This shock broke down the old captain. He had always loved his glass, but now he took to it more freely than ever, and was often intoxicated.
He died on April 9th, 1828, in the eighty-first year of his age, and he was buried in Breage churchyard.
Captain Tobias Martin's poems were published at Helston in 1831, and a second edition in 1856. They are absolutely worthless as poetry, and one may look in vain through them to find an original or a poetic idea. But as we have given this man's life, a specimen of the stuff he wrote must also be given, and one of his shortest compositions will suffice.
Come, sweet content! best gift of bounteous heav'n,
Correct my mind and bend my stubborn ways;
'Tis thou alone canst make life's journey even,
And crown with happiness my future days.
Why should I grieve or murmur at my lot?
Why disobedient to the heav'nly will?
I cannot turn my thoughts where God is not,
He is my comfort and my refuge still.
Blest with content, I will observe His ways;
On earth I can no greater blessing find.
Serene and calm, thus let me spend my days,
And banish discontentment from my mind.
In his religious views Toby Martin was a Deist or Unitarian. In personal appearance he was inclined to corpulency. His countenance was large and open, and he stood five feet nine inches high.