“These are the very papers, Watson, which he handed to me, and I will read them to you, as I read them in the old study that night to him. They are endorsed outside, as you see, ‘Some particulars of the voyage of the bark Gloria Scott , from her leaving Falmouth on the 8th October, 1855 , to her destruction in N. Lat. 15 degrees 20′, W. Long. 25 degrees 14′ on Nov. 6th .’ It is in the form of a letter, and runs in this way:

“ ‘My dear, dear son,