Page:Enterprise and Adventure.djvu/93

Rh has been the country of my fond election from the age of thirteen, when I first saw it. I had the honour to hoist with my own hands the flag of freedom, the first time it was displayed, on the Delaware, and I have attended it with veneration ever since on the ocean."

It is now generally acknowledged that these romantic sentiments were strictly in accordance with the principles which actuated the famous "pirate" of the American revolution throughout his romantic career.

noble and disinterested character of this remarkable man was nowhere more conspicuous than in his last hours, for the narrative of which we are indebted to a letter of Mr. Salt, the British Consul- General at Cairo. Prematurely exhausted by exposure and privation, in unhealthy climates, his strength gave way, and an attack of dysentery, in 1817, reduced him so low, that his death was evidently approaching. In this condition, being perfectly sensible that he had but few hours to live, he sent for Mr. Salt, and, though his countenance was of a ghastly hue, and he had great difficulty in articulating, he begged his visitor to take pen and paper, and proceeded to dictate calmly his last wishes. He directed him, as soon after his death as possible, to obtain a sum of two hundred and fifty pounds, due to him from the African Association, and add it to a sum of two thousand piastres, in the hands of a friend in Cairo. With this he desired him to pay a sum towards