Situate as most of them are, near the seaboard, in the immediate vicinity of our fishing and commericial ports, the temptation to a race naturally inclined to a roving and unsettled life, are too great to be resisted, and nearly all of the males, first or last, engage in seafaring as an occupation. Thus, the men are drawn away from home, and are often absent for years at a time, frequently without their friends knowing where they are. The women, left behind, seek employment wherever it can be had, usually in the neighboring towns and cities …. After thus leaving home, they frequently remove from place to place, keeping up no correspondence or communication with those who have left; till at last their place of residence ceases to be known by their friends, and all trace of them is lost.