Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/36

 of my readers may not be acquainted with the melancholy ceremony of consigning the body of a fellow being to the deep, I shall mention it. The deceased was enveloped in his blankets, in which two large pieces of lead were sewed, and placed immediately under his feet. The body was then laid on a plank, one end of which rested on the railing, and the other was supported by his comrades, the crew and passengers forming a circle about it. The beautiful and sublime burial service of the Church of England was then read in an audible and impressive manner by Mr. Nicolls, who officiated as chaplain, after which the plank was raised, the body with the feet downwards slided gently into the ocean, and in a moment we lost sight of it for ever.

On the 4th of February, at two, we made the island of Juan Fernandez; and at six, that of Massafuero, at the latter of which the captain determined to touch for a supply of wood and water. It was on the former island in the beginning of the eighteenth century, that Alexander Selkirk, a Scotchman, resided for several years, and from whose rude undigested story the ingenious De Foe, by adding the fictitious Friday, &c. has given to the world the delightful romance of Robinson Crusoe.