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expand1997 (1)
1Author:  Ingraham J. H. (Joseph Holt) 1809-1860Add
 Title:  Morris Græme, or, The cruise of the Sea-Slipper  
 Published:  1997 
 Subjects:  University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 
 Description: It was the original intention of the author of the “Dancing Feather” to have extended that work to fifty chapters, or the usual length of a novel of two volumes. But the editor of the paper to whom it was communicated in weekly numbers, requested, after six chapters had been published, that it should be limited to ten chapters. This desire of the publisher the author complied with, though with injury both to the plot and the harmonious construction of the Romance. The favorable reception of “The Dancing Feather,” even in this abridged character, induced its publisher to reprint and re-issue it in a cheap octavo form. Its unlooked for popularity in this shape, and the frequent calls for it even now, has induced the writer to carry out, in some degree, his first intention, and to present the public with a Sequel, commencing with the night of the mysterious departure from her anchoring ground of the schooner “The Dancing Feather”—to the story with which title the reader is referred. I am now near my end—but, as I believe death to be an everlasting sleep, I feel no alarm. The grave is rest. I envy the clod and the rock which are dead and feel not; and rejoice that I shall soon be their fellow! But I would say a word to you before I am annihilated. I wish you to know what you are ignorant of respecting me. I am an Englishman descended of a noble family. My grand-father was an Earl, my mother a Countess. A step-mother made my parental roof a hell, and at the age of sixteen I fled from it. I shipped as a common seaman; and having a naturedly vicious turn, (I conceal nothing now) I soon contracted the worst vices. In my twentieth year, enraged by a blow inflicted by the Captain, Iconspired, and heading a mutiny took possession of the brig, killing the Captain with my own hands and so wiping out the foul stain he had blackened me with. We steered for the coast of Africa; and, tempted by the great wealth realized by slave-stealing, we engaged in the traffic and took a cargo to the West Indies. The immense returns by the way of profit, with the absence of all principle, led me to engage in it for a long period, till at length, after several years, my name was known throughout the West Indies and inspired terror all along the African coast. The wealth I accumulated was enormous; and the guilt with which it was obtained was equally vast. But what is guilt but a name? The grave hides alike evil and good: at least this is my belief, and at this hour it is a consoling one. If there were a God I know there would be a hell for me. But my conscience is calm and gives me no warning of a hereafter; and so I die without fear. A peaceful state, my son!
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