myself on board a ship--brought there by my black nurse,
accompanied by the tall gentleman. I remember him clearly in the cabin,
talking to a lady who then took charge of me, my nurse, I conclude,
returning on shore, for she disappears from my recollection. While the
gentleman was on deck, as I was afterwards told by Jack Headland, he
suddenly, looking at the mate, asked him if he was not somebody he had
known in England. The mate seemed for a moment taken aback, but,
recovering himself, replied quite quietly that the gentleman was
mistaken; that he had never heard of such a person, and that his name
was Michael Golding, which, as Jack said, as far as he knew to the
contrary, was the case, for that was the name he went by on board,
though he was generally spoken of as the mate. The gentleman at last
seemed satisfied, and returned on shore.

The ship sailed, and I remember seeing the blue water bubbling and
hissing alongside as she clove her way through it, and playing with a
ball on deck, which rolled out through one of the ports. The lady was
very kind, and used to sing to me, and tell me stories, and, I fancied,
tried to teach me my letters, though I was somewhat young to learn them.
She was, however, very different to my mother, much older I suspect,
and I did not love her half so much.

It came on to blow after a time, the sea got up and the ship tumbled
about, and the poor lady was unable to watch over me.

There were other passengers, but they were all ill, and the stewardess
was too busy to attend to me, but the mate came one day and told the
lady that he would watch over me, or get some one else to do so when he
was engaged.

From the first I did not like him, for he was a dark, black bearded man,
with an unpleasant expression of countenance, so I cried out whenever he
came near me. The captain must, I think, therefore, have given me in
charge to Jack Headland, a young apprentice, whose looks I liked much
better than the mate's. At all events, I was frequently with Jack, and
no one could have taken better care of me.

There were not many English seamen, most of the crew being dark-skinned
fellows--Malays, I suppose.

The vessel was, I know, not an Indiaman, but a country trader bound to
Calcutta or Bombay.

I told Jack--so I learned from him--that I did not like the mate. He
advised me not to say that to any one else, and promised that he would
be my friend.

Most thoroughly he fulfilled his p