COOPER'S SEA LIONS. * IN this fiction Mr. Cooper exhibits his
distinctive merits of enforcing a broad principle of life and morals, exhibiting some peculiar line of nau- tical adventure, and portraying with great naturalness of delineation a particular class of American society. As far as matter and plan are in question, The Sea Liana is a remarkable example of freshness and fertility. Local scenery—a curious class of American life—the nau- tical objects, adventures, and field of enterprise—are almost as fresh as if Cooper had never written. In the general execution, and what may be called the invention of his incidents, he flags considerably. Flat is too censorious a term, but the whole is very level. The quiet truth- ful delineation, and a naturally-constructed story, carry the reader along to the end ; but there are no scenes of remarkable interest, and no inci- dents of a breath-holding kind, although the nautical story leads the ad- venturers into the depths of the Antarctic circle, and keeps them there during a whole winter. Part of this level character may arise from the bumble grade of the actors, and the everyday character of their ob- jects, part from the fact that a mere description of the wonders within the Polar circles exceed in their literal truth all that imagination can pro- duce. But we are inclined to attribute a good deal of the deficiency either to exhaustion, haste, or weariness. The author seems to have avoided some scenes that might have been made striking, and not to have stimulated himself to exertion anywhere; as if he relied upon a me- chanical knack of writing.
The class of life Mr. Cooper proposes to delineate is that of the small landholders and ship or craft owners of the sea-coast of New England, such as they were some thirty years ago, before railways and other mo- dern improvements had brought the people into contact with the great world of speculation. The primary resource of this class was agriculture, and then the sea. They were all ready, according to their means, to em- bark their surplus money or their personal exertions in any new enter- prise, whether whether in laud or sea-adventure, or merchandise. Circumstances, however, pretty much confined their speculations to the smaller kind of trade, and to the fisheries, from the supply for the table to the sperm- whale of the Pacific or the great whale of the Arctic seas. The Pilgrim Fathers had left them a ceremonial religion, which rather influenced their manner and discourse than operated upon their life, unless it were in a formal morality. Their isolated position and narrow views confined their
• The Sea Lions; or the Lost sealers. By the Author of "The Rel Rover," " The • fee.. In three volumes. Published by Bentley. ambition to comparatively moderate advancement; but, such as their object was, they pursued it with unceasing pertinacity ; and though a few thousand dollars satisfied the majority, their ingrained avarice in Pursuit of this object strangely affected their whole character. To ex- hibit this class of persons, and to point the moral of their besetting vice, is the end of The Sea Lions. For this purpose the framework is well designed. Deacon Pratt is the rich man of a little out-of-the-way port on Long Island, and the exemplar of a small congregation. In the decline of the Deacon's life, a dying sailor has been landed at Oyster Pond ; and possesses two secrets which he partly reveals to the Deacon. One relates to a knowledge of gold, buried by pirates on one of the keys in the West Indies ; another to an island in a Southern latitude frequented by seals. At the instance of the dying Daggett, the Deacon fits out a vessel called the Sea Lion ; but Daggett expires before she is ready for sailing. The Deacon opens the sailor's chest, obtains the latitude and longitude of both places, and in due time despatches his ves- sel on her voyage. Daggett's family, however, though the Deacon has obliterated the marks on the chart, discover enough to fit out a vessel of their own, which is also called the Sea Lion, and dogs the ship of the Deacon. The rivalry between "The Sea Lions" in Bailing, the storms they encounter, the whale-chase during their course, their separation off Cape Horn, their meeting again at the seal island, and their numerous adventures among the ice-bound groups till they are at last shut in and compelled to winter there, through the cupidity of Daggett, determined to complete his cargo if he perish—constitute the nautical interest of the book ; as the preliminary passages, forming a large part of the first volume, serve to depict the peculiar society at home. There is a love-story between the Deacon's niece and Roswell Gardiner, the captain of the Deacon's vessel ; the obstacle to which is Roswell's Unitarian religious creed.
The voyage, though rather palling from the frequent repetition of the generic matter of former works, is done with Cooper's usual skill in marine painting. The Antarctic adventures and scenery, although the novelist was unfettered by a "log," are inferior in interest and grandeur to the literal truth in Ross's account of his voyages of exploration ; but it is curious to observe how Cooper uses the facts found in the narrative of Polar voyages, engrafting his inventions upon the reality. The con- version of Roswell during his detention on the island is not of a very logical kind, and the whole of the author's serious reflections are some- what prosy. The exhibition of Yankee character, and the manner in which avarice is the cause of hastening or producing the death of the two Daggetts and the Deacon, is pointedly done, without exaggeration. A scene between Mary and the Deacon, when the latter unfolds to her the main object of the voyage, will serve as an example.
"'Why, you must know, Mary, that this v'y'ge came altogether out of that seaman who died among us last year. I was !Lind to him, as you maybe re- member, and helped him to many little odd comforts,'—odd enough were they, of a verity,—' and he was grateful. Of all virtues give me gratitude, say I! It is the noblest, as it is the most uncommon of all our good qualities. How little have I met with in my day Of all the presents I have made, and gifts bestowed, and good acts done, not one in ten has ever met with any gratitude.' "Mary sighed; for well did she know bow little he had given of his abundance to relieve the wants of his fellow creatures. She sighed, too, with a sort of mild impatience that the information she sought with so much eagerness was so long and needle-sly delayed. But the Deacon had made up his mind to tell her alL "'Yes, Gaeuer has got something to do besides sealing,' he resumed of him- self, when his regret at the prevalence of ingratitude among men had exhausted itself. Suthin "—for this was the way he pronounced that word= that is of more importance than the schooner's hold full of ile. lie is ile, I know, child; but gold is gold. What do you think of that ?' " Is Roswell, then, to stop at Rio again, in order to sell his oil, and send the receipts home in gold?' " Better than that—much better than that, if he gets back at all.' Mary felt a chill at her heart. 'Yes, that is the prnt—if he gets back at all. If Gaener ever does come borne, child, I shall expect to see him return with a considerable- sized keg, almost a barrel, by all accounts, filled with gold!' "The Deacon stared about him as he made this announcement, like a man who was afraid that he was telling too much. Nevertheless, it was to his own niece, his brother's daughter, that he had confided thus mach of his great secret; and reflection reassured him.
"'How is Roswell to get all this gold, uncle, unless he sells his cargo?' Mary asked, with obvious solicitude. " 'That's another prut. I'll tell you all about it, gal, and you'll see the im- portance of keeping the secret. This Daggett—not the one who I; out in another schooner, another Sea Lion, as it might be—but his uncle, who died down here at the Widow White's—well, that Daggett told more than the latitude and longitude of the sealing islands—he told me of a buried treasure !' "'Busied treasure !—Buried by whom, and consisting of what, uncle?'
"'Buried by seamen who make free with the goods of others on the high seas, agin the time when they might come back and dig it up and carry it away to be used. Consisting of what, indeed Consisting principally,etaccordin' to Daggett's
account, of heavy doubloons; though there was a f old English guineas among 'em. Yes, I remember that he spoke of them guineas—three thousand and odd, and nearly as many doubloons!' "'Was Daggett, then, a pirate, sir 1—for they who make free with the geode of others on the high seas are neither more nor less than pirates.'
"'No, not he himself. He got this secret from one who was a pirate, however, and who was a prisoner in a gaol where he was himself confined for smuggling. Yes that man told him all about the buried treasure, in return for some acts of kiniLicss shown him by Daggett. It's well to be kind sometimes, Mary.'
" ' It is well to be kind always, sir; even when it is misunderstood, and the kindness is abused. What was the Redemption but kindness and love, and god- like compassion on those who neither understood it nor felt it? But money col- lected and buried by pirates can never become yours, uncle; nor can it ever become the property of Roswell Gardiner.'
"'Whose is it then, gal? ' demanded the Deacon, sharply.'Gar'ner had some such silly notion in his head when I first told him of this treasure; but I soon brought him to hear reason.'
"'1 think Roswell must always have seen that a treasure obtained by robbery can never justly belong to any but its rightful owner.'
"'And who is this rightful owner, pray? or owners, I might say; for the gold was picked up here and there, out of all question, from many hands. Now sup- posing Garner gets this treasure, as I still hope he may, though he is an awful time about it—but suppose he gets it how is he to find the rightful owners? There it is, a bag of doubloons, say—all looking just alike, with the head of a king, a Don Somebody, and the date, and the Latin and Greek—now who can say that "this is my doubloon; I lost it at such a time; it was taken from me by i such a pirate n such sea; and I was whipped till I told the thieves where I had hid the gold?" No, no, Mary; depend on't, no action of 'plevy would lie ag'ia a single one of all them pieces. They are lost, one and all, to their former owners,. and will belong to the man that succeeds in getting hold on 'em ogle, who will become a rightful owner in his turn. All property comes from law ; and if the law won't 'plevy money got in this way, nobody can maintain a claim to it.'
"'I should be very, very sorry, my dear uncle, to have Roswell enrich himself in this way.' "You You talk like a silly young woman, and one that doesn't know her own rights. We had no hand in robbing the folks of their gold. They lost it years ago, and may be dead—probably are, or they would make some stir about it; or have forgotten it, and couldn't for their lives tell a single one of the coins they once had in their possession; and don't know whether what they lost was thrown into the sea, or buried in the sand on a key. Mary, child, you must never men- tion anything I tell you on this subject.' "'You need fear nothing, sir, from me. But I do most earnestly hope Roswell will have nothing to do with any such ill-gotten wealth. He is too noble-hearted and generous to get rich in this way.' "'Well, well, say no more about it, child: you're romantic and notional. Just pour out my drops; for all this talking makes me breathe thick. I'm not what I was, Mary, and cannot last long; but was it the last breath I drew, I would stand to it, that treasure deserted and found in this way belongs to the last holder.'"
There is a slight trait in The Sea Lions of the American maxim "our country right or wrong," which amounts to sheer impudence. Through- out the novel the only Antarctic voyager Cooper mentions by name (ex- cept Cook incidentally) is that "distinguished navigator" Wilkes, and no opportunity is lost of thrusting him forward ; though his greatest "dis- tinction," in connexion with Southern discovery, is that of loosely laying down land some of which has been sailed over, and in something exceed- ingly like shuffling in connexion with Belany's discoveries.
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