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THE PIRATE MASON.
FREEMASONS MONTHLY MAGAZINE - 1842
THE always talented, and sometimes
eccentric, HARRIET
MARTINEAU, in her Retrospect of "Western
Travels," relates
the following anecdote:-
"Then came Captain L. with his five fine
daughters. He
looked too old to be their father; and well
he might. When
master of a vessel, he was set ashore by
pirates, with his
crew, on a desert
Island,
where he was thirty-six days
without food. Almost all his crew were
dead, and he just
dying, when help arrived - by means of
Freemasonry.
Among the pirates was a Scotchman, a Mason,
as was
Captain L. The two exchanged signs. The
Scotchman could
not give aid at the moment; but after many
days of fruitless
and anxious attempts, he contrived to sail
back, at the risk of
his life, and landed on the desert
Island on the thirty-sixth
day from his leaving it. He had no
expectation of finding the
party alive; but to take the chance and
loose no time, he
jumped ashore with a kettle full of wine in
his hand. He
poured wine down the throats of the few
whom he found still
breathing, and treated them so judiciously
that they
recovered. At least it was called recovery:
but Capt. L.'s
looks are very haggard and nervous still.
He took the
Scotchman home, and cherished him to the
day of his
death:'
It will probably be recollected by a
portion of our readers,
that while in this country, we believe in
the year 1856, Miss
Martineau, perhaps laboring under one of
those fits of
eccentricity which frequently lead her into
acts of
indiscretion, sided with the enemies of our
Institution, and
contributed of her talents and influence to
bring it into
disrepute and public contempt. It operated
in her case,
however, as did McFingal's gun, which
"Being charged for duck, or plover,
Shot wide and kicked its owner over."
Of the result of that exploit we do not
complain. That which
excites our surprise is, that she should
have so far forgotten
what is due to the character of an ingeuous
and honorable
opponent - a character that we had a right
to expect to find in
a lady of her intelligence - as to give
publicity to an incident,
the truth of which she does not doubt, so
beautifully
exhibiting the practical utility of the
Order under its holier
attributes - without the slightest
reference to her previously
expressed opinions. It afforded her an
honorable opportunity
to have acknowledged her error, and to have
done tardy
justice to an Institution, which, while
writing the anecdote,
she must have felt conscious she had
wrongfully traduced.
But her self-pride was permitted to
triumph, even to the
prejudice of her character for integrity
and truth! Comment,
however, was not necessary. The mere
recital of the incident
furnished a full refutation of all she had
previously written
against the Institution. She has given to
her readers the
evidence, that the heart of the renegade -
dead to all other
associations but that of crime - can be
reached and
awakened to a sense of the kindlier
feelings of humanity, by
the irresistible appeals of Freemasonry.
The pirate-Mason,
at the risk of his own life, saves that of
his Brother! What a
sweet spirit is here shown! - the pirate no
more, but warmed
by the benevolent affections, he pants to
succor and to save.
Even in such hands, the wine is blessed by
Him whose ways
are indeed mysterious.
POTS
Masonry superadds to our other obligations
the strongest ties
of connection between it and the
cultivation of virtue, and furnishes
the most powerful incentives to goodness. -
DEWITT CLINTON.