A large ship was floating on the ocean. I use the term floating, for
she could scarcely be said to be doing anything else, as she did not
seem to be moving in the slightest degree through the water. Some straw
and chips of wood, which had been thrown overboard, continued hour after
hour alongside. She was, however, moving; but it was round and round,
though very slowly indeed, as a glance at the compass would have shown.
The sea was as smooth as glass, for there was not a breath of air to
ruffle it; there was, in fact, a perfect calm.
The ship was a first-class Indiaman, on her outward voyage to the
far-famed land of the East; and she belonged to that body of merchant
princes, the East India Company. In appearance she was not altogether
unlike a frigate with her long tier of guns, her lofty masts, her wide
spread of canvas, and her numerous crew; but her decks were far more
encumbered than those of a man-of-war, and her hold was full of rich
merchandise, and the baggage of the numerous passengers who occupied her
cabins. Her sails, for the present, however, were of no use; so, having
nothing else to do, for the sole purpose, it would seem, of annoying the
most sensitive portion of the human beings on board, they continued,
with most persevering diligence, flapping against the masts, while the
ship rolled lazily from side to side. The decks presented the
appearance of a little world shut out from the rest of mankind; for all
grades, and all professions and trades, were to be found on board. On
the high poop deck, under an awning spread over it to shelter them from
the burning rays of the sun, were collected the aristocratical portion
of the community. There were there to be found ladies and gentlemen,
the sedate matron, and the blooming girl just reaching womanhood, the
young wife and the joyous child; there were lawyers and soldiers,
sailors and merchants, clergymen and doctors, some of them holding high
rank in their respective professions. The captain, of course, was king,
and his mates were his ministers; but, like the rest, he was bound by
laws which he dared not infringe, even had he desired to have done so.
On the deck below were seen craftsmen of all sorts, occupied in their
respective callings. Carpenters hard at work with plane and saw;
blacksmiths with bellows and anvil; tailors and cobblers, barbers and
washerwomen, painters and armourers, rope-makers and butchers, and
several others, besides the seamen engaged in the multifarious duties in
which officers know well how to employ them. Among the crew were seen
representatives of each quarter of the Old World. There were Malays and
other Asiatics, and the dark-skinned sons of Africa, mingled among the
hardy seamen of Britain, each speaking a different jargon, but all
taught by strict discipline to act in unison.
Besides the human beings, there were cattle and sheep destined for the
butcher's knife--cows to afford milk to the lady passengers, the
invalids, and the children--even horses were on board, valuable racers
or chargers, belonging to some of the military officers; there were
several head of sheep penned up in the long-boat; and there were
pigsties full of grunting occupants, who seemed to be more happy and to
have made themselves far more at home than any of their four-footed
fellow-voyagers. Ranging at liberty were several dogs of high and low
degree, from the colonel's thorough-bred greyhound to the cook's cur, a
very turnspit in appearance; nor must I forget Quacko, the monkey, the
merriest and most active of two-legged or four-legged beings on board.
It might have puzzled many to determine to which he belonged, as he was
seen dressed in a blue jacket and white trousers, sitting up on the
break of the forecastle, his usual playground in fine weather, cracking
nuts, or peeling an orange like a human being, while his tongue was
chattering away, as if he had a vast amount of information to
communicate.
Then there were poultry of every description: ducks and geese, and
turkeys and cocks and hens, quacking, and cackling, and gobbling, and
crowing in concert: indeed, to shut one's eyes, it was difficult not to
suppose that one was in a well-stocked farm-yard; but on opening them
again, one found one's self surrounded by objects of a very different
character, to what one would there have seen. Instead of the trees,
there were the tall masts, the rigging, and sails above one's head, the
bulwarks instead of the walls of the barns, the black and white seamen
with thick beards instead of the ploughmen and milk-maids, and the wide
glittering ocean instead of the muddy horse-pond.
This was the scene on the upper deck: below, it was stranger still.
There were two decks, one beneath the other, both with occupants; there
were cooks at the galley fire, whose complexion no soot could make
blacker, and servants in white dresses and embroidered shawls, running
backwards and forwards with their masters' tiffins, as luncheons are
called in India.
There were numerous cabins, many occupied by persons whose sole
employment was to kill time, forgetting how soon time would kill them in
return, and they would have to sum up the account of how they had spent
their days on earth.
In the lower deck there were soldiers with their wives and children, and
seamen, some sleeping out their watch below, and others mending their
clothes, while a few were reading--a very few, I fear, such books as
were calculated to afford them much instruction. Below, again, in the
dark recesses of the hold, there were seamen with lanterns getting up
stores and provisions of various sorts. In one place were seen three
men--it was the gunner and his two mates. They had carefully-closed
lanterns and list shoes on their feet. They were visiting the magazine,
to see that the powder was dry. They were from habit careful, but
custom had made them thoughtless of danger; yet one spark from the
lantern would in a moment have sent every one of the many hundred living
beings on board that ship into eternity. The flannel bags containing
the powder were removed to be carried up on deck to dry, the door was
carefully closed and locked, and the gunner and his mates went about
their other avocations.
From long habit, people are apt to forget the dangers which surround
them, though they are far greater than those in which the passengers of
the good ship _Governor Harcourt_ were placed at the moment the magazine
was opened; and I am very certain that not one of them contemplated the
possibility of being blown up, without an instant warning, into the air.
I have indulged in a somewhat long description of this little world in
miniature, although I was not one of its inhabitants; but it was a scene
not without interest, and I have had many opportunities of judging of
the correctness of the picture which was given me by a friend then on
board the _Governor Harcourt_. We will now return to the more refined
groups sitting and lying about listlessly on the poop deck.
As among the party were several people who exercised a considerable
influence over my career, a description of them is necessary. The
person of most consideration, on account of his wealth and position, as
well as his high character, was a gentleman verging upon sixty years of
age. In stature and figure he was not what would be called dignified;
but there was that in the expression of his countenance which made
persons of discernment who studied his features feel inclined to love
and respect him. The broad forehead, the full mild eye, and the
well-set mouth, told of intellect, kindness, and firmness.
The careless and indifferent might have called him the stout old
gentleman with yellow cheeks. I mean people--and there are many such in
the world--who are unable to perceive the noble and good qualities in a
man, and only look at his outward form and figure. If they hear a
person called a great man, like Lord Nelson or the Duke of Wellington,
they call him great also; but many would not be able to point out the
real heroic qualities of these heroes. I cannot now stop to describe in
what real heroic qualities consist, further than to assure my young
friends that the great men I have instanced are not properly called
heroes simply because they were commanders-in-chief when great battles
have been gained. Napoleon gained many victories; but I cannot allow
that he can justly be called a hero. My object is to show you the
importance of not judging of people by their outward appearance; and
also, when you hear men spoken of as great men, to ask you to consider
well in what their greatness consists. But to return to my kind and
generous benefactor,--for so he afterwards proved to me,--Sir Charles
Plowden. In outward form to the common eye he was not a hero, but to
those who knew him he was truly great, good, and noble. He was high in
the civil service of the Honourable East India Company, all the best
years of his life having been passed in the East.
A book was in his hand, at which his eye every now and then glanced; but
he appeared to look at it rather for the sake of finding matter for
thought, than for the object of getting rapidly through its contents.
At a little distance from him sat a lady, busily employed in working
with her needle. She was young and if not decidedly pretty, very
interesting in appearance. Though she was looking at her work, from the
expression of her countenance it might be perceived that she was
listening attentively to a gentleman seated by her side, who was reading
to her in that clear low voice, with that perfect distinctness of
enunciation, which is so pleasant to the ear. A stranger might have
guessed, from the tone of tenderness, yet of perfect confidence, in
which he occasionally spoke to her, and the glance of affection which
she gave him in return, that they were husband and wife; nor would he
have been mistaken.
They were Captain and Mrs Clayton, who were returning to India after
their first visit to England since their marriage. His appearance and
manners were very gentlemanly and pleasing, and he was a man much
esteemed by a large circle of acquaintance. They had now been married
about eight years, and had no children. Mrs Clayton had gone out to
India at the age of seventeen with her father, a colonel in the army,
and soon after her arrival she was won and wed by Captain Clayton, so
that she was still a very young woman.
Sometimes, when she saw a happy mother nursing her child, she would
secretly sigh that she was not so blessed; but, I am glad to say, she
did not on that account indulge in the custom of bestowing any portion
of her care and attention on puppy dogs and cats, as I have seen some
ladies, both single and married, do in a most disagreeable manner. I,
of course, desire to see people kind to dumb animals; but I do not like
to see little beasts petted and kissed, and treated in every way like
human beings, with far more care and attention bestowed on them than are
given to thousands of the children in the back streets and alleys of our
crowded towns. I trust that you, my young friends, will remember this
when you have money or food to bestow; and, instead of throwing it away
in purchasing or feeding useless pets, that you will give it to
instruct, to clothe and feed those who are born into the world to know
God, to perform their duty to Him, and to enjoy eternal life. Dreadful
is it to contemplate that so many live and die without that knowledge,
who might, had their fellow-men exerted themselves, have enjoyed all the
blessings afforded by the gospel dispensation.
But I must go back to my history. Captain and Mrs Clayton were
accompanied by a young lady, a distant relative, left without any other
friends to protect and support her. She was a laughing, blue-eyed girl,
and was now seated with several other young ladies of about the same age
on a circle of cushions on the deck, shouts of merriment rising every
now and then from the happy group. There were several other people who
had been in India before--military and civil officers of the Company,
merchants, lawyers, and clergymen; but I need not more particularly
describe them.
Ellen Barrow, Mrs Clayton's charge, was not only sweetly pretty, but
good and amiable in every respect. I do not know that she had what is
called a regular feature in her face; but her sunny smile, and an
expression which gave sure indication of a good disposition, made those
who saw her think her far more beautiful than many ladies whose
countenances were in other respects faultless. I praise her from having
known her well, and all the excellencies of her character, as they were
in after-years more fully developed. At present her most intimate
friends would probably have said little more about her than that she was
a nice, pretty-looking, happy girl.
There was another person on board, of whom I must by no means omit to
speak, and that is Captain Willis. He was a very gentlemanly man, both
in appearance and manners, as indeed he was by birth; nor had the rough
school in which he was educated left a trace behind.
He was the son of a merchant of excellent family connections and his
mother was, I believe, a lady of rank. When he was about the age of
fourteen, both his parents died, leaving him perfectly penniless, for
his father had just before that event failed and lost all his property.
He had had, fortunately, the opportunity of obtaining an excellent
education, and he had profited by it and this gave him an independence
of feeling--which he could not otherwise justly have enjoyed. He was
also a lad of honest spirit; his relations had quarrelled with his
parents, and treated them, he considered, unjustly; so that his heart
rebelled at the idea of soliciting charity from them, and he at once
resolved to fight his own way in the world.
He had always had a strong predilection for a sea life, and he was on
the point of going into the Royal Navy when his father's misfortunes
commenced.
His thoughts consequently at once reverted to the sea; and the day after
his father's funeral, he set out with a sad heart, and yet with the
buoyant hope of youth cheering him on in spite of his grief, to take
counsel of an old friend, the master of a merchantman, who had been much
indebted to his father.
Captain Styles was a rough-mannered but a good man, and a thoroughly
practical sailor. He at once offered every aid in his power; but Edward
Willis, thanking him, assured him that he only came for advice.
"Do you want to become a seaman in whom your owners and passengers will
place perfect confidence, and who will be able, if man can do it, to
navigate your ship through narrow channels and among shoals, and clear
off a lee-shore if you are ever caught on one; or do you wish just to
know how to navigate a ship from London to Calcutta and back, with the
aid of a pilot when you get into shallow waters, and to look after the
ladies in fine weather, and let your first officer take care of the ship
in bad?"
"I wish to become a thorough seaman," replied Edward Willis.
"Then, my lad, you must first go to the school where you will learn the
trade," said Captain Styles. "I have an old friend, the master of a
Newcastle collier. He is an honest man, kind-hearted, and a first-rate
seaman. In six months with him you will learn more than in six years in
a big ship. If you were younger, it would be different; for it is rough
work, mind you. He is always at sea, running up and down the coast:
sometimes to the north, and at other times round the South Foreland, and
right down channel. Indeed, to my mind there is not a finer school to
make a man a seaman in a short time. It's the royal road to a knowledge
of the sea, though I grant it, as I said before, a very rough one."
Willis replied that he was not afraid of hard work, and would follow his
advice. Accordingly he went to sea in a collier for three years; then
he shipped on board a vessel trading to the Baltic, and next made a
voyage to Baffin's Bay, in a whaler; after which he joined an Indiaman.
Here, after what he had gone through, the work appeared comparatively
easy. He now perfected himself in the higher branches of navigation,
and from this time rose rapidly from junior mate to first officer, and
finally, in a few years, to the command of a first-class Indiaman, where
he was in a fair way of realising a handsome independence. Captain
Willis's ship was always a favourite; and as soon almost as she was
announced to sail, her cabins were engaged. I should advise those who
go to sea at the age Captain Willis did, to follow his example; though
for a very young boy, the school, I grant, is somewhat too rough a one.