Page:Armatafragment00ersk.djvu/33

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Indies: but the vessel having been separated from the rest of the fleet in a dreadful tempest, and having, like your own, from the loss of her masts and rudder, been long the sport of distracting winds and currents, she was wrecked at last, with the whole of her crew—my father and mother, and live others only excepted, all of whom have since been called away to a better world. As for myself, my death, from the helplessness of infancy, must have been inevitable, but for a dog (long since dead) which my father had brought with him from the Labrador coast, who followed me it seems amongst the breakers when the ship overset, and never quitted me until he brought me to the shore. Alas! poor ―[1], how much is the short span of your wise and faithful species to be lamented!

“From my parents I learned the English language, but little or nothing of England itself or of its history ; as both of them died before I was of an age to take any interest in such subjects;

  1. The name of this famous dog I have forgotten.
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