scholar, the polished gentleman, the ardent lover of all good men; and we may truly say that the good Commander w ho has just now retired from active service inherits inany of those paternal virtues in an eminent degree. The bent of Captain Triphook's mind was not originally towards the life of a sailor. His earliest tendencies were rather in the direction of the army; and had he entered that service, we doubt not he would have been as brave a soldier, as he has proved himself to be an able and experienced sailor. At the age of seventeen, he entered the merchant service, and spent six years of his life in sailing to the West Indies, the south coast of America, and various stations on the Mediterranean, thus acquiring a thorough knowledge of practical seamanship, which now-a-days is sadly wanting on the part of many in command of our ships. In that admirable training which he thus early underwent was laid the groundwork of his successes in after-life, and which have made the name of Captain Triphook-" familiar as a household word "-respected and honoured by thousands who have crossed with him over that narrow, yet sometimes unpleasant, sea, which divides England from Ireland. No commander could have been more fortunate in his career. Always vigilant and prudent, active and energetic-strict in discipline, withal kindly in disposition-possessing the suaviter in modo with the fortiter in re, be was more than half a century in active service, and never occasioned a mishap entailing loss of life, nor any serious injury to his ship. After his return from South America, about the year 1833, he was appointed to the Kite, revenue cruiser, stationed on the south-west coast of Ireland, and ultimately he got command of the Hamilton, revenue cruiser, which appointment he held for many years. When cruising in that vessel, on the Shannon, in February, 1837, he observed a vessel lying off the cliffs of Ballybunnion, with both anchors down, and a signal of distress flying, and the sea occasionally making a clean breach over her. As he approached her, he observed a coast-guard boat, and also a pilotboat lying outside the breakers, but their men considered it unsafe to board her. Captain Triphook, perceiving two men on board the vessel in distress, called for five volunteers, who, with the spirit of their master, came at once to the front; and they, with their commander at the helm, and at the risk of their lives, succeeded in bringing off the mate and master, who were the only two survivors, the rest of her crew having abandoned her to her fate. She was taken in charge by Captain Triphook, who got a spring on the cables, made sail on her, slipped the cables, and ran her up to Kilrush in safety. She was found to be the Leda, bound from Limerick to London, with a cargo of corn. For that service he and his crew were awarded £1,100 salvage, and he received the silver medal from the Royal Humane Society. Never did he spare himself when human life was imperilled-never did he act the craven when danger threatened, or duty called for his services. Indeed, the happiest moments of his life were when he felt he had rendered some service in the cause of humanity, or had been made instrumental in furthering the interests of the noble profession to which he was proud to belong. When he retired from the Revenue Service in 1853, he became connected with that of the City of Dublin Steam-Packet Company, having got command of one of their splendid vessels trading between Liverpool and Dublin. Many recollect, with the warmest affection, how much he con 1 tributed to their comfort when crossing with him in the Iron Duke, plying between Kingstown and Liverpool, a long time before the new and magnificent fleet of mail packets was on the Kingstown and Holyhead station. In 1860, he was appointed to the Ulster, Royal Mail Packet. No appointment could have been more popular, and no commander could have been more deserving. It was when in command of that ship, on one occasion, when he arrived at Kingstown with the morning mail, he saw the Royal George, man-of-war, on shore on the Eastern Pier. It was blowing a heavy gale of wind at the time, and being called upon to render her assistance, he succeeded in towing her off to a safe anchorage. This was considered a most difficult piece of seamanship in a vessel so large as the Ulster, and in a space so confined as Kingstown harbour; but in everything he undertook to do he was invariably successful. He was a most expert swimmer, and on one occasion he dived under the bottom of the Ulster, and came up at the other side. In 1870, and when at the age of seventy, while exercising the crew and putting out an imaginary fire, with the view of exciting the crew to greater smartness, he called out "The Captain is overboard! Lower all the boats! Man them and pick him up!" Suiting the action to the words, he jumped right off the paddle-box into the sea, a height 32 feet from the water, and was picked up in the short space of three minutes. During his service it was natural to suppose the public should recognize the merits of so generous, so kind, and so brave an officer; and numerous handsome presents were bestowed upon him by friends and passengers. On resigning command of his ship, on the 25th of September last, he was presented with a most flattering address by his crew, and by them, and some friends, with a handsome service of plate; and we understand that, at this moment, many of the nobility and gentry of Ireland who have not been unmindful of the kind attention of the good Captain, are about to present him with a more substantial token of their regard than he has yet received. In bringing this sketch to a close, we could only wish that many in command of ships, to whom life and property are to a considerable extent committed, would only mark the course steered by Captain Triphook, exercise his vigilance, imitate his prudence and tact, and cultivate his courtesy and attention. We should in all likelihood have fewer accidents-we should be spared those sad calamities which, recently, we have had so much cause to deplore; while on the retirement into private life of those commanders who have occupied positions of such risk and responsibility, they would have the satisfaction of feeling that they had not only done their duty, but had earned the respect and gratitude of a discerning public-who will never withhold honour from those to whom honour is due. Dî tibi si qua pios respectant numina si quid * EL MATARIFE. A TALE OF THE CARLIST WAR AND OF THE BASQUE COUntry. FROM THE FRENCH OF S. JACQUEMONT. IN TWO PARTS.-PART II. You know already, my friend, that I am a native of Sare, which is close by. My father was pressed into the service of the first emperor, for after the revolution the French Basques were no longer independent. But my forefathers cultivated their lands at Sare at a time when the Escualdunac were scarcely aware of the very existence of the kings of France. My mother was a Navarrese of Vera, a town on the other side of La Rhune, and her parents ranked there as Cristianos viejos. Marriages between the French and Spanish Basques are not of rare occurrence, and at that time they were even more common than now. When I was between two and three years of age, my father died, I was an only son; and my mother sent me to be educated at the house of her brother Don Joaquin Haristeghia, the curé of Lesaca. As you travel from Irun to Pampeluna, about half a league on the other side of Vera, you come to a large picturesque bridge over the Bidassoa. Across this bridge lies a wild mountain gorge, in which you can see the old tower of Lesaca. It was the chief town of a valley called the Cinco-Villas, a republic formed of five villages, which was as proud of its independence as the United States of America. My uncle taught me Latin, Spanish, and, above all, the Basque language. He was a man of much learning and piety, and greatly honoured in the district; but my opinion is that he would have liked much better to be at the head of a regiment than of a parish. In his youth, he had quitted the University of Valladolid to follow the bauner of the famous Espoz y Mina, at the time when the Navarrese provinces rose against Napoleon. Many a time has he laid aside the historians and poets he was reading with me, in order to tell me of his own military exploits; and all the warlike spirit of his youth seemed to come back, when he described the terrible ambuscades of Mina, which destroyed so many of the French. I heard his tales with open ears, and the seed he sowed fell into good soil. At sixteen I dreamed of nothing but powder, and I had made up my mind to become a naturalized subject of Spain, for the purpose of obtaining a cadetship in one of the royal regiments. But my scheme could not be carried out, for at that time the faction of Christina had the aged Ferdinand completely under their control, and far from giving employment to royalists, they were removing the royalist officers from every depart A name given to the Basques in Spain, where they have the privileeg of nobility as they sed to have in France. |