It may be said that a youth, whose life had
been chequered by trials and disasters, but who preserved a pure
sensibility throughout them, is sadly distorted when portrayed as
expanding, at a leap, into a desperado. I have but little to say in
reply to these objections, save that _the occurrences are perfectly
true as stated_, and, moreover, that I am satisfied they were only the
natural developments of my character.

From my earliest years I have adored nobility of soul, and detested
dishonor and treachery. I have passed through scenes which will be
hereafter told, that the world may qualify by harsh names; yet I have
striven to conduct myself throughout them, not only with the ideas of
fairness current among reckless men, but with the truth that, under
all circumstances, characterizes an honorable nature.

Now, the tragedy of my first night on the Rio Pongo was my transition
from pupilage to responsible independence. I do not allege in a
boastful spirit that I was a man of courage; because courage, or the
want of it, are things for which a person is no more responsible than
he is for the possession or lack of physical strength. I was,
moreover, always a man of what I may style _self-possessed passion_. I
was endowed with something more than cool energy; or, rather, cool
energy was heightened and sublimated by the fire of an ardent nature.
Hitherto, I had been tempered down by the habitual obedience to which
I was subjected as a sailor under lawful discipline. But the events
of the last six months, and especially the gross relaxation on the
voyage to Africa, the risks we had run in navigating the vessel, and
the outlaws that surrounded me, not only kept my mind for ever on the
alert, but aroused my dormant nature to a full sense of duty and
self-protection.

Is it unnatural, then, for a man whose heart and nerves have been laid
bare for months, to quiver with agony and respond with headlong
violence, when imperilled character, property and life, hang upon the
fiat of his courageous promptitude? The doubters may cavil over the
philosophy, but I think I may remain content with the fact. _I did my
duty_--dreadful as it was.

Let me draw a veil over our gory decks when the gorgeous sun of Africa
shot his first rays through the magnificent trees and herbage that
hemmed the placid river. Five bodies were cast into the stream, and
the traces of the tragedy obliterated as well as possible. The
recreant mate, who plunged in