“October the 12th.—The frequent menacing appearances which my health and wound assume, form a constant source of serious reflection, and I feel that it may be neither unimportant, nor a waste of time, to note these thoughts down as they occur. They may be of infinite benefit to you, my dear children, in influencing your conduct on similar occasions, should you be visited by them; and the experience of those we love has a powerful effect in fixing our resolutions, and dictating our line of conduct. In the first place then, I am more than ever convinced that trials and afflictions are sent for our good, sent in kindness and in mercy; and that so far from repining under them, we incur an awful responsibility, if we do not turn them to good account, by taking them as warnings against our worldly attachments, and by listening to the voice with which they so earnestly direct us towards eternity. This duty is obvious and imperative, however hard to fulfil. It is now the chief object of my solicitude; and I feel that I can only appropriate to myself the blessed hope of immortality, in proportion to the measure in which I can resign myself to the Divine will, and preserve my mind unshaken by the cares and anxieties of life. So happy a frame of mind is neither easily to be acquired, nor long preserved, amidst the shocks to which we are exposed, and the conflicting passions of our nature. I hope, however, I have succeeded, my dearest my beloved children, in resigning you into the hands of a merciful, and an omnipotent Protector; and I humbly trust that you will ever remain under his paternal care, receiving with gratitude the blessings He bestows, and seeking the Divine approbation as your only object.”
The narrative has perhaps been suspended too long, while the private meditations and recollections of this excellent man have been thus brought before the reader. But the Editor feels no apology due for the delay. It has been said already, and said more than once, that the object of the present volume was to present to the public the picture, not of the seaman, or the officer, but of the man; and the portrait would have been incomplete, it would have been deficient in that which like expression in painting, gives the chief value to the representation, if dwelling on features of general interest, and which must arrest universal attention, it had neglected or omitted others more adapted to private life, and suited to personal application. The world have long known what Sir Jahleel Brenton was on the deck, in the hour of action, or the storm. It is the object of the present memoir to shew what he was in the retirement of his home, as a husband, a father, and a man; and with this in view, the Editor trusts that he has not trespassed too largely, either on the patience of his readers, or on the sacredness of private memorials, by shewing how Sir Jahleel Brenton bore the trials to which he was subjected in private life, and the exemplary manner in which he discharged the several relations in which he stood. It need not be doubted that the service included officers, whose courage, whose zeal, whose intelligence and self-possession were equal to his; and it is possible that there were some who might have been compared to him in other respects; but it is the combination of qualities which gives to character its peculiarity; and it is the peculiarity of character which renders its example profitable. The earlier portion of the narrative exhibited its subject in the form which appeared most consistent with his excellence as an officer; but justice seems to require, that he who was as admirable for the gentler qualities of his nature, as for those which were suited to arrest the world’s notice, should be presented to the reader in other scenes, and under other trials; as occupying the painful post of observation, while watching the sick-bed of that wife, for whom he had entertained an attachment as romantic as it was reasonable; as subsequently cherishing and educating the children, whom her lengthened sickness and early removal had devolved on his care; as exercising all the graces of Christian benevolence in his intercourse with his fellow creatures, wherever his lot was cast; and as engaged in seeking comfort for himself, under a loss that seemed to be irreparable, by meditating on the promises of scripture.
The character of the remainder of his life was to be essentially different from that of its commencement. The excitement of hope, the energy of enterprize, the exultation of triumph were to be exchanged for calmer feelings, adapted to the circumstances in which he was to be placed. But a surer test of excellence can hardly be conceived, than to see it uniformly exhibited under every variety of position; exposed to trial in different ways, and superior to trial in all; and the principle which supports men under successive forms of temptation, which overcomes the weaknesses of age as well as the weaknesses of youth, and gives to every part of life the same characteristic tone of goodness, is the most entitled to admiration, as it proves most effectively the purity of its original.
From the date of Lady Brenton’s death, Sir Jahleel’s residence at the Cape did not include any event which calls for particular notice. The stirring interests of a time of war had been succeeded by a peace, which seemed more likely to be durable, from the exhaustion to which the contending powers had been reduced by the length of the previous contest. The duties of his office occupied his day; the care of his children occupied his earlier and later hours; and few men were better qualified by talent, taste, and habitual gentleness of mind for the discharge of this last—this anxious and delicate duty. Having the singular advantage of a sister residing with him, and of a sister who sympathised with all his feelings, and entered into all his views, he was able to pursue with less uneasiness the labours which his public employment occasioned, even when they rendered absence from home necessary; and shortly after the event which left him a widower, he felt it his duty to undertake a journey of considerable extent, along the Eastern coast as far as the mouth of the Knyzna; in order to ascertain, by personal observation, some points of considerable importance for the public service. Of these the chief were to investigate the facilities for establishing a coasting trade along the shores of the colony, and to examine resources which the mouth of the river Knyzna offered as a harbour for the shipping employed for this purpose; and connected with this, to get some information as to the quality of the timber produced in the forests, and its fitness for the purposes of the dock-yard. He has left a detailed narrative of this journey, which amply deserves publication, and which accordingly is printed as it is found. It contains an interesting description of the scenery through which he passed—a country which even at present is comparatively unknown; but it is still more valuable as exhibiting the character of the mind with which he viewed it. The journey was undertaken very shortly after the loss which seemed to him so irreparable; and yet we meet with no querulous expressions of grief, no idle recollections of past happiness. He had resigned the being whom he loved above all earthly things to the will of Him, from whom he had first received her; and conscious that the best resource for his own weakness was employment; and trusting that the discharge of duty would bring consolation with it, he seems to have looked round for opportunities of usefulness, and to have sought comfort for himself in endeavouring to do good to others. Gifted as he was with a taste for scenery, and capable of viewing every combination in nature with an artist’s eye, the remarks with which his journal are filled, are chiefly characterized by benevolence and zeal for his country’s service. In every place he visits, the welfare of the people, and the means of public improvement, are the objects that principally attract his attention; and while every thing is noted, and noted in a way which shews how fully it was appreciated, an universal desire to do good predominates in the observations which he makes, and marks what was passing in the heart of the writer.
The narrative concludes abruptly, and the reader who has accompanied him in his wanderings through that beautiful, and at that time unexplored region, will hear with pain that the cause, which terminated the journey, and closed the narrative so suddenly, was the arrival of a letter which reached him on his way back from the mouth of the Knyzna, and which announced the death of his son Jervis. This boy, to whom such frequent reference has been made in the Journal, and whose character seemed to justify all that was felt towards him, died at Winchester School, after a very short illness, and within a few days of that which closed Lady Brenton’s life. His fond mother was spared the pang of hearing of that event, and he was spared the pain with which he must have heard of her release; but Sir Jahleel, through this singular concurrence of trials, merely passed from one affliction to meet the shock of the other; and perhaps was thus to learn that no earthly comfort was to be made use of as a resting place for the soul, or to occupy affections which were due to God alone.
CHAPTER XVII.
NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY TO THE MOUTH OF THE KNYZNA.
“The result of all the information obtained respecting the Knyzna, and the report of its being admirably adapted as a shipping place for the timber required for the use of the dock yard, as well as for cargoes to send to England, induced me to form the resolution of visiting it, for the purpose of ascertaining how far it might be made to realize the idea which I had formed of its being made useful on a large scale, not only to the naval department but to the colony. It was not until the month of November, 1817, that I was enabled to fulfil my intentions.