After having resisted for fourteen years the afflictions of exile, long and perilous expeditions, nights passed under tents, humid winters and fierce burning summers, her health had, at length, succumbed, not all at once, like fabrics sapped by gunpowder, but little by little, like those that are demolished piecemeal with the pickaxe of the workman.
Day by day she grew more and more feeble, without those who were constantly by her side observing the insidious workings of disease.
Like Mucius Scaevola, who held his hands in a burning brazier without uttering a word, she so effectually hid her griefs within the recesses of her own bosom, that no one even suspected her illness.
"But, Mr.Becker," said Willis, "I saw your wife this morning, and she seemed as well as usual." "Yes, _seemed_, Willis, that is true enough; not to give us pain, she has concealed her illness from us all.

It is only within the last twelve hours that I accidentally discovered that she has been long laboring under some fearful malady." "Do you know the nature of the disease ?" "No, that I have no means of ascertaining; it may be a distinct form of disease, or it may be a complication of disorders, which I know not." "It would not signify about the name if we only knew a remedy." "True; but I dread some malady of a cancerous type, which could not be eradicated without surgical skill." "I wish I had been born a doctor instead of a pilot," sighed Willis.
"I cannot see her perish before my eyes." "Certainly not, Mr.Becker; it would never do to allow a ship to sink if she can be saved." "Well, what is to be done ?" "There lies the difficulty; had it been a question of anything that floats on the water, I might have suggested a remedy; but, in this case, I am fairly run aground." "I know too well what must be done, Willis.

In cases of ordinary maladies, with care and due precaution, proper nourishment and time, Nature will generally effect a cure." "Nature has no diploma, but she accomplishes more cures than those that have." "Unfortunately this is not a malady that can be cured by such means; and, unless its progress be checked in time, it may ultimately assume a form that will render a cure impossible." "Is death, then, inevitable ?" "A patient may retain a languishing life under such circumstances for some time; but if the disease be cancer, a cure is hopeless without instruments and scientific skill." "I thought I was the only wretched being in the colony," said Willis, sighing, "but I find I am not alone." "There are no hopes of the _Nelson_, are there ?" inquired Becker.
"None now; for some time Mr.Wolston and yourself almost persuaded me that she had escaped; but had she reached the Cape, we should have heard of her ere now." "The probabilities of another vessel touching here are small, are they not ?" "We are not in the direct track to anywhere; therefore, unless a ship has been driven out of her course by a gale, there is not a chance." "Unfortunate that I am!" exclaimed Becker, covering his face with his hands.

"Brutus, Manlius Torquatus, and Peter the Great, condemned their sons to death, but they were guilty; still the sacrifice must be made." Here Willis stared aghast, and began to fear Becker's intellect had been affected by his troubles.
"I do not exactly understand you, Mr.Becker." "Two of my sons have gone on before us; they were to embark in the canoe for Shark's Island, and wait for us there.

I must have courage, and you also, Willis." This exordium did not tend to alter the Pilot's impression.