1841.
Loss of the Ship Kite.
197
po. You may imagine my happiness in finding my friend lieut. Douglas, and my delight to hear that he had been treated rather better than myself, and had arrived there a short time before. I also heard with gratitude and joy, that all the Kite's crew had been taken from the wreck by the Chinese and were prisoners in the city. But alas, alas! with all this good news my worst fears were confirmed, that all I treasured lay buried in the ocean. What can I say? My dear child could not have lived in an open boat and suffered as I had done, and my devoted husband, being of a warm and most affection- ate temper would not, could not, have lived to have seen me suffer as I have suffered, and how would it have torn my heart to have seen those, ten thousand times dearer to me than my own life, endure so much! I humbly pray to be enabled to say, "Thy will be done!" God has I believe in goodness and mercy taken my treasures,
who
was able to do for them more than I could even ask or think. And although I am left destitute and alone and far from home, yet in his mercy he has raised you up, my Christian friend, with many others for my comfort, on account of which I shall praise the Savior both in time and eternity; and want whatever I may, may I ever possess a thankful heart.
At Ningpo I was sorry to find another prisoner, captain Anstruther of the Madras artillery, who has since proved to me a most kind and true friend; there was also the comprador, whom I think you have some knowledge of. My most cruel sufferings were now at an end, and of course I felt more deeply my sad loss; yet I knew that I still enjoyed many blessings. Captain A.'s prison was next door to mine, and I had the pleasure of seeing him often. The mandarins gave me some Chinese clothes of the gayest colors; distressing as it was to my feelings, I was obliged to wear them, and I was put into, what the keeper styled, a clean prison, with a woman to attend on me in my captivity. After breakfasting with lieut. Douglas at the man- darin's, I went to my lonely cell,-a small dirty room, two sides of which were a mere grating, in many places daylight appeared through the rafters, and it was scarcely fit to live in, its only furniture being my cage, (in which I still slept at night, and 'into which I was put whenever I went to any of the mandarins,) a lamp, an old table, and a stool. For the first time after the wreck, I was enabled to undress myself and arrange my hair. I could not but rejoice when a large room was prepared for the three gentlemen to reside together in,-lieut. Douglas having been hitherto obliged to endure all the discomforts of the common prison. Subsequently we met only when we visited and
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