My mamma is at present well, considering the distress she has suffered since you left us; for, my dearest brother, we have experienced a complicated scene of misery from a variety of causes, which, however, when compared with the sorrow we felt on your account, was trifling and insignificant; _that_ misfortune made all others light, and to see you once more returned, and safely restored to us, will be the summit of all earthly happiness.
'Farewell, my most beloved brother! God grant this may soon be put into your hands I Perhaps at this moment you are arrived in England, and I may soon have the dear delight of again beholding you.

My mamma, brothers, and sisters, join with me in every sentiment of love and tenderness.

Write to us immediately, my ever-loved Peter, and may the Almighty preserve you until you bless with your presence your fondly affectionate family, and particularly your unalterably faithful friend and sister, (Signed) 'NESSY HEYWOOD.'[12] The gleam of joy which this unhappy family derived from the circumstance, which had been related to them, of young Heywood's swimming off to the _Pandora_, was dissipated by a letter from himself to his mother, soon after his arrival in England, in which he says:--'The question, my dear mother, in one of your letters, concerning my swimming off to the _Pandora_, is one falsity among the too many, in which I have often thought of undeceiving you, and as frequently forgot.

The story was this:--On the morning she arrived, accompanied by two of my friends (natives), I was going up the mountains, and having got about a hundred yards from my own house, another of my friends (for I was an universal favourite among those Indians, and perfectly conversant in their language) came running after me, and informed me there was a ship coming.

I immediately ascended a rising ground, and saw, with indescribable joy, a ship laying-to off Hapiano; it was just after daylight, and thinking Coleman might not be awake, and therefore ignorant of this pleasing news, I sent one of my servants to inform him of it, upon which he immediately went off in a single canoe.