When my father was gone, I went back to Mr Cruden's office and asked
him to tell me where I could find his house, at which I understood I was
to lodge.
He looked up from the book in which he was writing, with an air of
surprise, and replied, "You are mistaken, my lad, if you suppose that I
am about to introduce into the bosom of my family one of whom I know
nothing. Your father is a very respectable man, I dare say, and you may
be a very estimable youth, for what I know; but it is generally a
different sort who are sent to sea as you are being sent; and therefore
it is just possible you may be a wild young scamp, whose face his
friends may never wish to behold again--hark you."
I blushed as he said this, and looked confused; for my conscience told
me that he spoke the truth.
"Ah! I guessed I was right," he continued. "Now, to answer your
question. While you remain on shore, which won't be for long, you may
swing your hammock in the loft over this office; and for cooking, you
won't require much of that. This will break you in by degrees for the
life you've to lead, and will do you good, my lad. So I hope you will
be grateful."
From the determined manner he had about him, I supposed that all was
right; and had it been otherwise, my spirits at that time were too low
to allow me to remonstrate. I asked him next if I could not go on board
the _Black Swan_, to make myself useful.
He gave a peculiar smile, the meaning of which I did not comprehend at
the time, as he replied, "By all means. You will probably find Captain
Swales on board--at all events his first mate; and you may offer your
valuable services to them. When they have done with you, you may come
back here. By keeping along the quays to the right, you cannot miss the
ship if you ask for her."
I had scarcely fancied that there were so many ships in the world as I
saw crowded together in the Liverpool docks, as I passed through them
for the first time in my life. It gave me a great notion of the wealth
and commerce of the place. "And these will all be gone in a few weeks,"
I thought, "scattered far and wide to all parts of the world, and their
places will be filled by others now on their homeward voyage, which will
have again to make way for a totally fresh set." I inquired for the
_Black Swan_ of the seamen and porters loitering about the quays, but I
did not get very satisfactory answers. Some told me that she was drunk
last night, and had not got up yet. Others said she had sailed
yesterday, for they had seen her dropping down with the tide. The
boatmen invariably wanted me to take a boat to look for her, as the only
chance I had of finding her; but I saw that they were trying to impose
on me, and passed on. At last, when I had got very near to the west end
of the docks, I asked a man whom I saw standing in a meditative mood,
with his hands in his pockets, if he would tell me where the _Black
Swan_ was to be found.
"Why, I calculate, if you look right before your nose, young one, you'll
see her as big as life," he answered, pointing to a large ship lying
along the quay, on board which a number of men were employed about the
rigging; while others, with a peculiar song, were hoisting in the cargo.
I found that the first were riggers, and that the others were dock
porters, and that neither belonged to the ship; the regular crew, with
the exception of two mates and the cook, not being engaged till just
before the ship was ready for sea.
I must notice here the very bad system which has long prevailed with
regard to British merchant seamen. The moment a ship arrives in
harbour, the crew are paid their wages and discharged. On this they are
immediately set upon by Jews and harpies of every description. I do
them no wrong when I say that they are the very worst of the human race:
the fiercest savages have some virtues--these wretches have none.
The poor seamen are cajoled by them with every artful device; nor do the
miscreants cease till they have plundered them of all their hard-earned
gold. Not content with this, these crimps--for such is the name by
which these persons are known--encourage the seamen to get into their
debt, chiefly for liquor; and they then go to the masters of merchantmen
looking out for crews, and make any arrangements they please. Part of
the seamen's wages are paid in advance, and this goes into the pockets
of the crimps. I have known men put on board in a state of brutal
intoxication, without knowing who were their officers, or where they
were going to. Thus the men were kept in a state of absolute slavery,
without self-respect or a chance of improvement.
I speak of the system as it was till lately. I trust that a better
state of affairs is now being introduced; at the same time, as there is
a tendency in most things to let abuses creep in, I must entreat you, my
young friends, in your several capacities when you grow up, not to
forget the interests of our brave seamen. On those seamen depend
greatly the prosperity, the glory, the very existence of England; and,
whether as legislators or as private gentlemen, I tell you it is your
duty to inquire into their condition, and to endeavour to improve it by
every means in your power.
But to return to the _Black Swan_, and the man who had pointed her out
to me. There was something I remarked very peculiar about the said man,
so I will speak of him first. He wore a straw hat with a very broad
brim, a nankeen jacket, though the weather was still cold, Flushing
trousers, which did not near reach to his ankles, and a waistcoat of
fur--of beaver, I believe, or of wild cat. He had a very long face, and
lantern jaws. His nose was in proportion, and it curled down in a way
which gave it a most facetious expression; while a very bright small
pair of eyes had also a sort of constant laugh in them, though the rest
of his features looked as if they could never smile. His complexion had
a very leathery look, and his figure was tall and lanky in the extreme.
I could not have said whether he was an old or a young man by his
appearance.
"Well, there's the ship," he observed, seeing that I was looking at him
instead of going on board. "_Do_ you know me now?" with an emphasis on
the _do_. "That's kind now to acknowledge an old friend. We was raised
together, I guess; only you wasn't weaned till last summer, when the
grass was dried up."
I saw that he was laughing at me; but as I felt that I had been rude in
staring at him, I said I begged his pardon, but that he made a mistake
in supposing we were acquainted, unless he had visited the south of
Ireland, seeing that I had never been out of that part of the country
before. This seemed to amuse him mightily, for he gave way to a quiet
and very peculiar laugh, which I heard as I passed on towards the ship.
There was a plank placed from the quay to the deck of the ship, and by
means of it I stepped on board the _Black Swan_. No one took any notice
of me, so that I had time to look about me. She was a ship of some
eight hundred tons burthen, though she was advertised as of twelve
hundred. She had a raised poop aft, which I may describe as an
additional house above the deck, the doors of which opened on the deck.
There was a similar raised place forward, called the topgallant
forecastle. Under the latter the seamen and mate lived, while the
captain and passengers inhabited the poop. The space between decks was
open fore and aft, and fitted up with standing bed-places. This was for
the abode of the poorer class of emigrants. The hold, the remaining
portion of the ship below the main deck, was filled with cargo and
provisions.
All this I discovered afterwards, for at first everything appeared to my
sight an inextricable mass of confusion and disorder. After watching
for some time, I observed a man whom I concluded was the first mate, by
the way he ordered the other people about and the air of authority which
he assumed; so at last I mustered courage to go up to him.
"Please, sir," said I in an unusually humble tone, "are you the first
mate of the ship?"
"Well, if I am, and what then?" was his not very courteous answer.
"Why, it's settled that I'm to go in this ship to learn to be a sailor,
so I've come on board at once to make myself useful," I replied.
He eyed me curiously from head to foot as if I was some strange animal,
and then burst into a loud laugh. "You learn to be a sailor?--you make
yourself useful?--you chaw-bacon. Why, the hay-seed is still sticking
in your hair, and the dust ain't off your shoes yet. What can you do
now?" he asked.
I confessed that I knew nothing about a ship, except the machinery of a
steamer, which I had examined in my passage across from Dublin; but that
I would learn as fast as I could.
"And so you are a young gentleman, are you?" he continued, without
attending to my observations. "Sent to sea to learn manners! Well,
we'll soon knock your gentility out of you, let me tell you.
Howsomdever, we don't want no help here, so be off on shore again; and
when you meet John Smith, just ask him to take you a walk through the
town, and not to bring you back to make yourself useful till the ship's
ready for sea, d'ye hear, or you'll wish you'd stayed away, that's all."
I must say that even at that time I thought such a man was not fit to be
placed in command of others, and yet I am sorry to say that I met many
others no better fitted to act as officers. I did not answer him; and
though I did not understand what he meant about John Smith, I
comprehended enough of his observations to judge that it would be more
advantageous for me to keep out of his way; so I walked along the plank
again to the quay. There was the man I have described, standing as
complacently as ever. As smoking is not allowed in the docks, for fear
of fire, he was chewing.
"And so, young 'un, you've done your business on board; and what are you
going to do next?" he asked, as he saw me sauntering along. I felt that
there was a kind tone in his voice, so I told him that I had nothing to
do, as the mate of the _Black Swan_ did not require my services.
One question led on to another, and he very soon wormed my whole history
out of me. "And your name is Peter Lefroy, is it? Then mine's Silas
Flint, at your service. And now, as neither of us has anything to do,
we'll go and help each other; so come along." Saying this, he led the
way out of the dock.
I wondered who Mr Silas Flint could be, and yet I had no mistrust in
him. From his manner, and the tone of his voice, I thought he was
honest, and meant me no harm; and my heart, I must own, yearned for
companionship. He did not leave me long in doubt; for after I had told
him everything I had to tell about my previous life, he began to be
equally communicative about himself. "You see, Peter, I've secured my
passage in the _Black Swan_, so we shall be fellow-voyagers; and as I've
taken a sort of liking to you, I hope we shall be friends. I come from
'Merica, over there, though I don't belong to the parts she's going to;
but you see I've got some business at Quebec, and so I'm going there
first." I cannot pretend to give his peculiar and quaint phraseology.
I soon learned that he was raised, as he called it, in the Western
States of America; that he had spent much of his life as a hunter and
trapper, though he was a man of some little substance; that having
accidentally seen an advertisement in the paper, stating that if the
heirs of the late Josiah Flint, of Barnet, in the county of
Hertfordshire, England, would apply to Messrs. Grub and Gull, Fleece
Court, Chancery Lane, London, they would hear of something to their
advantage, he, believing himself to be a descendant of the said Josiah,
had come over to hear the welcome news. He remarked, with his peculiar
smile, that he had _heard_ a great deal which might be very advantageous
to him, and which might or might not be true, but that he had got
nothing--that he had established his undoubted claim to be one of the
heirs of the said Josiah, but that he had fifty cousins, who had turned
up in all directions, and whom he would never otherwise have had the
happiness of knowing. The gain in this case did not seem great, as they
none of them showed any cousinly affection, but did their best to prove
that he was an impostor. Thus all the share of his grandfather's
property went in law expenses; and he was going back to the land of his
father's adoption considerably poorer than he came, and in no loving
humour with England and his English cousins.
Such is the brief outline Silas Flint gave me of his history, as we
strolled together through the streets of Liverpool. If, however, I
continue describing all the characters I met, and all the strange things
I saw, I shall never get on with my history. Silas made a confession
which much pleased me: it was, that although he had lived many years in
the world, he still felt that he had much to learn, and was constantly
doing things he wished to undo: the last was paying his money for his
passage, before he had made any inquiries about the ship. He hinted
that Mr Cruden was not as honest as he might be; that he suspected
Captain Swales was no better; and that the way the poor emigrants who
had come to Liverpool from all parts to go by the ship were treated, was
most shameful.
He told me that, in the first place, they were attracted there by
advertisements long before the ship was ready for sea, partly that the
ship-brokers might make certain of having the ship filled, and not a
little for the benefit of the inns and lodging-house keepers. As soon
as they arrived--most of them absurdly ignorant of what was to be done,
and of the necessaries required for the voyage--they were pounced upon
by a set of harpies, who misled them in every possible way, and fleeced
them without mercy. There existed--and, I am sorry to say, exist to the
present day--a regular gang of these wretches, by profession
lodging-house keepers, ship-chandlers, outfitters, and provision
merchants. So notorious have they become, that they now go by the name
of the Forty Thieves, for to that number amount the worthy fraternity.
Silas Flint took me round to a number of our intended fellow-voyagers;
and we found them loud in their complaints of the treatment they had
received, though, when he had discovered them, he had been able to
preserve them from much further expense by describing the character of
the country to which they were going, and the things they would most
require. Among them were a great many of my countrymen. They were
generally the most forlorn and heartbroken, though they had indeed
little to leave behind; but then the slightest incident would make them
forget their grief, and clap their hands with shouts of laughter.
The sorrow of the English was less loud; but it took much more, I
observed, to make them smile. They were better dressed, and seemed to
have made more provision for the voyage. They had also been
proportionably more fleeced by the Forty Thieves. When so many of our
poor countrymen are leaving our shores annually to lands where they can
procure work and food, we should have a far better supervision and a
more organised system of emigration than now exists. And again I say to
my young countrymen, when you grow up, make it your business to inquire
into the subject; inquire with your own eyes, remember; do not trust to
what is told you; and if you do not find such a system established,
strive with heart and hand, and weary not till you have established it;
at all events, correct the abuses which too probably by that time will
have sprung up. You will all have the power of aiding that or any other
good work. If you are not in influential positions, if you have not
wealth at command, you at least have tongues to speak with, pens to
write with; so talk about it in private, speak in public, write on the
subject, and, depend on it, you will ultimately gain your object.
It was very late in the day when I returned to the office. Mr Cruden
was about to go away. He told me, that as I had chosen to be absent at
the dinner hour, I must be content with what I could get; and he pointed
to some musty bread and cheese, and a glass of sour, turbid-looking ale
which stood on the desk. I was, however, too hungry to refuse it; so I
ate it as soon as he was gone. An old porter had charge of the
premises, and he now beckoned me to follow him to a sort of loft or
lumber-room over the office, where he had slung a hammock, which he told
me I might sleep in, or I might, if I liked, sleep on the bare boards
outside. "The hammock's more comfortable than it looks, young 'un, so
I'd advise you to try it," he remarked; and I found his remark true. As
I was very tired, I was glad to turn in early and forget my sorrows in
sleep. The next day I fared no better than the first, and all the time
I boarded with Mr Cruden the only variation in my food from bread and
cheese was hard biscuits and very doubtful-looking pork and beef. When
I told Silas Flint of the treatment I had received, he shrugged his
shoulders.
"Can you mend it?" he asked.