rs on board--twelve minutes I might almost say--
before I was completely cured of my sea fever; and I would have parted
with the best tooth in my head to have set my legs once more on land
again. Almost on embarking I was overhauled by sea-sickness, and in
another hour it became so bad that I thought it would have turned me
inside out.

Sea-sickness is a malady not pleasant under any circumstances--even to a
first-cabin passenger, with a steward to wait upon him, and administer
soothing prescriptions and consoling sympathy. How much more painful to
a poor friendless boy treated as I was--sworn at by the surly captain--
cursed and cuffed by the brutal mate--jeered and laughed at by the
ruffian crew. Oh! it was horrid, and had the ship been sinking under me
at that moment I verily believe I should not have made the slightest
effort to save myself!

Forty-eight hours, however, gave me relief from the nauseous ailing, for
this like many other diseases is often short-lived where it is most
violent. In about two days I was able to stand up and move about the
decks, and I was made to move about them with a vengeance.

I have above characterised the captain as "surly," the mate "brutal,"
and the crew a set of "ruffians": I have spoken without exaggeration.
With an exception or two, a more villainous gang I never encountered--of
course not before that time--for that was not likely; but never since
either, and it has several times been the fortune of my life to mix in
very questionable and miscellaneous company.

The captain was not only surly, but positively ferocious when drunk or
angry, and one or both he generally was. It was dangerous to go near
him--at least for me, or any one that was weak and helpless--for it was
chiefly upon the unresisting that he ventured his ill-humour.

I was not long on board before I incurred his displeasure by some
mistake I could not possibly help--I had a taste of his temper then, and
many a one afterwards, for his spite once kindled against anyone was
implacable as the hate of a Corsican, and never became allayed.

He was a short, stout, "bluffy" man, with features perfectly regular,
but with fat round cheeks, bullet eyes, and nose slightly upturned--a
face which is often employed in pictures to typify good-nature, jollity,
and an honest heart; but with little propriety is it so employed in my
opinion, since under just such smiling faces have I, during a long
life's experience, encou