The Harvest of Death.
Some persons on board said they had counted the canoes before we fired, the number of which was two hundred and twelve; but I did not think they were above one hundred and seventy or eighty. The number killed, we then imagined, exceeded one hundred, and as many more wounded; but, some weeks after, they told us the number missing on the island was eighty and one hundred and fifteen were wounded, the greater part dead and dying fast.
This information they gave us at the island of Owyhee, about fifteen leagues to windward; and we judged it to be true, as canoes are daily passing from island to island. After our firing ceased we weighed anchor and stood for the island of Owyhee.
I have sent this account, as those who are acquainted with the circumstance think Captain Metcalfe much to blame; and that should any vessels go to these islands from America they might be particularly cautious, and not pay too much attention to the friendship professed for them by these islanders.
P.S.—They cut off a schooner about six weeks after, which belonged to Captain Metcalfe, and murdered all the people.
1868—DECORATION DAY—1906.
Among the holidays which are generally observed in the United States, none excites more reverence in the breast of an American, or more respect in the mind of a foreigner, than Decoration (or Memorial) Day.
Decoration Day was first celebrated in 1866, by Union soldiers and sailors in Washington. In the spring of 1868 General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, issued an order in which he named May 30 as a day on which all members of the G.A.R. should repair to the cemeteries in the towns in which they lived and there spread flowers on the graves of their dead comrades.
Among the many tributes paid to our dead soldiers none has made a more profound impression on two generations of American people than the speech delivered by Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg, on November 19, 1863, on the occasion of the dedication of a part of the famous battle-field as a soldiers' cemetery. It is here given in full, from a manuscript in Lincoln's own handwriting.