I was
not such a bear, and coarse in my manners and address, as the other
seamen. To this I could give no other reply but that I had been
educated when a child. They would fain know who were my father and
mother, and in what station of life it had pleased God to place them;
but I hardly need say, my dear Madam, to you who are so well
acquainted with my birth and parentage, that I would not disgrace my
family by acknowledging that one of their sons was in a situation so
unworthy; not that I thought at that time, nor do I think now, that I
was so much to blame in preferring independence in a humble position,
to the life that induced me to take the step which I did; but as I
could not state who my family were without also stating why I had
quitted them, I preserved silence, as I did not think that I had any
right to communicate family secrets to strangers. The consequences of
my first introduction to genteel society were very agreeable; I
received many more invitations from the company assembled,
notwithstanding that my sailor's attire but ill corresponded with the
powdered wigs and silk waistcoats of the gentlemen, or the hoops and
furbelows of satin which set off the charms of the ladies.

At first I did not care so much, but as I grew more at my ease, I felt
ashamed of my dress, and the more so as the young foplings would put
their glasses to their eyes, and look at me as if I were a monster.
But supported as I was by the fair sex, I cared little for them. The
ladies vowed that I was charming, and paid me much courtesy; indeed my
vanity more than once made me suspect that I was something more than a
mere favourite with one or two of them, one especially, a buxom young
person, and very coquettish, who told me, as we were looking out of
the bay window of the withdrawing-room, that since I could be so
secret with respect to what took place between the Negress queen and
myself, I must be sure to command the good-will and favour of the
ladies, who always admired discretion in so young and so handsome a
man. But I was not to be seduced by this flattery, for somehow or
another I had ever before me the French lady, and her conduct to me;
and I had almost a dislike, or I should rather say, I had imbibed an
indifference for the sex.

This admission into good society did, however, have one effect upon
me; it made me more particular in my dress, and all my wages were
employed in the decoration of my person. At that time you may