Chapter 19

Chapter XIX.

About three months after the death of Chapman, I was well enough to quit
the hospital. I could walk, with the aid of crutches, but had no hope of
ever being a sound man again. Of course, I had an anxious desire to get
home; for all my resolutions, misanthropical feelings, and resentments,
had vanished in the moral change I had undergone. My health, as a whole,
was now good. Temperance, abstinence, and a happy frame of mind, had
proved excellent doctors; and, although I had not, and never shall,
altogether, recover from the effects of my fall, I had quite done with the
"horrors." The last fit of them I suffered was in the deep conviction I
felt concerning my sinful state. I knew nothing of Temperance
Societies--had never heard that such things existed, or, if I had, forgot
it as soon as heard; and yet, unknown to myself, had joined the most
effective and most permanent of all these bodies. Since my fall, I have
not tasted spirituous liquors, except as medicine, and in very small
quantities, nor do I now feel the least desire to drink. By the grace of
God, the great curse of my life has been removed, and I have lived a
perfectly sober man for the last five years. I look upon liquor as one of
the great agents of the devil in destroying souls, and turn from it,
almost as sensitively as I could wish to turn from sin.

I wrote to the merchant who held my wages, on the subject of quitting the
hospital, but got no answer. I then resolved to go to Batavia myself, and
took my discharge from the hospital, accordingly. I can truly say, I left
that place, into which I had entered a miserable, heart-broken cripple, a
happy man. Still, I had nothing; not even the means of seeking a
livelihood. But I was lightened of the heaviest of all my burthens, and
felt I could go through the world rejoicing, though, literally, moving
on crutches.

The hospital is seven miles from the town, and I went this distance in a
canal-boat, Dutch fashion. Many of these canals exist in Java, and they
have had the effect to make the island much more healthy, by draining the
marshes. They told me, the canal I was on ran fifty miles into the
interior. The work was done by the natives, but under the direction of
their masters, the Dutch.

On reaching the town, I hobbled up to the merchant, who gave me a very
indifferent reception. He said I had cost too much already, but that I
must return to the hospital, until an opportunity offered for sending me
to Holland. This I declined doing. Return to the hospital I would not, as
I knew it could do no good, and my wish was to get back to America. I then
went to the American consul, who treated me kindly. I was told, however,
he could do nothing for me, as I had come out