“Texas is out of the map, Mr. Nolan.  Have you seen Captain Back’s curious account of Sir Thomas Roe’s Welcome?”

After that cruise I never saw Nolan again.  I wrote to him at least twice a year, for in that voyage we became even confidentially intimate; but he never wrote to me.  The other men tell me that in those fifteen years he aged very fast, as well he might indeed, but that he was still the same gentle, uncomplaining, silent sufferer that he ever was, bearing as best he could his self-appointed punishment,—­rather less social, perhaps, with new men whom he did not know, but more anxious, apparently, than ever to serve and befriend and teach the boys, some of whom fairly seemed to worship him.  And now it seems the dear old fellow is dead.  He has found a home at last, and a country.

* * * * *

Since writing this, and while considering whether or no I would print it, as a warning to the young Nolans and Vallandighams and Tatnalls of to-day of what it is to throw away a country, I have received from Danforth, who is on board the Levant, a letter which gives an account of Nolan’s last hours.  It removes all my doubts about telling this story.

To understand the first words of the letter, the non-professional reader should remember that after 1817, the position of every officer who had Nolan in charge was one of the greatest delicacy.  The government had failed to renew the order of 1807 regarding him.  What was a man to do?  Should he let him go?  What, then, if he were called to account by the Department for violating the order of 1807?  Should he keep him?  What, then, if Nolan should be liberated some day, and should bring an action for false imprisonment or kidnapping against every man who had had him in charge?  I urged and pressed this upon Southard, and I have reason to think that other officers did the same thing.  But the Secretary always said, as they so often do at Washington, that there were no special orders to give, and that we must act on our own judgment.  That means, “If you succeed, you will be sustained; if you fail, you will be disavowed.”  Well, as Danforth says, all that is over now, though I do not know but I expose myself to a criminal prosecution on the evidence of the very revelation I am making.

Here is the letter:—­

* * * * *

“LEVANT, 2 deg. 2’ S. @ 131 deg.  W.

“DEAR FRED:—­I try to find heart and life to tell you that it is all over with dear old Nolan.  I have been with him on this voyage more than I ever was, and I can understand wholly now the way in which you used to speak of the dear old fellow.  I could see that he was not strong, but I had no idea the end was so near.  The doctor has been watching him very carefully, and yesterday morning came to me and told me that Nolan was not so well, and had not left his state-room,—­a thing I never remember before.  He had let the doctor come and