. . .Greenwich, get pension and live like a gentlemen to the end of my days. You knock about de world, get kicked and cuffed and die like a dog.’

“I felt very angry and parted from him, though I could not help thinking that perhaps he was right.

“Well, after that I served on board several merchantmen, now sailing to the West Indies, now to the East, once in a fruit vessel to the Azores, and two or three times up the Mediterranean. I was wrecked more than once, and another time the ship I was on board was burnt, and I and three or four others of the crew escaped in one of the boats. I could not help thinking sometimes of what Sambo had said to me, but it was too late now, and as I had not saved a farthing and had no pension to fall back on, I was obliged to continue at sea.

“I had found my way once more back to Liverpool, when the crimps, who had got hold of me, shipped me on board a vessel . . . Read More