & Tom, but they were at school. I was made a great pet of and passed much of the whole of my time at their house. My sister and the Misses Rawle, Miss Beckey, a beautiful girl, had a nice time of it and were very gay in the society. My stepmother was like a fish out of water, the society was too refined and intelligent for her but they treated her very kindly.

My father's consultation with Dr Physic did not result in any good. He found there was no necessity of making an operation as the disease was the gravel, & not the stone, and required a different treatment. The excruciating agony of his attacks were depressing. Oftentimes have I seen the large drops of perspiration collecting upon his forehead, accompanied with a low whistle and an assumed quiet that greatly affected me. He never became irritable but bore it all with great patience. Fortunately they did not endure any great length of time. He had suffered more or less since a young man with it and I have heard him frequently remark, "Thank God, it was not a hereditary disease," of which he was assured by the most eminent Physicians before his marriage to my mother, and it has proved so, for none of his offspring have experienced it.

The renewal of his old friendship and intercourse with Mr Rawle, a lawyer of the highest stand[ing] in Phila., was a source of great pleasure to them both for they had not met for many years, though corresponding. Philadelphia was then far different from what it has become. I suppose it possessed the best and most enlightened society in the country, as I have often heard my father remark. I had my own fun there. What attracted my attention most was the great walnut trees (English) in Mr Rawle's garden, and through Mrs Rawle's kindness I was permitted to knock down as many as I liked — after I swallowed the odious dose.

The morning after our arrival John Lyle came in to announce that the horse had died from the heat and overexertion of the day's travel. This was a pet horse & a beautiful animal. A few days afterwards an exchange was made for another pair with the one left and a sum of money besides. All of us regretted the accident and the necessity of being forced to cause the overexertion.

We returned to New York by easy stages & met with no detentions. The last place we stopped at was Newark, at Archy Gifford's tavern