CHAPTER II.

RESIDENCE AT ANTIGUA—­DR. GRAHAM’S DEATH.

Within three weeks after their arrival at Antigua, six companies were ordered to the island of St. Vincents to quell an insurrection of the Caribs.  The doctor accompanied them, and Mrs. Graham was called to the pain of separation under circumstances more trying than she had as yet experienced, as the war with savages might expose him to the most cruel death.  In these circumstances she wrote him as follows: 

“Antigua, January 16, 1773.

“My dearest doctor—­This goes by Mr. W——­, who sails to-morrow; also a letter to Captain G——.  Mr. M——­ begs to be remembered to you; he has been foot and hand to me since you left.  My dearest doctor, suffer me to put you in remembrance of what you put in the end of your trunk the morning you left me,* and let it not lie idle.  Read it as the voice of God to your soul.  My dearest love, I have been greatly distressed for fear of your dear life; but the love I bear to your soul is as superior to that of your body, as the value of one surpasses the other; consequently my anxiety for its interest is proportioned.  May heaven preserve my dearest love—­lead you, guide you, direct you, so can you never go wrong—­protect and defend you, so shall you ever be safe, is the daily prayer of your affectionate wife,

Doddridge’s Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul.

“I.  GRAHAM.

“P.S.  I am told that you have taken a number of prisoners.  I know not if you have any right to entail slavery on these poor creatures.  If any fall to your share, do set them at liberty.”

On the 8th of June, Mrs. Graham wrote to her mother, expressing her gratitude for her husband’s safe return, and noticing some gratifying indications of the calm and peaceful state of his mind: 

“You would be surprised to hear the doctor preach.  He says we ought to be thankful; we have hitherto been richly and bountifully provided for; we ought not to repine, nor doubt, seeing we have the same Providence to depend upon; that we ought not to set our hearts upon any thing in this world; being very short-sighted, we cannot know what is proper for us.  Having done for the best, when we are disappointed, we ought to rest satisfied that either what we wish is not for our good, or it will in some future dispensation of Providence be brought about another way and in a fitter time.  Indeed, my dear mamma, in some things he is a better Christian than I am. May God make him so in every thing.”

Thus was the Lord preparing his servant for what was so soon to follow—­not his dismission from the regiment, which he so ardently desired, but from this world and its temptations and snares.  Mrs. Graham’s prayers were answered, but “by terrible things in righteousness.”

She added a request that her mother would receive her eldest daughter, who, though at the early age of five years, she feared would receive injurious influences from the corrupt state of society around her, and accordingly, not long after, sent her to Scotland; but before her arrival, her grandmother had been called to a better world.  In reference to this event Mrs. Graham wrote to her bereaved father as follows: