on his return. The prow was encountered as anticipated at a point at which it was completely at the Hollanders' mercy. Betrayed and entrapped the intrepid Courthope stood up in his tiny craft like a lion at bay. He returned shot for shot until his "piece being choked" he could fire no more. Still he maintained an undaunted mien until a shot struck him full in the breast. Then without a moment's hesitation, as if he had fully thought out his course of action, he jumped into the water and was seen no more.
The history of the Empire has no finer example of courage and lofty self-sacrifice than the two years' struggle which this splendid seaman maintained almost unaided from without against the serried forces of Dutch power in the East. Of him it may be said, as of an illustrious contemporary:—
"He nothing common did, or mean,
Upon that memorable scene."
The road of duty and of patriotism he saw clearly before him and he followed it unerringly with a serene indifference to all personal considerations. There was in him much of the spirit which animated Gordon when he made his glorious last stand in the lonely isolation of the Mahdi's capital. To Courthope, in a humbler way, belongs the same crown of immortality which a grateful nation has bestowed upon the Hero of Khartoum.
